Jacob Viner and Paul Douglas were not only colleagues at the University of Chicago, they also overlapped briefly in graduate school at Harvard in 1915-16. The Ricardo prize scholarship that they both competed for was worth $350 and considerably exceeded the regular annual tuition-fee, e.g., for a newly enrolled (1916-17) full-time, resident student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences annual tuition was $200. Since both were already enrolled in 1915-16, they would have been charged the tuition fee published in the earlier catalogue for 1915-16 that I have not yet hunted down. One might speculate that Douglas had hoped to complete his Ph.D. at Harvard but that he needed to win the scholarship…or perhaps “honorable mention” was not honorable enough for him. In any event, Douglas went on to receive his Ph.D. from Columbia University. In all fairness, Viner was in his second year at Harvard and could use the Ricardo prize scholarship exam in April as a dress rehearsal for his Ph.D. examinations that he took the next month.
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Ricardo Prize Exam. Will be Held in Upper Dane Tomorrow
Harvard Crimson, April 4, 1916
The Ricardo Prize Scholarship examination will be held in Upper Dane Hall tomorrow at 2 o’clock. The scholarship is valued at $350, and is open to anyone who is this year a member of the University, and who will next year be either a member of the Senior class or of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Each candidate will write in the examination room an essay on a topic chosen by himself from a list not previously announced, in economics and political science. In addition, statements of previous studies, and any written work, must be submitted by every candidate to the Chairman of the Department of Economics not later than the time of the examination. The man who wins the scholarship must devote the majority of his time next year to economics and political studies.
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Ricardo Prize Scholarship
The Ricardo Prize Scholarship for 1916-17 has been awarded to Jacob Viner, A.M., of Montreal, Quebec, a second-year student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Honorable mention has been awarded to Paul Howard Douglas, A.M., of Cambridge, a first-year student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.
Source: Harvard University Gazette, Vol. XI, No. 34, May 13, 1916, p. 181 .
Image Source: Collage of details taken from photos apf1-08488 (Viner) and apf1-05851 (Douglas) from University of Chicago Photographic Archive, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.