Education: Chicago Scooters

In establishing the University of Chicago's famed New Plan (TIME, Dec. 1, 1930 et seq.) prodigious President Robert Maynard Hutchins left the gates wide open to prodigies inclined to step up the academic pace. Smart students may receive their degrees as soon as they are able to pass examinations.

First notable, prodigy was big-eared, bespectacled Lewis Anthony Dexter, offspring of two Ph.D.'s, pride of a Kendal Green, Mass. Progressive school. He scooted through Chicago in 17 months, grabbed his A.B. last March on his way out. That record stood until August when a 35-year-old Chicago housewife, Mrs. Martha Friedman Marenof, graduated in...

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