Following in his parents' footsteps, he then entered the Oberlin college preparatory program, and then the college itself the next year. He followed their classical course of study, taking classes in higher mathematics and basic physics, along with Latin and Greek. In 1889, he was asked to teach an introductory course in physics; the physics program at that time contained a large number of Greek terms, and he seemed to have been asked simply because he had done so well in Greek. His interest in physics began with his efforts to prepare himself for teaching this course. Millikan earned a B.A. in 1891, but stayed two more years as a physics tutor, taking additional science courses. He earned an M.A. in 1893 for his analysis of Silvanus P. Thomson's 1884 book,
Dynamic Electric Machinery. On the strength of this achievement, Millikan earned a fellowship to Columbia University in New York as its sole graduate student in physics.
At Columbia, Millikan gravitated to Michael I. Pupin of the electrical engineering department. Pupin schooled Millikan in mathematical precision in experimentation. In the summer of 1894, Millikan, with the aid of Columbia professor of physics Ogden Rood, enrolled at the Ryerson Laboratory at the University of Chicago.
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