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Has anyone been a non-student staff member of a research lab at a (reputable, US) university starting from an entry/Bachelor's degree-level position, then leveraged their years of employment as the basis for a dissertation to receive an advanced degree from the same university with some minimal additional coursework/research/etc.?

Would this route be frowned upon at all, or have some other downsides I've yet to consider? If such an option exists, is there a name or label usually used to describe this? Is this more plausible for a Master's (rather than a PhD)?

To clarify, I am not asking about honorary doctorates. I'm satisfied with my contributions over the past ~4 years, but nonetheless I haven't made exceptional contributions to qualify for such a thing, nor am I interested in getting an empty title from some disreputable source.

I am trying to understand if this is something that is actually plausible and worth looking into or not.

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  • Please clarify your specific problem or provide additional details to highlight exactly what you need. As it's currently written, it's hard to tell exactly what you're asking.
    – Community Bot
    Sep 27, 2022 at 19:50
  • "worth looking": it depends on you. For someone it is worth to get a position where you earn the double , for someone else it is worth to work in precarious conditions to develop new things...
    – EarlGrey
    Sep 27, 2022 at 20:01
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    What "advanced degree"?
    – Buffy
    Sep 27, 2022 at 20:05
  • If this is your situation, why not ask your employer for your options?
    – Buffy
    Sep 27, 2022 at 20:07

2 Answers 2

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There are schools that offer Master's Degrees based upon life experience. https://www.degreemajor.com/life-experience-masters-degree is one such "school", but I offer that as an example, not as an endorsement of the practice or recommendation of any particular "school".

I know about such programs because my department tried to hire a person with such a degree as a laboratory engineer. HR disallowed the credential, and we couldn't hire the person -- so such a degree clearly will not be counted as a real degree in every situation (or maybe even "any" situation -- all I can attest to is that our own HR department would not recognize the degree)

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years of employment as the basis for a dissertation

Years of employment do not provide any basis by themselves. Were you actively developing new tools, or designing new experiments in these years? If yes, you will be quite efficient in finishing your PhD quickly, because you are already doing what PhD students do.

Are you ready to do what you do now, for 3 years, receiving ~half of the wage (or nothing at all)?

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