O l d   B. S.   P r o g r a m

	The purpose of an engineering education is to develop clear thinking, good judgment, and the ability to apply scientific principles to the manifold forms of industry.
Petroleum Engineering Laboratories in Hearst Mining Building, 1929.

    The faculty of the College of Mining is mindful of its responsibility and will meet it fairly and squarely. A curriculum changes with the years. It is slowly molded into shape as experience and mature thought are brought to bear. There is, however, a limit to the things that can be crowded into a four, five, or even six year course and, however desirable some of them may seem, a knowledge of them must be acquired elsewhere on the initiative of the student.

    The prescribed curriculum, the outgrowth of many years study and trial and development, reveals the breadth, and emphasizes the complexity of the problems in petroleum engineering. Acceptable as it is, there is room for improvement. For the B.S. degree, 143 units of credit (one unit comprises three hours of laboratory or field work, or one hour lecture with two hours preparation, review, or other assignment) are required. The courses are rigidly prescribed and for the most part sequential. Its inelasticity is perhaps subject to criticism. A student may elect to major in one of four options, mining, metallurgy, petroleum engineering, or economic geology, differentiation of study programs beginning after the freshman year, which is devoted to a sound foundation in mathematics, physics, and chemistry.

Table I shows the distribution of units devoted to grouped courses in the several options.

TABLE  I

From July 1929 article by Dean Frank H. Probert, The Mining Congress Journal