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who transferred to Chicago still needed to undertake subjects taught only in the Junior College. As James H. Tufts subsequently recalled, “In actual practice it was not possible to conduct work for the two colleges in separate buildings because there was but one building. And the general policy of flexibility tended to weaken the other barriers set between the two. . . . The distinction between the colleges tended to become what John Locke called a ‘nominal essence’.”58 Occupationally, undergraduate alumni tended to move into a wide spectrum of professions. In the first decade of the University, teaching was the most popular occupational choice for both men and women, amounting to 31 percent for men and 75 percent for women, which was understandable since many students had undertaken some kind of teaching experience before enrolling in the University.59 Even in the earliest days, the colleges attracted many students who wished careers in higher education: For the cohorts who graduated between 1893 and 1900, 17 percent of the male graduates and 20 percent of the female graduates pursued such careers. By the 1920s, the distribution of careers for men became more varied: Thirty-five percent of the male graduates pursued careers in business, with law (10 percent), medicine (10 percent), and higher education (9 percent) also continuing as popular choices. Between 1920 and 1929, women continued overwhelmingly to choose education (62 percent), including higher education (5 percent), but 18 percent of women graduates also opted for business careers, as
58. James H. Tufts, “A University with a New Plan,” p. 23, James H. Tufts Papers, Box 3. 59. The President’s Report. Administration. The Decennial Publications, p. 84; Floyd W. Reeves and John Dale Russell, The Alumni of the Colleges (Chicago, 1933), pp. 65–66.