As the university modernized it also became a private institution as sources of funding came increasingly from wealthy private individuals and their families. Along with this came rising tuition fees and other related costs, as well as increasingly difficult entrance requirements that necessitated prepatory training. These changes made it almost impossible for students from rural Massachusetts to study at Harvard. For the most part, it became the domain of young men from Boston's elite families.

 

Josiah Quincy, Edward Everett, Jared Sparks, James Walker, and Cornelius Conway Felton--presidents of Harvard from 1829 to 1862--modernized the university and made it an increasingly exclusive institution.