11 March 1954

Dr. Kenneth Pitzer

University of California

Berkeley 4, California

Dear Kenneth:

Some time ago I noticed that a letter from you had arrived during my absence from Pasadena. I have been uncertain until recently as to whether or not I could make a trip to Berkeley in the near future, as you have suggested. Now, however, I have had to decide that it will not be possible for me to take time for a visit to Berkeley this spring - or at any rate before May. I expect, moreover, that I shall be so busy during May as to make it unwise for me to plan on the Berkeley trip.

There is a question that I should like to ask you. There seems to be some chance that one of our juniors will apply for a graduate assistantship and for admission as a graduate student, without having received his bachelor's degree. I judge that he would then begin his graduate work with training at least equivalent to that of the average graduate student that we have in chemistry. One question that he has asked is what the attitude of other universities would be, in case that he decided to apply for admission as a graduate student elsewhere, after one year as a graduate student here. What do you think the University of California would decide?

You may remember that Alex Kosiakoff was admitted as a graduate student at Johns Hopkins at the end of his junior year here. He was, in fact, given a bachelor's degree by the Institute after he had been a graduate student at Hopkins for one year.

Sincerely yours,

Linus Pauling:W