The Half-Opened Door: Discrimination and Admissions at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, 1900-1970

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Marcia Synnott Marcia Graham Synnott

The Half-Opened Door

Discrimination and Admissions at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, 1900-1970

Marcia Synnott, Marcia Graham Synnott

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English

Routledge
15 June 2010

Admissions procedures; Universities

By the turn of the twentieth century, academic nativism had taken root in elite American colleges—specifically, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton. White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant hegemony was endangered by new kinds of student, many of them Catholic and Jewish immigrants. The newcomers threatened to displace native-born Americans by raising academic standards and winning a disproportionate share of the scholarships.

The Half-Opened Door analyzes the role of these institutions, casting light on their place in class structure and values in the United States. It details the origins, history, and demise of discriminatory admissions processes and depicts how the entrenched position of the upper class was successfully challenged. The educational, and hence economic, mobility of Catholics and Jews has shown other groups—for example, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Spanish-speaking Americans—not only the difficulties that these earlier aspirants had in overcoming class and ethnic barriers, but the fact that it can be done.

One of the ironies of the history of higher education in the United States is the use of quotas by admissions committees. Restrictive measures were imposed on Jews because they were so successful, whereas benign quotas are currently used to encourage underrepresented minorities to enter colleges and professional schools. The competing claims of both the older and the newer minorities continue to be the subject of controversy, editorial comments, and court cases—and will be for years to come.

By: Marcia Synnott
Introduction by: Marcia Graham Synnott
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 18mm
Weight: 453g
ISBN: 9781412813341
ISBN 10: 1412813344
Pages: 350
Publication Date: 15 June 2010
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

The Half-Opened Door; 1: The Big Three; 2: Portraits and Philosophies of Two Harvard Presidents; 3: Harvard; 4: Harvard; 5: Yale; 6: Princeton; 7: Conclusion

Marcia Graham Synnott is professor emerita of History at the University of South Carolina. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Sport History, History of Education Quarterly, Journal of Policy History, the Public Historian, the Cornell Law Review, and in anthologies on anti-Semitism, coeducation, university desegregation, and on women civil rights activists.

Reviews for The Half-Opened Door: Discrimination and Admissions at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, 1900-1970

Citing this book Jacques Derrida states: I remember the indignation with which certain student newspapers at Yale, while I was teaching there, manifested surprise when learning of the antisemitism that had reigned in their university. I do not recall that there was any echo of this in the major press or among the majority of our colleagues. --Critical Inquiry Citing this book Jacques Derrida states: I remember the indignation with which certain student newspapers at Yale, while I was teaching there, manifested surprise when learning of the antisemitism that had reigned in their university. I do not recall that there was any echo of this in the major press or among the majority of our colleagues. --Critical Inquiry Synnott and Wechsler enable us to put the subject of admissions to higher education into a broader social perspective. . . . Attitudes toward racial exclusion or limitation varied within the inner circles of these institutions even at that time. The presence of a liberal undercurrent of protest is another of Synnott's important findings. --Laurence Veysey, Reviews in American History Citing this book Jacques Derrida states: I remember the indignation with which certain student newspapers at Yale, while I was teaching there, manifested surprise when learning of the antisemitism that had reigned in their university. I do not recall that there was any echo of this in the major press or among the majority of our colleagues. --Critical Inquiry Synnott and Wechsler enable us to put the subject of admissions to higher education into a broader social perspective. . . . Attitudes toward racial exclusion or limitation varied within the inner circles of these institutions even at that time. The presence of a liberal undercurrent of protest is another of Synnott's important findings. --Laurence Veysey, Reviews in American History Citing this book Jacques Derrida states: I remember the indignation with which certain student newspapers at Yale, while I was teaching there, manifested surprise when learning of the antisemitism that had reigned in their university. I do not recall that there was any echo of this in the major press or among the majority of our colleagues. --Critical Inquiry -Synnott and Wechsler enable us to put the subject of admissions to higher education into a broader social perspective. . . . Attitudes toward racial exclusion or limitation varied within the inner circles of these institutions even at that time. The presence of a liberal undercurrent of protest is another of Synnott's important findings.- --Laurence Veysey, Reviews in American History Citing this book Jacques Derrida states: -I remember the indignation with which certain student newspapers at Yale, while I was teaching there, manifested surprise when learning of the antisemitism that had reigned in their university. I do not recall that there was any echo of this in the major press or among the majority of our colleagues.- --Critical Inquiry