James Russell Lowell and His Friends by Edward Everett Hale

From such life, quite familiar with Cambridge and its interests, Lowell presented himself for entrance at Harvard College in the summer of 1834, and readily passed the somewhat strict examination which was required.

Remember, if you please, or learn now, if you never knew, that "Harvard College" was a college by itself, or "seminary," as President Quincy used to call it, and had no vital connection with the law school, the school of medicine, or the divinity school,-though they were governed by the same Board of Fellows, and, with the college, made up Harvard University. Harvard College was made of four classes,-numbering, all told, some two hundred and fifty young men, of all ages from fourteen to thirty-five. Most of them were between sixteen and twenty-two. In this college they studied Latin, Greek, and mathematics chiefly. But on "modern language days," which were Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, there appeared teachers of French, Italian, Spanish, German, and Portuguese; and everybody not a freshman must take his choice in these studies.