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While seemingly prescient in his speculations, his findings at this point were not terribly revolutionary. Others, like Curtis and Slipher, had already made similar statements. Today astronomers judge Hubble's thesis as not very good technically, as it contains few references to earlier work and offers confusing theoretical ideas. “But it shows clearly the hand of a great scientist groping toward the solution of great problems,” Donald Osterbrock, Ronald Brashear, and Joel Gwinn emphasized in an evaluation of Hubble's work. “Hubble was never an outstanding technical observationalist… but he always had the drive, energy, and enough skill to use available instruments so as to get the most out of them… He recognized the right questions to ask, and he had the self-confidence to see what was on his plates, and describe it, where others who had perhaps seen it before had ignored it, or worse, tried to ignore it, because it did not fit the current pictures of the universe that they had in their minds.”

Hubble was certainly astute enough to realize that his initial research on the nebulae merely scratched the surface. In his thesis he made sure to note that his “questions await their answers for instruments more powerful than those we now possess.” He was already thinking ahead, keenly aware that another place, the Mount Wilson Observatory, in southern California, was swiftly becoming the world's premier astronomical institution, with a record-breaking 100-inch telescope under construction. In turn, Mount Wilson's director, Hale, was similarly aware of Hubble. He had been hearing reports of an exceptional young man at Yerkes who was looking into faint nebulae and, after consulting with University of Chicago professors, he offered Hubble a job, contingent on the successful completion of his doctoral degree.

“I have offered Hubbell [sic] a position with us at $1200. per year,” wrote Hale to Adams, his second in command. “He will talk the question over with Frost in the near future.” Frost had no problem with Hubble leaving Yerkes. In fact, the Yerkes director was probably relieved, for he didn't have the money to offer his graduating student a well-paid position, as he had hoped, and was glad to hear that Hubble had another prospect in hand, and an excellent one at that.

In the course of working toward his degree, Hubble had spent hundreds of hours at his scope, photographing a vast array of nebulae and classifying them. Yet, as published, Hubble's thesis consisted of just nine pages of text, eight pages of tables, and two photographic plates. That it turned out a bit thin was largely due to the unusual circumstances of its final preparation. Hubble had planned to finish up in June 1917, but on April 6 of that year Congress approved President Woodrow Wilson's plea for the United States to enter World War I. Within days Hubble asked Frost for a letter of recommendation to obtain a commission in the army. Upon hearing that officers' training camp was starting in mid-May, Hubble hurriedly submitted the latest draft of his thesis, which he knew was decidedly “scimpy.” On the advice of Frost, he plumped it up a bit by attaching his paper on NGC 2261, his variable nebula. Even then, Frost did not find it suitable for publication in the prestigious Astrophysical Journal and eventually sent it to the lesser Publications of the Yerkes Observatory. War fever obviously allowed Hubble's shakily composed thesis to pass without major rewrites. The young recruit handled himself superbly during his final oral examination, though, and the six-man committee awarded him his doctoral degree magna cum laude. Three days later, on May 15, he reported for duty at Fort Sheridan, a military reservation on Lake Michigan, north of Chicago.

As for his promised position at Mount Wilson, Hubble had already sent a letter to Hale a month earlier telling him of his desire to enter the reserve officers corps and asking how it would affect his job