what's M.Phil.?

[Mike Salovesh]

sagehen wrote:
>  When my father graduated from the University of Chicago in 1904 (or '05)
> the bachelor's degree he received was called a PhB. Is that still the case?
> A. Murie
>
Short answer: No.

Officially, the entering class of 1946 were the last students allowed to
complete the Ph.B. degree. There were exactly three Ph.B. degrees awarded
in June of 1956, the last time it was awarded.

The Ph.B. as it was constituted for the entrants of 1946 was a small
variation on the so-called "Hutchins College" curriculum. The curriculum
consisted of fourteen required year-long courses, each evaluated at nine
semester hours of credit.

Yes, the same courses were required of every student. The only choice open
to a student was which language to offer in completion of the required
yearlong sequence in some non-English language.  (There was one slight
variation: those who entered the U of C without graduating high school took
three courses -- Natural Sciences 1, 2, and 3 -- rather than the two
courses -- Phy Sci 3 and Bi Sci 3 -- required of high school graduates.)
Ph. B. candidates were allowed to substitute two ten-hour sequences of
graduate courses in place of two of the capstone courses in the regular
curriculum, but were otherwise held to the same curriculum as everyone else.

Robert Maynard Hutchins strongly believed that there was no sense studying
something if you already knew it. He also believed that for the kind of
student he most wanted to attend Chicago, the last two years of high school
probably were a waste of time because such students already knew the stuff
they would be studying in those two years.  Thus the U of C permitted high
school sophomores to take the U of C entrance exams, and to enroll as
college students if they passed.

Hutchins's "don't waste time learning what you already know" philosophy had
a further consequence. Entering students spent their first week at the U of
C taking placement tests. If they demonstrated that they already knew
enough to satisfy the objectives of one of the required 14 courses, they
were awarded full credit for the course during that first week on campus.
After placement tests, an average high school graduate would most likely
have credit for six courses (i.e., 54 semester hours). The normal
undergraduate academic load was 36 semester hours over a nine-month
academic year. That meant that the average high school graduate could earn
a U of C bachelor's degree in just two academic years.  (Those who entered
after only two years of high school usually did not place out of more than
two required courses; they were able to graduate in three academic years.)

In the history of the curriculum consisting of 14 yearlong courses,  one
student received credit for all 14 at the end of his first week on campus.
He had to complete the nine-month residency requirement to qualify for his
degree -- so he received both a bachelor's and a master's degree at the end
of those nine months.

The "two year" Chicago degree was misunderstood, away from the U of C, as
being equivalent to graduation from junior college despite the fact that U
of C undergraduate degrees almost always included more than enough semester
hours -- usually a minimum of 130 or more -- to qualify for a bachelor's
degree anywhere. One reason for the demise of the Ph.B. was the further
misimpression that it was the degree that represented the "two year"
curriculum.

And why do I know this?

I entered the U of C in the fall of 1946 after two years of high school. I
was one of the last three students to receive the Chicago Ph.B. in June,
1956. (I was awarded the "new" A.B. at the same time. When I received my
two bachelor's degrees, I had fifty semester hours of credit at the
graduate level.)

--  mike salovesh     <m-salovesh-9 at alumni.uchicago.edu>     PEACE !!!