Complete Journal Issue - San Diego History Center

The Journal of San Diego History
The Bishop’s School offered an innovative curriculum designed to help students pass the rigorous entrance exams
required by women’s colleges like Vassar and Smith. In this photo, members of the Class of 1917 read outdoors.
Courtesy of The Bishop’s School.
Missouri, and Wisconsin. Although elite men’s colleges such as Harvard, Yale,
Princeton, and Columbia did not admit women, reformers continued to press for
access. Their efforts resulted in the creation of Barnard (1889) and Radcliffe (1894)
as affiliated women’s colleges. 2
In the early years, however, relatively few women took up the challenge of
higher education. Some public high schools prepared their students to attend
teacher-training normal schools at state colleges and universities. Most, however,
did not offer a curriculum that would help their students pass the rigorous college
entrance exams required by elite institutions. Private girls’ schools, meanwhile,
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