“Marriage is when a man loses his Bachelor’s degree and a woman gets her Master’s degree”

A frequently reprinted saying about marriage as an institution of learning was published in many newspapers in 1930:
 
“Matrimony, says a writer, is an institution of learning. In which a man loses his bachelor’s degree without acquiring a master’s.—Arkansas Gazette.”
 
The joke was slightly changed in a 1945 comic strip, adding a degree to the man’s wife:
 
“Matrimony? Matrimony is an institution of learning in which a man loses his bachelor’s degree and his wife acquires a master’s.”
   
 
28 January 1926, Rockford (IL) Daily Republic, “Hit and Run,” pg. 6, col. 3:
Italian student lists matrimony as a science, but just the same, a fellow loses his bachelor’s degree when he enters it.
 
2 February 1930, Greensboro (NC) Daily News, pg. 4B, col. 1:
Matrimony, says a writer, is an institution of learning. In which a man loses his bachelor’s degree without acquiring a master’s.—Arkansas Gazette.
 
1 June 1940, San Diego (CA) Union, “Northeast Corner,” pg. 2-B, col. 7:
Bill Dennis tells us that marriage is an institution where a man loses his bachelor’s degree but never quite gains the master’s honors.

26 September 1945, Oakland (CA) Tribune, “Just Hearsay” (comic strip), pg. 15, col. 4:
“Matrimony? Matrimony is an institution of learning in which a man loses his bachelor’s degree and his wife acquires a master’s.”
 
26 March 1949, Greensboro (NC) Record, “What Am I Saying” by Frank Morgan, pg. 11, col. 5:
But even so, matrimony is a wonderful educational institution. In it a man loses his bachelor’s degree and his wife acquires a master’s.
 
2 April 1955, Greensboro (NC) Daily News, sec. 1, pg. 6, col. 7:
Gob Humor
(The U.S. Coast Guard Magazine)
Matrimony: An institution in which a man loses his bachelor’s degree and his wife acquires a master’s.
 
Google Books
The New Speaker’sTtreasury of Wit and Wisdom
BY Herbert V. Prochnow
New York, NY: Harper
1958
Pg. 274:
Matrimony: An institution in which a man loses his bachelor’s degree and his wife acquires a master’s.
 
Google Books
Braude’s Handbook of Humor for All Occasions
By Jacob Morton Braude
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall
1958
Pg. 304:
Matrimony:
1. a knot tied by a preacher and untied by a lawyer.
2. an institution of learning in which a man loses his bachelor’s degree without acquiring a master’s.
 
Google Books
The Good Humor Book
By Roland Peterson
Santa Anna, CA: Vision House Publishers
1976
Pg. 103:
Marriage is an educational institution in which a man loses his bachelor’s degree without acquiring a master’s.
 
Google Books
20,000 Quips & Quotes
By Evan Esar
New York, NY: Barnes & Noble Books
1995, ©1968
Pg. 210:
At a wedding a man loses his bachelor’s degree and a woman wins her master’s.
 
Google Books
Bachelor Degree
By Judith Marks-White
New York, NY: Ballantine Books
2008
Pg. 3:
Marriage is an institution in which a man loses his bachelor’s degree and the woman gets her master’s. —Anonymous
 
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Marriage is when a man loses his Bachelor’s degree and a woman gets her Master’s degree.
8:18 AM - 11 Jul 2015