I went researching about a year for requirements of a degree in the 1880-era. So I came to a three-star college that listed their one and only degree (yeah, just one). It went through the forty-odd classes (Latin, speech, rhetoric, basic geometry, composition, Roman history, Greek philosophy, and basic civil engineering).
The end result was your appearance in front of a committee at the end of four years and you’d answer some fairly difficult questions to show you had gained some vast amount of common knowledge.
The cost? That part I could never get around to. I doubt if a guy paid more than $500 a year for the various classes taught. His food and board probably amount to a thousand dollars.
“The cost? That part I could never get around to. I doubt if a guy paid more than $500 a year for the various classes taught. His food and board probably amount to a thousand dollars.”
$1,000 in 1880 would be a bunch. You could buy a nice sized farm for that.
$1000 was the cost of an expensive house.