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Mortimer Adler (1902-2001) recounted in his (first) autobiography: Nonattendance resulted in a series of F’s on my record. At the end of my senior year in 1923
by gshubert17 6y ago
Mortimer Adler (1902-2001) recounted in his (first) autobiography:
Nonattendance resulted in a series of F’s on my record. At the end of my senior year in 1923, after I had already been awarded a Phi Beta Kappa key and had paid twenty dollars for my diploma, I received a note from Dean Hawkes saying that I might attend the commencement exercises but that I would not get my bachelor’s degree because I had neither passed my swimming test nor fulfilled the physical education requirement for graduation. Having earned 135 points of credit (120 points sufficed for graduation), I was, however, permitted to enter the graduate school without a B.A. degree. Six years later, without having bothered to stop for an M.A. on the way, I received a Ph.D.—I say “received” rather than “earned” because the doctorate fell on me in spite of myself and what I did or failed to do. How that happened is a story to be reserved until later, but that it happened gives me the rare distinction, I believe, of being possibly the only Ph.D. in the country without a master’s degree, a bachelor’s degree, or even a high school diploma.
- tdeck 6y agoAside: Swimming test? Apparently he went to Columbia, I wonder why they would have such a requirement.
- steelbrain 6y agoBefore Air travel became the norm, people used to travel by water, and unless you know how to swim, you may drown for whatever reason. The educational institutions didn't want all that effort wasted so they started requiring swimming education for people. Or something like that, don't quote me haha
- gumby 6y agoI almost didn’t get my MIT degree because I had neglected to take the swimming test, though I’d been swimming since childhood. I finally casually went in to take it and was told “you’re just under the wire, we’re closing it tomorrow for renovations”. I don’t know if my leg was being pulled or not as I was already working full time and just finished my degree out of principle (and good thing I did!)
- solveit 6y agoBarry Mazur, who is a professor of mathematics at Harvard, also only has a PhD. He left the Bronx High School of Science in his junior year to attend MIT without a diploma. He then neglected to complete an ROTC requirement at MIT, but he was already accepted to Princeton's PhD program, so he never bothered to get his Bachelor's degree. A few years later, he got his PhD in mathematics at the age of 22, which remains his only degree.
- solveit 6y agoI do feel the need to add that these examples of people who were too brilliant to need degrees are not very useful answers for the OP, as amusing as the anecdotes may be.