The provision of developmental education to the academically underprepared student in colleges and universities in the United States is traced historically. U.S. colleges admitted underprepared students before the advent of open admissions and equal opportunity policies. In fact, the presence of underprepared students in American colleges has been documented since the seventeenth century. In the days of the colonial college, wealth, more than ability, decided who went to college. During the mid-eighteenth century, state universities had preparatory departments. While in the early nineteenth century church-related colleges for men served as the paradigm of U.S. higher education, at the end of the century various kinds of colleges served a wider clientele. The development of land-grant colleges led to the matriculation of nontraditional students, many of whom were underprepared. Vassar College and Cornell University are paradigms of colleges that experienced problems with the academically deficient student in the late nineteenth century. Attention is also directed to the significance of: the appearance of black colleges, junior or community colleges, remedial reading and how-to-study courses, the G.I. Bill, emphasis on individual student development as well as basic skills development, and developmental education programs in Louisiana. (SW)