189
Although a bit old, there's the case of Luzin's Master's thesis: . . . he completed his thesis The integral and trigonometric series which he submitted in 1915. After his oral examination he was awarded a doctorate, despite having submitted his thesis for the Master's Degree. In fact, even for a Ph.D. thesis, Luzin's is one of the strongest ever written in ...
144
Donald Knuth:
When Donald Ervin Knuth was a college student at Case Institute of Technology in Cleveland, Ohio, in the 1950s he showed such intelligence and talent that the faculty voted to award him a master’s degree in mathematics simultaneously with his bachelor’s degree.
(Source)
Knuth himself explained:
At Case I put a lot of time into stuff ...
112
Some universities (perhaps most) will refuse to provide transcripts for students who owe money. Example.
This can be a serious problem for you. Some employers insist upon an official transcript as a condition of employment. Your diploma or similar certificate will not suffice; the employer wants a document directly from the university, which has not ...
93
Revoking a degree is rarely done and, then, only for the most extreme reasons such as explicit dishonesty and such. Any results in any thesis are subject to revision as new information becomes available that was not present in the past. It doesn't mean that the work was wrongly done, but only that what is known has advanced.
Since you re-did the experiment ...
92
Different countries have different conventions around the résumé / CV, and you might want very different versions of your résumé for applying for jobs in academia or industry. That said, at a general level readers are interested in the flow (are there gaps which are unaccounted for?) and the skills trained. I would put the dates of study and a note about the ...
90
You have lost the money whether or not the "university" gives you the degree.
You have given your money to what is known as a diploma mill. A long time ago (nearly two decades!), I received an email offering degrees from "prestigious, non-accredited universities" based on life experience. This is a complete and total scam. Even if you have a diploma, it ...
81
The famous Polish mathematician, Stefan Banach, famously received his PhD in 1920 without having had a college degree. In fact, its a pretty famous story, he did not want to get any sort of degree as he claimed he can still come up with ideas that are better and more deserving of a degree. He was actually tricked into defending a PhD thesis as he was asked ...
74
I suggest you list the years you were studying/enrolled, not the years degrees were conferred, i.e.,
2015–2017 Master’s, Second Grade, Second University.
2012–2015 Bachelor’s, First Grade, First University.
I believe this is standard for CVs – indeed, employment periods are listed in this way – and does not suggest "you received your degree ...
69
For example, can they (or will they) revoke my degree?
I am surprised that you were issued a degree without having paid tuition for your last semester. In most cases I am familiar with, universities require students to be in good financial standing in order to receive a degree, for exactly this reason. If it was an intentional decision, not holding up ...
66
In case there was any doubt, I have asked them. This is the conversation I had with them (some irrelevant parts omitted):
Albert: Hello, I have written a book on Mathematics that I would like to turn into a PhD thesis
Albert: what do I have to do?
Their Guy: What is your highest level of education?
Albert: I have a Masters degree in mathematics
...
62
You can use the formulation
Degree to be conferred MM/YYYY
to indicate that you have passed all degree requirements, but are waiting for the degree to be officially awarded. This occurs fairly frequently, particularly for PhD students, who may finish at any time of the year, especially if their university only confers degrees once per year.
58
Ph.D.s and other academic titles and degrees awarded for "work experience", "life experience" and so on are products of diploma mills. You pay a lot of money (thousands of USD) for a piece of paper that is completely worthless.
Employers know these worthless "titles". Such a "Ph.D." will not help you get a better job, and it will in particular not help you ...
53
I would say this depends on context. When contacting academics, it is common to assume they all have a doctorate. A mass email (or mail-merged etc.) is therefore likely to use Dr. even for a PhD student on the list, because checking would take much more work. Thus in a context where someone has no particular reason to know you personally, it's probably best ...
53
Absent plagiarism, fraud, or other academic sanction, it would be difficult to revoke an awarded degree. There would have to be strong evidence for doing so, and it’s not often attempted, in part because of the likelihood of legal action.
So, I would normally say don’t worry about it. However, in a dysfunctional department, anything could happen, and you ...
