sons.

IV

THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS

AT JOHNS HOPKINS1

The restrictive title of this paper was chosen for two reaThe first and most obvious reason was that other things being equal one had best confine one's self to a theme upon which one has a right to speak with some semblance of authority. The second was that in any country, and especially in our own, the quantity and quality of attainment connoted by a university degree are inevitably affected by local conditions. This has been notably true of the Master's degree. The Master's degree has varied all the way from the real and definite meaning which it had for example in the University of Virginia to that of the honor which certain of our smaller colleges occasionally used to bestow on some man who had developed scholarly tastes or had betrayed more or less of an inclination to scholastic pursuits. In short, the degree might stand for anything from an authoritative statement of definite attainment to a mere pergamental compliment. No wonder its value and significance have been rather vague to the average man.

This condition, however, as everyone knows, has been steadily improving for a number of years. This is largely due to the fact that owing to the exigencies of modern life nearly everyone who carries his studies beyond the required sphere of undergraduate work has in mind a definite career of which those studies are the foundation and to which that degree is a desirable letter of introduction. Such being the case, it was obvious that if the Master's degree was to have a real standing in modern education it must meet the new demands made

1 Read at the meeting of the Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools of the Southern States, at Atlanta, Ga., November 16, 1917.

upon it. The process of meeting that demand, which has been going on as fast as possible, brought with it a keener realization of the fact that it was desirable, not to say necessary, to pursue such study under skilled specialists and within reach of highly equipt libraries and laboratories.

Nevertheless, the connotation of the degree is still and must always be affected by local conditions. In Johns Hopkins, for example, to come now to the subject with which this paper is concerned, the candidate for the Master's degree enters an institution, the most notable feature of which is that it has always devoted itself particularly to the training of men as investigators and teachers, in other words the training which if the candidate is successful entitles him to the degree of Ph.D. Hence, the candidate also for the Master's degree is in the vast majority of cases a student who intends to become a teacher. His training, therefore, so far as it goes should be much the same.

Further, it should be added that the university began as a training school for the Ph.D. The A.B. came later and, last of all, the M.A. Such being the case, in what relation should the M. A. stand to its predecessors? The relation to the Bachelor's degree is settled by the fact that the university makes a sharp distinction between graduate and undergraduate work. Usage may vary slightly in different departments -the Johns Hopkins professor is interfered with as little as possible but in the classical department, for example, and in others of the same type, this rule is rigidly enforced. There is nothing to be gained and much to be lost in taking up the scant modicum of time allowed to immature undergraduate students of language with graduate methods. The Master's degree is distinctly a graduate degree, therefore, the candidate for it should have gained the baccalaureate degree from a college of good standing.

Some institutions require only one year of study. Our requirement of two years of study instead of one was adopted for at least two important reasons. The first is that the degree is so strictly a graduate degree. The second springs from the fact that in the vast majority of instances the candidate

expects to become a teacher. For the candidate who expects to become a teacher one year of work is not sufficient even in quantity. Still more important is the factor of quality. It takes the candidate at least a year, especially if his subject is difficult, to get the attitude of mind which will enable him the next year, perhaps, to accomplish some work of real value. It is true, of course, that his degree is not an investigator's degree like that of the Doctor of Philosophy. Nevertheless, if he intends to become a teacher he must acquire the graduate point of view toward his subject, he must learn how to command the literature of it and how to utilize and present the results. He is not an original investigator and may have no idea of becoming one, but he will have acquired that minimum of knowledge and training which he must possess to become a competent teacher, and which the candidate for the Ph.D. must also possess before he can proceed to the final and most characteristic test of his fitness to receive the coveted degree, I mean the satisfactory completion of an original investigation.

In other words, candidates for the M.A. during their entire course and candidates for the Ph.D. until at least the completion of their second year do the same kind of work and in the same way. In the principal subject they also do the same amount of work. It will be seen from this that the only essential difference between the work of the M.A. for his entire course and the work of the Ph.D. for his first two years is quantitative and pertains only to the allied subjects. Candidates for the Doctor's degree are obliged to take two allied subjects, each for a definite minimum of time. Candidates for the Master's degree are under no such obligation. They may take two allied subjects, one allied subject, or none at all. This is settled by the professor in charge of the principal subject. His decision is likely to be affected by at least two practical considerations. The first and most important is the type and character of the principal subject as such. In a department, for example, like Latin or Greek, at least one allied subject is eminently desirable. Again, the advising professor may have good reason to believe that the candidate

will eventually show sufficient promise to warrant him, if he changes his mind, in proceeding to the higher degree. If so, the fact that the would-be Master of Arts will have already absolved the requirements of an allied subject will enable him to go forward to the Doctorate with considerably less loss of time than would otherwise be the case.

The remaining conditions attending the Master's degree as they are set forth in our university register are:

"The student must be in attendance at the university during the year immediately preceding the final examinations, unless, for some extraordinary reason, special permission to the contrary is granted by the Board of University Studies. To be admitted as a candidate for this degree, the student must make application, according to a prescribed form, to the Board of University Studies at least one academic year before ⚫he expects to present himself for his final examinations. The essay must be on a subject approved by the professor in charge of the principal subject, and must be completed and submitted to the Board of University Studies at least four weeks before the time of the final examinations. Two referees will then be appointed to examine the essay and to present a written report on it to the Board. This essay shall be prepared for presentation to the Board in the manner prescribed for the dissertation submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. If the report on the essay is satisfactory, the candidate will then be admitted to the examination."

The three conditions just mentioned also apply equally to the candidate for the Doctor's degree. In other respects, the conditions governing the two degrees differ as follows:

The Doctor's dissertation must be founded on an original investigation, and the dissertation must be printed within a specified time after the degree is conferred. The Master's essay is not founded on an original investigation. Of course, it might be a piece of original work so far as it goes, but from the very nature of the case, such an essay would be too rare and exceptional to be either asked or expected. Also it is not printed.

Again, there is a difference between the two in the matter of examinations. The Doctor must pass final written examinations in all three of his subjects, also, an oral examination before the Board of University Studies in his principal and and first subordinate subjects. The Master is given no oral examination, passes a final written examination only on his principal subject, and on the subject followed during any academic year he is permitted to take examinations at the end of that year or at the beginning of the next, and, provided these examinations are satisfactory, he will not be examined again in the same courses. Finally, the rule is that courses on certain subjects in the Summer School, provided they are approved by the Board of University Studies, are, in accordance with specified provisions, accepted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master's degree.

I have already called attention to the fact that so far as . the Johns Hopkins is concerned, both the Master and the Doctor in the vast majority of cases are fitting themselves for the profession of teaching. This is brought out and emphasized by the extent to which the preliminary training of both, so far as it goes, is identically the same. On the other hand, the divergences in the training of the two bring out the fact that the Master's degree is a teacher's not an investigator's degree, whereas the Doctor, altho he too expects to teach, must also vindicate his right to the title of an original investigator.

Now, of course, all first class teachers are not necessarily original investigators, nor, on the other hand, is every original investigator bound thereby to be a good teacher. At the same time a real investigator is practically certain in nearly every case, even in his own despite, of being an inspiring teacher, at all events, in the higher ranges of the profession. And in most cases it is also true that other things being equal, the Master expresses himself to the best advantage in the vastly important business of training students who are less advanced.

From what precedes it may be gathered that so far as we are concerned the Master's degree occupies a definite position