Northeastern University
Northeastern University was founded in 1898 as the Evening Institute for Younger Men in the Huntington Avenue YMCA. Over the next 40 years it transformed into a university with its first president being Frank Palmer Speare (Speare Hall located on Huntington Avenue is named after him). In 1909, the university began its signature practice of cooperative education. Cooperative education consists of a combination of workplace experience and classroom education. The University was renamed Northeastern University in 1922 and in 1927 adopted the modern mascot of the Huskies. Following World War II, a variety of changes occurred around campus, including separation from the YMCA and the first female enrollees in 1948. As part of the post-war educational boom the university added 5 schools between 1953 and 1982, including the School of Education. 1990 represents a transition from commuter school to a traditional campus and became the first class in which most of the graduates had lived in campus. During the 1990s, the university redirected its vision becoming much more selective and also deciding to invest more than $400 million into its facilities. This period also marked a shift in the importance cooperative education system as the school made changes to the semester systems allowing for longer coop experiences. Since 2005 the school has risen into the Top 100 schools on the US News and World Report’s Best College Guide and currently sits at 40 (as of 2018). This rise has not come without some controversy as changes occured to make the school more attractive in terms of the ratings but not necessarily a better university. In comparison to the other schools in the area it began earlier however did not experience significant growth into a research institution until recently which is unique among the schools in Boston some of which are relatively new while others have been key players in higher education from their founding. Additionally, Northeastern’s promotion of the cooperative education is unique among the schools in Boston and also unique within the context of American education.
Wentworth Institute of Technolgy
Wentworth Institute of Technology was opened on September 25th, 1911, years after the death of its founder, Arioch Wentworth. Wentworth himself stated in his will that the university was meant to “furnish education in the mechanical arts.” Wentworth’s beginning was rife with family drama however, when Wentworth’s daughter contested his will, which left his whole estate to the creation of Wentworth Institute. A settlement was reached one year after Wentworth’s death, and it was decided his estate would be split 50-50 between Wentworth’s daughter and the Wentworth Board of Trustees. Wentworth opened its doors to 244 students, all boys between the ages of 16-19. Wentworth was heavily involved with the United States military in both World War I and World War II, assisting the Air Force and gaining the nickname “Camp Wentworth”. Mr. H. Russell Beatty became the first president of the institute in 1953, and this would allow the university to develop its first Associate’s Degree in 1956. In the following year, 300 men would be awarded this degree. During a sixteen year time span (1963-1979), Wentworth possessed one of the only nuclear engineering programs in the country. Women were first admitted to the institute in 1972, and the current female population has risen to 18%. Today, Wentworth is composed of four Colleges: the College of Architecture, Design and Construction Management, the College of Arts and Sciences, the College of Engineering and Computer Science, and the College Professional and Continuing Education. Wentworth is steadily climbing the Regional University rankings, having moved up 8 spots in the last year. In engineering rankings, Wentworth has moved up from 44 to 35. Wentworth is also ranked 70 in Best Value Schools, where it was once ranked 81. Wentworth has a cooperative education program in which students apply classroom education in a professional setting. Co-op is a requirement to graduate from Wentworth; students have to complete two co-op semesters. The current undergraduate population is 4,265. While Wentworth’s mascot today is the leopard, this was not always the case. Wentworth’s mascot was “The Technician” up until 1969, when it was changed to a fiercer representative.
Simmons University
The founding of Simmons University is fairly unique. Despite being an all-female college, the founder was male. John Simmons was a prominent clothing manufacturer and real estate developer. He died in 1870 and left his inheritance to create a female college. The process did not begin until 1899 because of the Great Fire of 1872, which held up the property inheritance. In 1899, a charter was granted and research began for the university. In 1901 the College acquired property in Boston on St. Botolph Street (near Northeastern) and leased other properties to temporarily hold classes until a permanent location could be secured. In 1903, the college purchased land next to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and finished construction of its main building in 1904. The early days brought the creation of the first dormitory, South Hall and the dining hall, the Refectory. Additionally, sports were an important part of the colleges development during the 1910s. The next few decades brought about further expansion of the college and by 1933, the college had 1577 students, 13 buildings and 9 different schools. WWII marked an important point for the schools expansion, which was enabled by the changing gender roles within society. After the war, the 1950s and 1960s brought further renovations to the aging campus as well as growth of the endowment. While the Cold War period brought disorder to many college campuses, changes occured on Simmons without major disruptions. The college continued expanding through the next 20 years, becoming increasingly relevant through the computer age and following Title XI. Additionally, they have been a leader on transgender rights. In November 2014, the school became the third women-centered college in the US to accept transgender women. The college also experienced a major title change in 2018 when the school officially became “Simmons University” in order to better fit the variety of different programs the institution offers. The University reorganized into 4 colleges with then different schools and departments within them.
