August 30, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



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cago larger than tlie number conferred by 

 Harvard, which latter institution last year 

 stood at the head of the list. Then follow 

 Columbia, Tale, Johns Hopkins, and, with 

 much larger breaks, Pennsylvania and Cor- 

 nell. There is then a drop to institutions 

 that during the past ten years have con- 

 ferred less than a hundred degrees— Clark, 

 "Wisconsin, Michigan and New York. 

 Those that have conferred less than fifty 

 degrees are headed by Boston and Cali- 

 fornia. This year Chicago and Columbia 

 conferred more than the average number 

 of degrees, while Yale conferred fewer 

 than usual. The most interesting change 

 is the giving by Wisconsin of nineteen de- 

 grees, more than twice the average number 

 for the past ten years. This places Wis- 

 consin considerably in advance of Mich- 

 igan, while among the state universities 

 these two institutions form a separate class. 

 Table II. gives a comparison of the total 

 number of graduate students and the num- 

 ber of doctorates conferred by nineteen of 



TABLE n. 



the leading institutions. The nmnber of 

 graduate students is taken from the statis- 

 tics compiled by Professor Tombo and 

 printed in Science. The registration in 

 the graduate schools of these universities 

 was 4,073 and the number of degrees con- 

 ferred was 283, only about 7 per cent. It 

 thus appears that a comparatively small 

 proportion of the graduate students in our 

 universities take the doctor's degree. A 

 large number go to the universities with 

 only the master's degree in view, and their 

 academic work is regarded as complete 

 when this degree has been received. There 

 are also many students who devote only 

 part of their time to graduate work, and 

 these remain a good many years as grad- 

 uate students, and often in the end do not 

 take the degree. 



The institutions are arranged in the 

 order of the percentage of graduate stu- 

 dents who received degrees last year, and 

 the differences are very striking. As the 

 number of degrees conferred in a single 

 year is subject to considerable chance vari- 

 ations, there is also given a comparison of 

 the average number of degrees conferred 

 during the past ten years with the regis- 

 tration for last year, data in regard to the 

 average registration for the past ten years 

 not being available. The Johns Hopkins 

 has by far the best record, one fifth of its 

 graduate students taking the degree each 

 year. Chicago stands next, with one 

 seventh this year and an average of over 

 one tenth. Harvard, Yale, Pennsylvania 

 and Cornell give the degree each year to 

 8 or 9 per cent, of their graduate students, 

 Columbia to only 5 per cent. 



If these results were due to a severe nat- 

 ural selection and the degree was given to 

 the men who are most likely to contribute 

 to the advancement of science and learn- 

 ing, there would be no ground for regret. 

 But it is by no means certain that this is 



