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 16 months, a Phi Beta Kappa.

Last week these performances began to look amateurish when the University of Chicago pointed with pride to Donald MacMurray, graduate of a Bronx high school at 15. Now 21 and taking up his education again after five years spent over the chess boards and bridge tables, he is seeking not only an A. B. in May, eight months after entering the University, but also his Master's degree in August. Super-Scooter MacMurray has already taken seven of nine comprehensive examinations needed for his bachelor's degree. Score: four A's, two B's, one D (in Physical Sciences). His formula: study 14 hours a day (with the aid of chocolate bars and coffee) for several days, then take two days off to go hiking.

While Prodigy MacMurray was posing with some of the 200 books which he has read since October (see cut), normal four-year undergraduates were given a pat on the back last week by Chicago faculty members as "more deliberate students of solid worth."

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