Chronicle
When "Christian University" first opened its doors in 1853 as a coed college, the U.S. educational system did not include the structures that are so familiar today. There was no public school system; in fact, there were only a few public schools. Kindergarten hadn’t been created yet; and there were only a few high schools.Only Massachusetts had a law that required children ages 8-14 to attend school for at least three months a year; and that law wasn’t passed until 1852. There were no public colleges; and the private colleges, mostly established by churches, focused heavily on a classical curriculum. Students who entered college were usually much younger than today’s 18-year-old freshman and came without a high school education. Christian University was no exception, and many of its students came unprepared for the curriculum. As a result, the college established preparatory programs for entering students.
As early as 1867, the college often required incoming students to complete "preparatory" work before pursuing the prescribed program of college coursework in sacred literature; moral and mental philosophy; ancient languages; ancient and modern geography; mythology, ancient and modern history; English, Latin and Greek grammar; mathematics, astronomy and natural philosophy; English, Latin and Greek literature; etc.
In the 1890s, the approach was more formalized with students needing up to six years to complete the college programs as follows: junior preparatory year, senior preparatory year, freshman, sophomore, junior and senior. The requirement for preparatory work continued into the early 20th century.
In the 1915-16 academic year, the preparatory program evolved into "The Academy," which was essentially a four-year private high school that students attended before enrolling at the college. It became a three-year Academy in 1917-18; and a two-year Academy in 1918-19. The Academy graduated its last class of five students during the college’s 1924 commencement. Part of the Academy tradition included a free scholarship for the highest ranking graduate to enter what-was-by-1917 Culver-Stockton College. The full-tuition scholarship for $25 was only for the freshman year. Some preparatory classes continued with summer classes for high school students through 1929.
By 1917, the college had established admission requirements for incoming freshman – 15 credit hours from high school, which had to include 3 hours of English, 1 hour of algebra, 1 hour of plane geometry, 3 hours of Latin, and 1 hour of ancient history. Students who were found to be deficient, were assigned to classes at the Academy.
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