52
This flow chart, from the National Center for Education Statistics, summarizes it better than any explanation I can think of.
https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d01/fig1.asp
Everywhere you see an arrow represents a potential change of institutions, or (above the black line) a natural place to exit formal education if desired. In particular, most people ...
46
There are many factors!
In the past there was much less demand for highly educated people, as there were many more jobs that were mostly manual labour. Technology is largely to blame for this, as computers and machines take over what we had to do with our heads and hands.
People were more likely to work in one job for their whole life, so there was less ...
46
It is part of the cultural norms of American universities that your attendance or lack thereof is an issue for each individual course instructor to pursue or not pursue as they choose. At my university the administration is involved precisely insofar as to have the following policy:
Students are expected to attend classes regularly. A student who incurs ...
45
Generally you cannot get two PhDs in the same field. One could get a second PhD in a second field.
People who want to do research in multiple fields or in a multidisciplinary topic or wish to change fields may obtain multiple PhDs. Alternatively, as you suggest, people who want to remain students forever do that.
The main downside of doing multiple PhDs is ...
44
No. The class of a degree is not written in your post-nominal qualifications. You can add it in he educational details on your CV.
43
Once a degree has been conferred, it is exceedingly difficult to retract at without clear evidence of misconduct. Having a souring of relations with your advisor definitely does not rise to the level where you should have to worry about your degree being revoked. It is definitely worth mending your relationship with your former advisor just on professional ...
42
Assuming you haven't been awarded a degree yet, you can't have your degree revoked.
As for whether the university can refuse to award you a degree because you didn't attend class - key point to note is that university isn't high school. University students are generally treated as adults, and adults are free to do what they want, including miss class. It ...
41
While there are some circumstances in which is it appropriate to use a "shortened" C.V. that does not include everything that you have done, I have never heard of a circumstance under which it is appropriate to omit a degree. An irrelevant degree will not hurt how your C.V. is perceived, and if it is later discovered that you omitted a degree from your C.V.,...
38
If you're talking about the use of doctor as a title, as in "Dr. Smith", I doubt there's any compelling explanation. Most degrees don't come with titles: nobody say Master Smith or Bachelor Smith or Associate Smith. Historically, magister (corresponding to the master's degree) was just as appropriate a Latin title as doctor was, but it simply isn't used in ...
answered May 7 '15 at 4:08
Anonymous Mathematician
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36
Most applicants for positions at US universities will have been educated in the US, so US hiring practices are based around the sorts of records that US universities provide. And US universities don't really have such a thing as "degree certificates". The paper diploma from a US university is considered purely ceremonial and not used for any official ...
34
Not quite the same, but George Dantzig famously solved two previously unsolved problems in statistical theory as a graduate student, after showing up late for class and mistaking them for homework assignments. When he decided to start his PhD, his professor told him to "wrap the two problems in a binder, and I'll accept them as your thesis."
34
No.
He was an LL D of Trinity College, granted 1765; and a DCL of Oxford, granted 1775.
See https://www.britannica.com/biography/Samuel-Johnson
Note:
DCL= Doctor of Civil Law.
LL.D.= Doctor of Laws, that is of both the Civil and the Canon Law.
30
It would depend on the jurisdiction. In the US, you have a property right to the degree that you earn and pay for (regardless of the ultimate source of funding -- the student has the responsibility to pay), and as long as you don't violate the conditions for obtaining the degree (various forms of dishonesty in admissions and satisfaction of the degree), ...
29
It could also be an equivalent degree from another country. For example, a degree, equivalent of PhD, in Russia is called 'Candidate of science' (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Russia)
28
It depends highly on your university and national system. The Doctor of Science title has already been cited by Dan C, and several European countries have a higher diploma called habilitation.
28
Many universities award honorary degrees, such as a honorary doctorate. These are not PhDs, but might still be relevant to your question. I have often seen these types of degrees being awarded to people that have contributed a lot to a scientific field from outside of academia (but sometimes for far less, also see this wiki-section on controversies over ...
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