Emmanuel College
Emmanuel College is the first Catholic college built for women in New England. It was established by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in 1919, and is therefore preparing to celebrate its Centennial in 2019. The student population was mainly composed of commuters until the 50s and 60s when the building boom occurred. On June 7th, 1923, 26 women became the first graduates from Emmanuel College. By 1968, residential students outnumbered commuters for the first time in the college’s history. The college emphasizes its Catholic identity and core values, which are to “provide a dynamic education in the liberal arts and sciences within a learning community shaped by strong ethical values.” Students at Emmanuel have historically demonstrated democratic involvement and values. In 1977, students participated in a teach-in as a way to support the anti-war movement. Following this in the 80s, Emmanuel hosted the Democratic presidential primary debate on women’s issues. From its beginning, the college focused heavily on professional studies such as business, law, medicine, and social work. Also following the trend of higher education in Boston, the college started to offer degree completion programs to adult learners. In 2001, Emmanuel College became an coeducational institution, opening up the college for men in its undergraduate arts and science programs. Internships are also a part of the core curriculum, and 100% of the student population participate in internships before graduating. Three years later in 2004, Emmanuel would form a partnership with Merck Research Laboratories-Boston. Merck opened up a 12 story, 300,000 square-foot facility, and now Emmanuel is the only college in the country that has a private research facility on its campus. Emmanuel currently has 2,200 students and an acceptance rate of 78%. Emmanuel has over 60 majors, minor and concentrations, and the staff to student ratio is 13:1.
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College began as the Schillinger House in 1945, which was the only college-level school in the United States in which jazz acted the basis of the curriculum. As the university continued to expand it’s curriculum, Schillinger House was renamed Berklee School of Music after the son of President Berk. Throughout the 1950s, Berklee’s population grew, and it received a fair amount of international students. Berklee would further expand its curriculum in 1962 as faculty crafted the first-ever college courses offered in rock and pop music. Berklee’s first bachelor’s degrees were distributed to sixteen students in 1966 (13 in music education and 3 in composition). In 1970, to honor it’s 25th anniversary and to fully capture the scope of its educational program, the name of the university was officially changed to Berklee College of Music. To further expand the curriculum, Berklee established an undergraduate degree in film scoring. Notable alumni with the degree are Howard Shore (Lord of the Rings), Alan Silvestri (Back to the Future), and Ramin Djawadi (Game of Thrones).In the 1980s, Berklee embraced the popularity of electronic instruments, and developed a major in electronic production and design (formerly known as music synthesis). In the next few decades, Berklee would add majors in songwriting, music business/management, and music therapy. In 1993, Berklee partnered with international music schools to form the Berklee International Network, in order to promote music education globally. Berklee became even more accessible in 2002 when it created Berklee Online, allowing the curriculum to be taught from anywhere in the world. This program has currently taught more than 30,000 students from over 144 different countries. As Berklee entered the 2000s, it offered turntablism, Africana studies, video game scoring, and audio design. To increase the depth of the education offered, Berklee introduced academic minors to pair with majors. Berklee merged with Boston Conservatory in 2016, and created a dual degree program with Harvard in 2017. Berklee currently has 6,282 undergraduate students enrolled, and has 283 alumni who are Grammy award winners.
