Question: How did the famous comedy duo of Mike Nichols and Elaine May get together?
Answer: They were brilliant teens who read everything but disdained academic requirements. Both went to the University of Chicago because they were told it was the only top college willing to admit students such as Nichols, who hadn’t taken the SAT, or May, who had no high school diploma.
Follow-up question: Why aren’t American universities welcoming such remarkable (if under-credentialed) minds today? Skipping the SAT or the ACT has become less of a problem, but it is harder to get into college without a high school diploma than it was when Nichols and May arrived in Chicago.
Mark Harris’s amazing new book, “Mike Nichols: A Life,” emphasizes how far from the mainstream the two teenagers were. Nichols came to New York City from Germany when he was 7 as his parents fled the Nazis. In 1949, he was about to leave for a college in Mexico, the only school that admitted him, when he got a telegram from the University of Chicago letting him in.
His future comic partner dropped out of Hollywood High School when she was 14. At age 16, she married engineer and inventor Marvin May and gave birth to a daughter the next year. By the following year, 1950, the marriage had faltered. Elaine May left her child with her mother in Los Angeles and hitchhiked to Chicago.
Stunningly unconventional teens still get admitted to college. Admissions officers at very selective institutions tell stories of prodigies they couldn’t bear to reject despite gaps in their applications.
[What to do with gifted students]
William R. Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard College, said his school does not require a high school diploma. “We have admitted any number of such students over the years,” he said. “Some had unusual family circumstances not unlike what you described for Mike and Elaine. Others were home-schooled, had attended multiple schools or had various educational experiences that did not include a diploma.”
But David Hawkins, chief education and policy officer at the National Association for College Admission Counseling, said evolving standards have made it harder for free spirits. “The enactment of the federal student aid programs has substantially reinforced the reliance on a high school diploma in four-year admission by predicating student aid and federal student loan eligibility on a student’s possession of either a high school diploma or other proof of ‘ability to benefit’ from a college education, such as a GED or a passing score on an Ability to Benefit test,” he said.
Students can technically enroll without passing an ATB test, Hawkins said, but they “would be ineligible for financial aid, including federally backed student loans.” He said: “Unfortunately many of the online resources that offer lists of colleges accepting students without a high school diploma are lead generators for for-profit colleges. There have been numerous reports in the past of for-profit colleges fudging ATB test scores to get students in the door to reap their federal aid money.”
Nichols, his mother and younger brother struggled to survive financially after his father, a doctor, died when he was 12. His mother eventually married another doctor and they could afford his tuition. May avoided college costs by auditing University of Chicago classes and joining student improvisational groups but never formally enrolling. She was known for making provocative statements in class, such as dismissing as a political stunt Socrates’ famous apology at his trial for impiety and corruption.
A mutual friend introduced May to Nichols as the only person on campus who matched his talent for wicked put-downs. In his book, Harris indicated that the couple had a three-day romance but abandoned it in favor of a close comedy partnership. Their grasp of culture and literature meant they had little trouble handling obscure topics from the audience for improvised sketches at the end of each performance.
Jeremy Manier, assistant vice president for communications at the University of Chicago, acknowledged his school’s rules are tougher these days on geniuses without proper credentials. “Our usual practice for undergraduate admissions is to consider applicants who have a high school diploma or GED. In most cases, high school graduates are best prepared to succeed at the college level, and high school graduates have easier access to federal financial aid, if needed,” he said.
Getting into community colleges without graduating from high school isn’t difficult. Two-year colleges in some states, such as California, don’t require diplomas or passing General Educational Development tests. High school dropouts can make up credits they need in adult education classes.
Many selective four-year colleges don’t require the SAT or the ACT, but not having a high school diploma remains a barrier.
Nichols died in 2014 at age 83, recognized as one of the nation’s most successful film and theater directors. May, 89, remains a much-honored writer, director and performer. She won a Tony Award for best lead actress in a play two years ago.
Nichols and May were autodidacts, mostly self-educated. Neither got a college degree, but they kept reading and studying their craft. Our history has several such exemplars, including Thomas Edison, Jack London, Harry S. Truman, August Wilson and Frank Zappa.
College should be available to young people with an outlandish passion for learning, even if they don’t stay long. Like Nichols and May, while on campus such people tend to stimulate innovative thinking and inspire others to consider unconventional paths to fulfilling lives.
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