In this post we find the requirements for a major in economics (Harvardspeak = “concentration”) and for graduation with honors 65 years ago at Harvard.
Earlier posts here at Economics in the Rear-view mirror include the 1953 General Examination questions and a Harvard Crimson article that briefly summarized the requirements transcribed here.
This artifact was found in John Kenneth Galbraith’s personal files from Harvard University that are kept at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. His papers provide a treasure trove of economics department administrative memoranda, among other delights.
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CONCENTRATION IN ECONOMICS
[February 1953]
Every concentrator in Economics is required:
- To complete a certain number of courses in Economics, Government, and History;
- To choose for more intensive work a special field within the general area of Economics;
- To submit a Plan of Study, fulfill the general requirements with respect to distribution, and participate in the departmental tutorial program;
- To pass one general written examination in Economics at the end of the senior year.
Every candidate for graduation with Honors is required in addition:
- To complete an honors thesis, and to take one more than the required number of courses in Economics. He is also to take three of the basic courses, including Economic Theory.
These requirements are discussed below under the Roman numerals indicated.
I. BASIC REQUIREMENTS IN ECONOMICS, GOVERNMENT, AND HISTORY
Every concentrator in Economics is required to complete as a minimum:
- That each concentrator is required to take Economics I and two of the five following basic courses:
- Money and finance (Econ. 141)
- Marketing organization and control (Econ. 161)
- Labor and social reform (Econ. 181a and b)
- Economic History (Econ. 136)
- Economic Theory (Econ. 101)
- Each non-honors concentrator will take a minimum of four courses in Economics while the minimum for honors candidates will be five courses. Ordinarily each undergraduate will take one general examination namely a departmental examination in his senior year. This examination is designed to test his knowledge of the general field of economics as it has been developed in course work and synthesized in tutorial.
- For both honors candidates and non-honors candidates, two full courses are required, or the equivalent in half-courses, in Social Sciences outside Economics—one such full course to be chosen from two of the three fields, History, Government, and Social Relation. In each of the two courses selected, such choice may be from either (a) courses administered by the Department in question, or, (b) courses in that field given under the heading of General Education, Second Group Courses.
II. SPECIAL FIELDS WITHIN ECONOMICS
Every concentrator is required to choose from the list below a special field for more intensive work.
Courses desirable as preparation in these fields should be selected in consultation with the student’s tutor or adviser. The written examination in the senior year will be arranged to encourage familiarity with the main questions in the whole field of the student’s choice, as well as intensive analysis of some segment of the field.
Economics courses directly relevant to the special field are listed. Other Economics courses are relevant in part.
(1) Economic Theory
Courses which fall definitely within this field are Economics 101 (Economic Theory and Policy), 104a (Mathematical Treatment of Economic Theory), and 115 (Economics and Political Ideas in Modern Times).
(2) Economic History
Economics 136 (Economic History of the Colonies and the United States), falls within this field.
(3) Money and Finance
This field covers money, banking, and business cycles; international trade, capital movements, and monetary problems; public expenditures, revenues, and credit. Related topics are some aspects of corporate finance and the investment process, financing of social security, inflexible prices and monetary policy, agricultural credit, and the like.
Within the field fall: Economics 141 (Money and Banking), 143a and 143b (International Trade and Economic Relations), 145a (Business Cycles), 151 (Public Finance).
(4) Market Organization and Control
The major topics in this field include the corporation; the structure and functioning of markets; business practices; and government control in industry, trade, agriculture, and public utilities. Related topics are international markets, corporate taxation, inflexible prices and monetary policy, and the like.
Economics courses directly in this field are: Economics 161 (Business Organization and Control), 171 (Economics of Agriculture) and 107 (Consumption, Distribution, and Prices).
(5) Labor Economics and Social Reform
This field covers labor problems; population, social stratification, distribution of wealth and income, social security; collectivism and other proposals for social reform. Related topics are taxation as an instrument of social policy, the financing of social security, the corporation and social stratification, and the like.
Economics courses directly in this field are: 181a (Trade Unionism and Collective Bargaining), 181b (Public Policy and Labor), 111b Socialism) and 186a (Social Security).
