During the decades around the beginning of the twentieth century, public universities in the United States commonly employed a "certificate system" to establish eligibility for undergraduate admittance. "Certification" meant that between 1877 and 1931 representatives of the University of Wisconsin inspected high schools and had face-to-face interaction with pupils, teachers, and administrators. If they found a school's facilities, curriculum, and teaching to be satisfactory, graduates--with the endorsement of their principal--could enter the University as freshmen without further examination. This process of certification by inspection was part of a broader dialogue between Wisconsin high schools and the state university. This article discusses how the authoritarian aspect of the certification undermined its viability and conflicted with educational premises of pedagogical Progressives in Wisconsin. It elaborates how the consequent demise of the certificate system had consequences that reverberate in the twenty-first century. (Contains 147 footnotes.)