The period 1948-1977 witnessed a transformative expansion of higher education accompanied by persistent inequality along lines of race and gender; research consistently demonstrated how access to higher education and graduate outcomes were shaped by social structure, with enduring differentials in earnings and attainment. Investigations into college design, such as size, charter status, and departmental organization, showed how institutional architecture mediated retention, dropout, and completion beyond individual aptitude. Methodological work emphasized measuring student outcomes and predicting graduation through tests, grades, and contextual factors, while acknowledging measurement bias and the limits of single indicators across college environments. Historical Significance: The era is marked by an academic revolution in pedagogy and governance—emphasizing interdisciplinary tendencies, shifts in faculty roles, and reorganization of curricula—that redefined the purpose and administration of higher education. The period also advanced the credentialing and signaling perspective, highlighting higher education’s role in social stratification and its function as a filter for labor markets. Collectively, these strands laid a foundation for later debates on access, evaluation, and the returns to schooling, shaping policy and research directions for decades to come.