Reputation and prestige in American research universities: An exploration of the history of rankings and the increasing importance of student selectivity in perceptions of quality in higher education

American higher education is a dynamic, competitive, and complex arena, yet the established hierarchy of quality among elite research universities has remained remarkably consistent for a hundred years. This study identifies and traces the key factors that have contributed to reputation and prestige in American higher-education research universities. The account of how American research universities were first evaluated includes a description of the first documented rankings and focuses on the role that faculty scholarship, financial resources, and student quality played in perceptions of excellence at the turn of the 20th century. The study identifies three key pillars of prestige and provides a historical study of one elite research university group. The research focuses on Brown University and is designed to amplify and exemplify how financial resources, student quality, and faculty scholarship influenced the reputation of one of America's premier institutions of higher education whose reputation has changed most dramatically since the early 1900s.