In 1927, Menlo became a non-profit governed by a newly created board of trustees. The original two-year junior college, Menlo College, was fashioned in that year as an intended expansion of the Menlo School for Boys. During its early decades, this expansion hybridized a prep school with a junior college. Students attended Menlo for the latter two years of high school and then enrolled for two years at the college; after graduating, they transferred directly into four-year universities as upper-division students.