Timeline for Is doing two PhDs a good path?
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| May 16, 2023 at 15:06 | comment | added | Ceph | To this excellent answer I just wanted to add that in Academia, the exact opposite of the Hollywood trope often applies: in many cases, the lack of a degree (in someone who nonetheless achieves success in Academia) is a marker of genius. For example, the philosopher Saul Kripke famously did not earn a graduate degree in the field, but nonetheless was singularly important to the development of late 20th century anglophone philosophy. His lack of a PhD is integral to the mythos of Kripke as an autodidact genius. | |
| Jun 8, 2019 at 19:06 | comment | added | user109595 | This answer seems very American to me. In Europe, I think, even in Academia, multiple PhDs are much more valued. | |
| May 12, 2017 at 16:19 | comment | added | Jacob Murray Wakem | It should be noted that a lot of people don't care what a PhD is "for" when they take it, just like many people don't care what food is "for" when they eat it: and these are often the most well fed! | |
| Jan 23, 2015 at 6:41 | comment | added | Sumyrda - remember Monica | @Steve Jessop: Who says you have to do the second phd at the same time as the first? I actually have a friend who got her phd and went on to a post doc in a related but different field where she first-authored some well recieved papers and then decided that she'd like to stick to that field and wrote up a "cumulative" phd thesis out of those papers. She ended up with 2 phds at age 28. I do admit that it's a very rare course of action. | |
| Mar 12, 2014 at 2:32 | comment | added | Steve Jessop | ... of course this doesn't provide a template to follow in real life, because your PhD program in point of fact will not leave you time to throw out novel research in another field in your lunch breaks, let alone getting it published. | |
| Mar 12, 2014 at 2:11 | comment | added | Steve Jessop | There are universities that award "PhDs by publication" in at least some subjects. I don't know if that happens in the US, but perhaps we can cheer ourselves up by imagining that Martha, while following a typical PhD program in one field, published valuable peer-reviewed papers in the other field and then (perhaps due to her juvenile over-achievement instincts) opted to pursue PhD accreditation for them which cost her relatively little time. When it surely wasn't necessary: once she's in medical school what range of job choice is she trying to keep open? ;-) | |
| Feb 22, 2014 at 14:52 | comment | added | Raphael | In some places of the world, there is no such thing as "grad school" and the only thing you have to do to get a PhD is hand in a thesis. So, while you probably won't (want to) do two PhDs by going to grad school, it might make sense to write up a thesis (i.e. book) about a new area you moved into and thus get a second PhD -- incidentally. | |
| Feb 22, 2014 at 0:50 | comment | added | jfa | To emphasize how mathematical Electrical Engineering is, the Dean (or Director?) of the college of Mathematics at my school has his undergrad in Electrical Engineering. As you'll learn if you don't already, there is a wide range in every field between the highly theoretical and the highly practical (think EE vs EET) and, of course, every field covers a wide range of material (EE covers everything from the borders of CS to Mechtronics, but this is hardly exhaustive). As Pete is saying, you can make your degree more or less Math heavy by taking those courses. | |
| Feb 21, 2014 at 21:46 | history | edited | Pete L. Clark | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Feb 21, 2014 at 19:56 | comment | added | Superbest | Indeed, once you have a PhD, there are much easier ways of getting the benefits of another PhD than actually doing it. | |
| Feb 21, 2014 at 11:54 | vote | accept | CommunityBot | ||
| Feb 21, 2014 at 10:24 | comment | added | Trylks | Very well put, I totally agree. There is one exception, though, the PhDs that are awarded honoris causa. Having one PhD, the second should be pursued this way, IMHO. It's even arguable that the first one should be pursued this way, basically doing real research and contributions (those are real credentials) and not coursework that implies that you can memorize some lessons but does not necessarily imply that you can do some research contributions. The main (only) purpose of the coursework should be teaching a person how to do these contributions and that's what should matter to award a PhD. | |
| Feb 21, 2014 at 9:02 | history | answered | Pete L. Clark | CC BY-SA 3.0 |