Analysis reveals Bill Sutch earned a PhD in under nine months at Columbia, suggesting less rigorous doctorate requirements in the 1930s.
My PhD at an American university (Northwestern), earned after I had gained an MA at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, took me three years: a year of intensive course work culminating in a three-day “prelim” exam, and then two years of research and writing. At the time I did it, the 1970s, that was pretty much the minimum. A bit of research revealed that Sutch enrolled for his PhD, armed with a University Fellowship, in September 1931, and was awarded the degree on 1 June 1932 – that is, in under nine months. Were doctorate requirements at Columbia in the 1930s that much less rigorous?
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Russell Campbell (2025) studied this question.
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