Boston University
Boston University was founded in 1839 by a group of Methodist ministers who wished to establish a school that followed Methodist theologies. Therefore, Boston University has a strong methodist ideal base. The university was first named “Newbury Biblical Institute”, which went through a few changes (eg. “Methodist General Biblical Institute”) before settling on “Boston University”. In 1867, Boston University opened all of its divisions to be accessible to women, becoming the first university in America to do so. In 1869, president William Warren of Boston University, along with other methodist businessmen in Boston, such as Lee Claflin, signed a petition to charter Boston University as one of the first modern research universities in America. It was also around this time when the Boston University seal and the school colors were established. The seal was drawn by William Fairfield Warren himself and consists of a roman cross with the city of Boston. The university colors are scarlet and white, which was considered to be unusual at the time. According to Warren, most colleges at the time were for only one sex and had generally one color. But Boston University is open for both sexes, therefore it was believed that the university should have two colors. In 1872, Boston University established the College of Music - the first school to grant degrees for music. It was also this year when the Great Boston Fire happened, which destroyed a large portion of the university facilities. The fire was one of the biggest reasons behind the university campus being spread out in terms of locations. Boston University is also known for many first graduates of minorities. In 1877, the university had the country’s first Black, first Japanese, and first woman Law graduates. (Emanuel Hewlett, Takeo Kikuchi, and Lelia Josephine Robinson.) It also awarded the first Ph.D to a woman, Helen Magill White. These firsts are said to represent one of the founding principles of Boston University: higher education should be accessible to all.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The idea of Massachusetts Institute of Technology first arose in 1846 in a letter by William Barton Rogers, the eventual founder of the institution. He proposed the founding of a polytechnic school in Boston focused on the furthering of basic scientific principles. His idea began to take root from 1859 to 1861. After the filling of Back Bay beginning in 1857, the city of Boston had a large amount of land and decided to charter some for the construction of educational facilities. On April 10, 1861, the University was founded through the approval of the charter by the Massachusetts House of Representatives. The school opened in 1865 using temporary quarters and 13 students graduated in 1868. The beginnings were delayed because of the outbreak of the Civil War. Once the university was built, it grew slowly until the 1880s when Francis Amasa Walker was elected president of the institution. Once in office he worked to build up the endowment and expand the facilities. Additionally, during his time the university surpassed the important milestone of 1,000 students. During the late 19th Century, Harvard began a series of merger attempts all of which were unsuccessful. In 1916, the university moved from Boston to Cambridge, complete with a ceremonial barge and torch. During WWI, MIT became home of the first Navy ground school for pilots. The model of ground school became integrated into the aviation training after the war. During WWII and the Cold War, the increasing role of technology in warfare was important to the development of the military industrial conflict. MIT became a center for the development of the new technologies and began receiving millions in grants from the Department of Defense. Throughout the 1960s, MIT students were involved in a variety of protests including anti-war and political issues. More recently, MIT has been a part of the globalization of education as changes have been made to the curriculum and a variety of courses have been made available online. The specific site which you are standing is called Killian court. The iconic dome you can see to the north is known as the Great Dome and was once topped by a police car as a prank. Inside the building is the president’s office and to the south is the Charles River. This site is one of the most iconic views of the prestigious university.
Harvard University
Harvard was founded in 1636, only 16 years after the pilgrims arrived in Plymouth, making it the oldest institute of higher learning that is still functioning in the United States. Harvard was initially created with the purpose of training clergymen and Native Americans (to act as ministers within their tribes), but it would break ties with its religious roots as it continued to grow. Between 1800 and 1870, Harvard went through the process of privatization, in which the Board of Overseers was completely replaced by elite Harvard alumni. Into the 1900s, Harvard President Charles William Eliot changed the educational model at the university. He introduced smaller classes, electives, and entrance exams. These changes would influence the structure of education at both the secondary and college level throughout the nation. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Harvard introduced a series of anti-semitic measures to limit the number of Jews accepted to the university. A Jewish quota was introduced under the guise of decreasing antisemitism. Harvard’s discriminatory policies were partly responsible for the founding of Boston College in 1863, and Brandeis University in 1948. During the years following World War II, Harvard sought out students from more diverse demographic pools, and by the 1960s, the ethnic and socio-economic makeup had changed. Harvard remained predominantly male until the late 1970s when admissions of female students gradually increased. Harvard faced brief controversy in 2006 over comments made by then-President Lawrence H. Summers. During a conference on the position of women and minorities in science and engineering, Summers claimed that boys outperform girls in science because of biological differences, and downplayed the effect of sex bias in appointments to higher education. Summers resigned and Drew Gilpin Faust was selected to serve. She was the first female president in Harvard’s history. Due to Harvard’s storied history, it has a multitude of traditions. Harvard competes with Yale annually in football and in rowing, and has a friendly rivalry with Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Harvard boasts a 6% acceptance rate and an undergraduate class of approximately 7,000 students, remaining one of the most prestigious universities in the world.
