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Assuming you add one master's degree (Master of Science) like that:

FirstName LastName, M.Sc.

What is a proper way to add two independent1 master's degrees (both Master of Science)? Do you just add them both to the end?

FirstName LastName, M.Sc., M.Sc.

1 independent: Different universities, different fields, 2x 120 ECTS = 240 ECTS in total. Not the result of a double degree program.


Just to be clear, I am not looking for recommendations, if or when I should decorate my name with academic degrees. I do not even plan to do it on a regular basis. Even in my country, you don't do it very often. But if there is this one single time in my whole life where I should do it, then I want to do it right. That's all I am asking for: Are there rules or good/best practices on how to do it with two M.Sc. degrees.

Example situation: If you get mentioned on someone else's thesis as an examiner or as a supervisor the names will be decorated with degrees. A german doctor with three doctoral degress can either be Dr. Dr. Dr. FirstName LastName or Dr. mult. FirstName LastName. This example shows two possible rules:

  1. You can stack titles/degrees. Just add as much as you have. That's from where I derived FirstName LastName, M.Sc., M.Sc..
  2. You can condense - at least multiple doctoral - degrees by adding mult. to the mention of one single title/degree. I have never seen this in combination with other degrees.
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    @user111388, I doubt that many countries have legal requirements for academic titles.
    – Buffy
    Commented Feb 20, 2021 at 12:58
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    @user111388, I think that if there is no intent to defraud, then it is benign. Medical degrees may be a bit different. But few (in the US) would object if I suddenly start calling myself Buffy, MS of the Universe. A few laughs, perhaps. I think Germany is quite strict about titles along with other countries in the German academic tradition. But it is fraud that is a crime, not the listing of titles.
    – Buffy
    Commented Feb 20, 2021 at 13:23
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    @user111388 in my country, only the doctorate is legally protected among academic title. Anybody can choose to self-style themselves as a professor, for example. It's probably bad for your reputation, but you are not legally forbidden from doing so. Only the doctorate is actually illegal to claim if you don't have one.
    – user116675
    Commented Feb 20, 2021 at 18:33
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    @Wetenschaap See: zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/stb-2017-390.html (i.e. this was was changed only a couple of years ago.)
    – TimRias
    Commented Feb 22, 2021 at 14:54
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    Page 20 (by the number printed at the bottom of the page) or page 22 (by the PDF file page count) of the Oxford University Style Guide gives an example arrangement of postnominal letters for someone who has three M.A.s (among many other degrees), but I don't think it has any currency outside Oxford.
    – user128581
    Commented Feb 23, 2021 at 12:41

3 Answers 3

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Unless you are in a place that regulates academic titles, you can do pretty much as you please. But you could qualify each with the specific field or university if you feel the need to list both.

FirstName LastName, M.Sc.(Basket Weaving), M.Sc.(Basket Burning)

Distinguishing by university, rather than field will probably confuse people, thinking you have two masters in the same field. Qualifying with both is probably too unwieldy.

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You don't. Even in academic circles, writing "John Smith, MS, MS" just looks silly and pompous. Instead, simply write "John Smith, MS." In the same way, you would not ask people to call you "doctor doctor" if you had two PhDs, nor would you write "MS, BS, BA" if you did a dual degree in college but subsequently got a master's.

You may want "credit" for your two different degrees, but this is not the purpose of the initials. Rather, you can list both degrees separately on your resume, or describe yourself in a bio as having "two master's degrees."

Granted, this answer is from a US perspective; it is possible that this would look less silly to members of other cultures.

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    I come from a culture where it would be the normal thing to state both titles. However, in academic circles, you would most likely (unless in social/law science) mention neither title. Therefore, I am confused about the "even in academic cicles"at the start of the answer- is it really the case that in the US, you use titles more in academia than in industry/private life?
    – user111388
    Commented Feb 20, 2021 at 18:12
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    By "academic circles," I meant only that we know what these letters mean, and value them. But no, post-nominals are rarely used in daily life -- a formal e-mail signature block is the only example that comes to mind.
    – cag51
    Commented Feb 20, 2021 at 19:03
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    @user111388 sounds a lot like Austria. Commented Feb 20, 2021 at 19:15
  • I never bothered with "MS" even when I was teaching; I couldn't have been teaching without that master's. I didn't use a post-nominal degree until I earned the Ph.D. and then only in the academic setting or when consulting.
    – Bob Brown
    Commented Feb 21, 2021 at 20:42
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There are some indications that one could use MMSc to designate a double 'master of science'-degre.

Here is an example of a profile who calls himself Dr. ... MMSc.

As for the rationale behind that, I may cite this Wikipedia section on representing plurals in acronyms:

In some languages, the convention of doubling the letters in the acronym is used to indicate plural words: for example, the Spanish EE.UU., for Estados Unidos ('United States'). This old convention is still followed for a limited number of English abbreviations, such as SS. for "Saints", pp. for the Latin plural of "pages", paginae, or MSS for "manuscripts".

This approach of pluralizing acronyms is quite common with academic titles in German, e.g. DDr. for "Doktor Doktor", or MMag. for "Magister Magister". Thus, MMSc would serve as an analogy.

Interestingly, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMSC does state that the acronym may refer to "Double Master of Science, an academic degree". And if you google around, you find some examples of such usages.

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