[2] As a student at Columbia, he was top ranked for some time, but his performance eventually became such that he was expelled.

His religious inclinations led him to abandon this pursuit, and in 1834 he entered the theological seminary at Hamilton, New York, with the intention of preparing for the Baptist ministry.

[3] During his ten years as a professor there, he enjoyed a constantly growing reputation as a teacher and orator.

[1] In 1856 he was selected to organize the Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute in Brooklyn, and accomplished the task with great success.

[1] He joined the first board of trustees for Vassar College of Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1861,[2] and was raised to the presidency there in 1865 to again apply his organizational skills.