[Vision2020] English vs. US PhDs
thansen@moscow.com
thansen@moscow.com
Fri, 13 Feb 2004 19:55:23 GMT
A good analogy.
If you needed to hire an electrical engineer for your business and you were
reading the resumes of two applicants, which one would you want to interview?
Applicant #1 - Graduated in top 10% of his class from MIT.
Applicant #2 - Graduated in top 10% of fellow engineering students (via
correspondence) from Juilliard School of Music.
Tom Hansen
> Thanks, Nick, for stressing the distinctions between the PhD as most of us
> understand it and thesis-only doctorates. I have yet to finish my own PhD
> (in English, Ohio State University) because I haven't written my
> dissertation. My area of study was Anglo-Saxon. I completed the
> coursework; passed the fluency exam in French; studied Latin, Old Norse, and
> Gothic; taught freshman composition and introduction to literature courses
> as a TA; and wrote articles for presentation at conferences and for
> submission to juried publications. (Two articles were returned to me with
> nasty notes written in the margins, suggesting editorial changes that I
> ultimately refused to make. Sometimes in the scary world of academe, you
> think your articles are clever and cutting-edge, and then you discover that
> they're being reviewed by the very scholars you've dismissed as old hat and
> irrelevant. That's the pain of peer review . . . you can't pick your
> peers.)
>
> I began my medieval work as a Master's student at North Carolina State
> University, a degree I did finish, and then carried on at Ohio State before
> deciding that, really, what I wanted to be was a novelist. And so, I moved
> out here to attend the School of Hard Knocks. I can't say that I regret it
> -- though after the Idaho House vote yesterday, I did wonder.
>
> That said, I do think it's important to recognize that thesis-only
> doctorates can indeed reflect good and perhaps even brilliant scholarship.
> I believe Jane Goodall wrote a thesis about her work with chimpanzees and
> was awarded the doctorate without coursework. (Don't quote me on this. My
> recollection is based on a talk she gave twenty years ago in North Carolina,
> and on the brief star-struck conversation I had with her at the book-signing
> afterward. Well, she talked, and I let my mouth hang open and the flies
> buzz in.) Now, no one could argue that Jane Goodall doesn't understand
> chimp behavior, or that a few graduate classes at Oxford or Cambridge would
> make her a better scholar than she already is. Life experience does count
> for something. So do intelligence, original thinking, and the value of
> one's contributions to the field.
>
> I don't worship academic degrees, but I respect the work, the knowledge, and
> the achievement that they represent. As regular readers of this list know,
> I was ordained a minister by the Universal Life Church back in December. I
> did it online and it took about two minutes. What you might not know is
> that for 105 bucks and a score of 75% on a ULC pop quiz, they'll also award
> you a PhD in Religion. Now, if I sprang for that and passed the test, would
> I be Nick's equal on the job market?
>
> No. And if I ate bananas and lived in a tree, I don't think I'd fool Jane
> Goodall, either.
>
> Joan Opyr/Aunt Monkey Establishment
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Check out the great features of the new MSN 9 Dial-up, with the MSN Dial-up
> Accelerator. http://click.atdmt.com/AVE/go/onm00200361ave/direct/01/
>
> _____________________________________________________
> List services made available by First Step Internet,
> serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
> http://www.fsr.net
> mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com
> ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ
>
---------------------------------------------
This message was sent by First Step Internet.
http://www.fsr.net/