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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE PKOGKESS OP SCIENCE 



DOCTORATES CONFERRED BY 

 AMERICAN UNIVERSITIES 



For the past eleven years there has 

 been published in Science each sum- 

 mer an article on the degrees of doctor 

 of philosophy and doctor of science 

 awarded by American universities. It 

 appears from these statistics that dur- 

 ing this period 42 institutions have 

 given this highest academic degree to 

 3,093 students. The number in each 

 consecutive year is represented graph- 

 ically by the height of the column in 

 the accompanying figure. It thus ap- 

 pears that, with fluctuations from year 

 to year, there has been a decided in- 

 crease in the number of those officially 

 designated as competent to teach and 

 carry forward research work. The an- 

 nual number first exceeded 250 in 1901 

 and 300 in 1905. After remaining 

 stationary for about three years, it is 

 this year 378. The middle lines in the 

 columns represent by their distance 

 above the base line the number of 



300- 

 IJTO 



100 



SO 



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Doctorates conferred by American 

 Universities 



degrees in the natural and exact sci- 

 ences, the balance of the space to the 

 top of the column representing the 

 number in the so-called humanities, 

 including under this term history and 

 political science. It thus appears that 

 nearly but not quite half the degrees 

 are given in the sciences and that there 

 is a slight tendency for the sciences to 

 gain on the humanities. 



Three fourths of the 3,093 degrees 

 have been conferred by seven universi- 

 ties as follows: Chicago, 410; Harvard, 

 380; Columbia, 377; Yale, 350; Johns 

 Hopkins, 333; Pennsylvania, 257; Cor- 

 nell, 203. The universities of the At- 

 lantic seaboard, with Chicago, thus 

 hold the position that Germany had 

 twenty years ago. As Americans then 

 frequented the German universities for 

 advanced work, so now they tend to go 

 to these seven universities which are 

 private corporations, though perhaps 

 Cornell and Pennsylvania are on the 

 way to become state institutions. The 

 great state universities of the central 

 and western states will probably wit- 

 ness a large development of their grad- 

 uate schools in the course of the next 

 ten years, and the south will follow 

 the same course in the following decade. 

 Wisconsin gave 17 degrees this year 

 and 19 last, more than double the 

 average for the preceding ten years. 

 Illinois, which this year received the 

 first special appropriation made to a 

 state university for graduate work, 

 conferred five degrees, as many as had 

 been conferred in the preceding ten 

 years. Michigan, Minnesota and Cali- 

 fornia have, however, remained nearly 

 stationary. 



About twice as many degrees are 

 conferred in chemistry as in any other 

 science. The numbers have been: 

 chemistry, 374; physics, 177; zoology, 

 172; psychology, 157; mathematics, 



