Thelin (2011) in chapter two discusses institutions from the years 1785 to 1860.

Students who attended institutions of higher learning from Virginia and South Carolina came from very wealthy families because tuition was prohibitively high. Students enjoyed many extracurricular activities such as debate group and many schools, especially those in the Carolinas, encouraged students rhetorical ability. Many students believed in a code of honor. To protect their honor, students would engage in duels with pistols, swords or fists. However, some students from New England came from modest means and worked their way through college to become ministers or teachers. These students were older than the typical 19-21 year old students. Women were slowly gaining access to higher education and by 1860 there was 14 institutions which enabled women to pursue college level work. Facility was selected from international universities as well as American institutions. The faculty was told to have no other commitments other than to their students. Additionally faculty had little power. For example students from Virginias wealthy families indulged in drink, gambling and guns but the faculty could not stop them. After the revolutionary war, institutions of higher education believed their function was to provide spiritual as well as academic guidance. They wanted to create the image that learning lifts the sole and encourages good in people. Thelin (2011) seemed to imply that universities believed that what was being taught was close to godly. For example, in the early nineteenth century probably the most dramatic change in higher education was the new interest that evangelical denominations showed in founding colleges to educate the sons (and later, the daughters) of their faith (Thelin, 2011, p. 61). While academic institutions were becoming lofty and spiritual, the religious institutions were becoming more academic. The institutions that educated clergy, such as the Baptists and Methodists, were unlettered clergy was favored.

There was no government accountability or regulation for the curriculum of colleges and universities. Thelin (2011) describes the ...excessive spirit of enterprise in an era in which state regulation was marginal at best and largely unenforceable even when present (p. 58). Institutions could hand out whatever degree they wanted to with no restrictions and they even sold degrees. Although most professions did not need degrees, certifications or training popular fields of study were agriculture, military and science and engineering.