The purpose of this paper is to study what changes have been taking place in the career patterns of American college and university presidents since 1948. In dealing with this subject, the writer first examine briefly the historical development of the college and university presidency in America. Then the analysis of many studies which dealt with the questions. of what kinds of persons were recruited into the presidency and what the routes to the presidency were since 1948 are given. For this purpose the writer selected nine studies which involved about two thousand seven hundred presidents of all types of higher educational institutions covering the period from 1948 to 1970. The specific areas of the career patterns of college and university presidents covered in this study are ⑴ their academic backgrounds, ⑵ their fields of specializations, and ⑶ their positions held just before becoming presidents. The findings of this study are discussed in the conclusion. Some of the findings are: ⑴ There has been a definite trend toward possession of an earned doctorate among college and university presidents. In 1900 only one-third of presidents held a doctorate, Wherea in 1968 three-quarters held a doctorate; ⑵ The study of academic presidents’ fields of specializations showed two interesting developments-a shift in emphasis from humanities to social sciences and more recently from humanities to education; and ⑶ The study of the positions. held just before becoming president revealed significant changes in academic presidents’ career patterns-more presidents are from higher educational institutions and less presidents are from business, industry, government, clergy and secondary schools. Among those who are recruited from Colleges and Universities, more presidents are from college administrations (28% in 1948 and 67% in 1968), and less presidents are from. college professors( 47% in 1948 and 10% in. 1968).