Degrees

Degrees awarded by American colleges in the colonial period were adopted from those then in use at Oxford and Cambridge. The original charter that King George II granted Princeton in 1746 empowered the trustees ``for the encouragement of learning and animating the students . . . to diligence, industry and a laudable progress in literature,'' to ``grant any such . . . degrees . . . as are usually granted in either of our universities or in any other college in our realm of Great Britain.''

The chief degree so adopted was the Bachelor of Arts. In the medieval universities it had been a preliminary degree, enabling the holder to proceed to the master's degree, which alone enabled him to teach. The word bachelor was derived from the medieval Latin baccalarius, which had been applied in the eighth century to rustics, male and female, who were of low rank in the feudal hierarchy. The word was later extended to persons of subordinate positions in other systems: knighthood, the church, trade guilds, the universities, and finally, by its last extension, to unmarried men who presumably were still novices in the ways of the world generally. On the Continent the bachelor's degree continued to be an obscure way station on the road to the master's degree and later to the doctor's degree. But in England the bachelor's degree became the important one, and at Oxford and Cambridge the master's degree could be obtained several years after graduation merely by the payment of a few pounds. Similarly, a Princeton bachelor of arts could obtain a master's degree three years after his graduation simply by certifying that he had engaged in such professional studies as ``divinity, law, or physick'' and submitting ``testimonials of good moral conduct signed by two or more gentlemen of Note and Veracity.'' This practice continued until the end of the nineteenth century when a more rigorous administration of higher degrees was instituted.

OTHER BACHELOR DEGREES

In addition to the time-honored Bachelor of Arts, other bachelor degrees have been offered at Princeton as follows: Bachelor of Laws from 1847 to 1852; Bachelor of Science from 1873 to 1930; Bachelor of Letters from 1904 to 1918; Bachelor of Science in Engineering since 1921.

The law degree was conferred on seven persons who completed a short-lived law course begun at the time of the College's centennial Celebration.

The Bachelor of Science degree was introduced in the 1870s with the expansion of the science curriculum. Candidates for this degree were required at entrance to offer Latin but not Greek, although both languages were still required for the degree of Bachelor of Arts. It was later found that some students became candidates for the Bachelor of Science degree to flee Greek rather than to pursue science. In 1904, the Bachelor of Letters degree was accordingly introduced to distinguish students who wished to take a humanistic program without Greek from those who were really pursuing scientific programs. The Litt. B. Degree was discontinued in 1918 when Greek was dropped as an admission requirement for the Bachelor of Arts degree. At the same time, Latin was dropped as an entrance requirement for the Bachelor of Science degree but was retained for the Bachelor of Arts. This difference led to another anomaly, which came to light after the introduction of the four-course plan in 1923. It was found not uncommon for a B.S. candidate to major in art and archaeology or English, or for an A.B. candidate to concentrate in chemistry or biology, so that the difference in the degree related more to what the student had studied in secondary school than to what he had done in college. It was decided in 1930 that, in view of the nontechnical nature of undergraduate study in all the liberal arts and sciences, the same degree would be appropriate for work in every department. Beginning then, the degree of Bachelor of Arts was awarded in all departments except engineering, and the Latin entrance requirement was eliminated.

ENGINEERING DEGREES

From the time of their founding, the Departments of Civil Engineering (1875) and Electrical Engineering (1889) offered separate degrees (C.E. and E.E.). With the establishment of the School of Engineering in 1921, the first degree for all engineering departments was made Bachelor of Science in Engineering and the second degree, Master of Science in Engineering.

GRADUATE DEGREES

Modern graduate degrees were introduced in the 1870s with the inauguration of postgraduate study under President McCosh. At first there were two master's degrees -- Master of Arts and Master of Science and two doctor's degrees -- Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Science (in the early 1890s the degree of Doctor of Letters was given twice); but by 1905 the other degrees were discontinued, leaving only two degrees, Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy, regularly offered for work in the liberal arts and sciences.

Other degrees at the Master's level have been offered as follows: Master of Fine Arts, in architecture from 1919 to 1970, in art and archaeology since 1919, in music since 1940; Master in Public Affairs since 1948; Master of Architecture since 1970; Master of Architecture and Urban Planning since 1970; Master in Public Affairs and Urban Planning since 1971.

In medieval universities the term doctor was introduced some time after master. Master and doctor were at first used synonymously, but in time master came to be restricted to the teachers of liberal arts and doctor, as a distinction, to the teachers of theology and law, and later of medicine. In Germany, doctor eventually came to be applied to advanced degrees in all faculties and it was the German system that was adopted generally in the United States. At Princeton the A.M. degree was often sought by those looking forward to secondary school teaching or writing or the diplomatic service, but in time it became, for the most part, a way station on the road to the doctorate. The Ph.D. became the degree for college and university teaching and for research in all the arts and sciences as well as in architecture, engineering, public affairs, and urban planning.

The following table shows the number of degrees conferred at Princeton's first Commencement in 1748, at fifty-year intervals thereafter until 1898, and at twenty-five year intervals since then:

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Bachelors Masters Doctors Total
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1748 6 -- -- 6
1798 14 -- -- 14
1848 74 -- -- 74
1898 189 47 1 237
1923 383 68 18 469
1948 578 222 55 855
1973 920 301 225 1446
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NOTE: These figures are exclusive of honorary degrees.

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From Alexander Leitch, A Princeton Companion, copyright Princeton University Press (1978).