III. ADVISERS AND TUTORIAL INSTRUCTION: PLAN OF STUDY
(1) Every concentrator in economics is assigned to a tutor or, in the case of seniors who are not candidates for honors, an adviser. All concentrators except such seniors are required to participate in the tutorial program of the Department. In general, the purpose of tutorial is not to prime the student for examinations. Rather, it is to induce clearer thinking on a somewhat wider and more integrated range of problems than those discussed in the separate courses. A further purpose is to train students to organize and state their ideas in readable and cogent form.
Sophomores are assigned to tutorial groups of not more than six in the House of their residence. These groups meet with a tutor who is also a member of the House staff either once a week for approximately an hour or once every two weeks for approximately two hours. The objective of Sophomore tutorial is to give the student a sense of the relevance of economics as one of the social sciences and the relation of economics to the other social sciences as a factor in making policy decisions.
Juniors who are not candidates for honors are assigned to tutorial groups of not more than six which are organized in a manner similar to that of Sophomore tutorial. Juniors who are candidates for honors usually meet individually with tutors for a half hour once a week. Juniors who wish to become honors candidates meet in special groups. If their performance in tutorial at mid years warrants a grade of satisfactory or better, and if their course grades are adequate, they will be accepted as honors candidates at the beginning of the spring term.
Seniors who are candidates for honors will meet with tutors who will advise them in preparing and executing their honors theses. This will also include a liberal background of reading supplementary to the student’s course work in the field in which his thesis lies. Wide discretion is left to the individual tutor and student. Seniors who are not candidates for honors are assigned to advisers at the beginning of the fall term. The advisers consult with students an assist them to select courses. At the beginning of the spring term such seniors have the option of attending voluntary tutorial group meetings once every two weeks. The purpose of such tutorial is to synthesize the course work of the past three years. To the degree that the general examination also represents an attempt to synthesize course work, such tutorial will of necessity help prepare for the general examination, but such preparation will be merely incidental to the specific purpose of tutorial which will be rather to relate the fields of economics to a pattern of relevant judgment.
(2) Every new concentrator in Economics must file a Plan of Study in University 2 containing a selection of courses sufficient to meet the requirements for concentration and distribution as set forth in Rules Relating to College Studies. This Plan must be signed by the student’s adviser or some other representative of the Department of Economics. It is, however, merely a preliminary statement of intent and may be altered at a later date with the approval of the student’s adviser.
IV. THE DEPARTMENTAL EXAMINATION
This examination is given at the end of the senior year. The Departmental Examination is a three-hour written examination covering all phases of Economics. At the option of the Examiner, there may be given in addition an oral examination. This last is usually given when the mark of the student is in doubt. Furthermore, in determining whether a degree in Economics will be awarded and the level of the degree, performance in tutorial will be taken into account.
This examination has been established, not in order to place additional burdens upon candidates for the A.B., but for the purpose of securing better correlation of the student’s work, encouraging more effective methods of study, and furnishing a more adequate test of attainment.
V. CANDIDACY FOR HONORS, AND THE HONORS THESIS
Every candidate for the degree of A.B. with Honors in Economics will make application, not later than the beginning of his Senior year, at Holyoke 8. Acceptance of candidacy depends upon the over-all record of the student, and not upon grades alone; but in general it is expected that a B-minus average or better should have been attained in Economics course. It is required that a candidate recommended for honors attain a grade of C or higher in at least two-thirds of his other courses. In addition, to be eligible for honors, all candidates must maintain a grade of satisfactory or better in tutorial.
The candidate for honors will submit toward the close of his Senior year a thesis on some subject in economics chosen in consultation with his adviser. The thesis should evidence independent and effective work, and an integrated understanding of the general field in which the thesis subject lies: but the Faculty does not intend to call for research on a graduate level. The requirements are such that the degree with honors is attainable by a student of good ability. An honors candidate may, if he chooses, elect Economics 99 for one term only, in order to devote extra time to work on his thesis with his tutor. A penalty of five points will be imposed on all theses running over 40,000 words in length.
The grade of Honors which a student attains depends in part on the range and character of his work in Economics, History, and Government; but mainly on the average of his course grades in Economics, on his Departmental examination, and on the quality of his thesis. The usual grades of Honors are Honors (cum laude), High Honors (magna cum laude), and Highest Honors (summa cum laude). If the student’s work is judged unworthy of Honors, but worthy of a degree, he may be recommended for the degree without Honors.
Source: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Personal Papers of John Kenneth Galbraith.Series 5. Harvard University File, 1949-1990. Box 528, Folder: “Tutorials 9/17/51-9/57”.