Colonial Colleges.

Colonial colleges were small. An estimate of the number of students in all nine colleges in 1775 was about 750. In 1775 Harvard had a graduating class of forty; Yale, thirty-five; Columbia, thirteen; Dartmouth, eleven; and the College of Philadelphia, eight. Most colleges had a grammar school that supplied students to the college, and these schools generally contained more students than the higher institutions. Not only were colleges small, but they were also poor, especially in comparison to English universities. College was expensive on the eve of the Revolution: tuition ranged from £9 to £20 per student, and with other costs such as books, clothing, travel, and spending money, a student's annual fees usually ran as high as £25 to £35. This was a high percentage of most annual salaries—a college instructor, for example, made about £100 annually—so most scholars came from wealthier families though some loans...