The old joke about cults being merely "religions without tax breaks" is surely relevant to any discussion of the putative differences between overt degree-mill scams on the one hand, and fashionable Ivy League colleges' junk science on the other.
I think almost no one uses them (fake ones) to get a job, but it would be fun to troll people by making them call you Dr... kinda like getting one of those minister certs from the minister mills like Universal Life Church.
I wanted to say! If getting a phd hasn't humbled you, shattered your self worth and made you look into the abyss of despair then obviously you haven't gotten a PhD 🙄
@@UnconventionalReasoning this has nothing to do with one's advisor. When equipment breaks down in the middle of a long planned measuring campaign, when a thought out plan doesn't yield the expected results and you are at a road block, when a paper gets rejected or harshly criticized despite you having put a lot of thought into it or when you discover you did a tiny mistake during an experiment and now 1 year worth of experiments are useless you are essentially getting to your limits. Other than some encouraging words and going over your plans, there is little the supervisor can do. So my statement still stands.
@@UnconventionalReasoning It's not a myth. Anyone who has failed to realise how much they *don't* know at the end of a PhD is either a genuine super-genius, or a psychopath.
I have been in the middle of my PhD studies for too many years now, and I have lost all my interest in academic career. I knew already before I went to the elementary school (which is seven in Finland) that I want to be a university person and nothing else. But now it sucks the life and joy out of me every time I need to open the files, and I cannot read anything interesting without thinking that I _should_ be reading something thesis-relevant instead. Earlier today I got my latest rejection from a journal. The only reason why I keep going is the unreasonably deep need to be called 'Doctor'. *Something like this, e. g.:* 'Doctor! Doctor! Is there a doctor?' 'I am a doctor, ma'am,' I shall say proudly, rising from my seat. 'Help! My husband isn't breathing!' 'I can't help you with that. My PhD is in cultural history.'
I got cured of wanting an academic career during grad school. This came from watching professors work themselves into early graves whilst putting up with huge amounts of crap. The private sector is hardly paradise but it is not so bad. Get done and get out.
I was in grad school when the movie "Annie Hall" came out. In one scene at a party one woman mentions to the other that she found a good catch, the guy is a doctor! She replies saying "No, he's just a PhD" We used that line a lot for a few years.
Damn, that's rough. I'm a self taught software developer, so I've had my fair share of imposter syndrome working along side people with master's and doctorates. I'm in my early 40's, but I've often had the fantasy of going back to university, and maybe on to grad school one day. Why do we always think the grass is greener on the other side, yet we never account for the pit of despair in the middle of the valley? I hope you can find the joy to finish your studies and one day look back and see the reward for all your hard work.
In Germany, there was a famous case of a man named Gert Postel, who pretended to be a physician specialized in psychiatry. During his "career" he was hired 6+ times as a psychiatrist and was even offered a job as head of department of a hospital for neurology and psychiatry. Other (real) physicians praised Gert Postel for his outstanding genius and attended his presentations, where he would basically just use fancy words (which he previously read in medical articles), and pack them into overly complicated sentences which nobody understands. Many of those working with him or attending his presentations thought "he sounds smart and even I don't understand him, so he MUST be a genius". Every year smiliar cases like this come to surface. People who can't even place an infusion into the patient's vein have worked as doctors in hospitals for way too long (resulting in many patients getting killed, long before the fake doctors got caught). Also I think it's safe to assume that once in a while you can find a fake professor at a college or university. I guess they give more "soft" classes (but I wouldn't be too sure about this either... we live in a world where certain "foreign country X experts" (even with REAL PhDs) are constantly asked on live TV to talk about country X and its history, just to feed the audience the most utter nonsense which any thinking person who lived in country X can spot as nonsense. Yet most people, even highly intelligent people, (choose to) believe it). It's *the way* in which things are presented, which builds a believable illusion for most in the audience. Not the accuracy of the content you're presenting. You can see this everyday in the news or hear it on the radio.
Yeah; I know someone with a "matchbox" doctorate; I know someone else who faked the data for his dissertation. It happens. With the first, I stopped talking to him. Nine years slogging away through gradual school and this SOB bought his in nine days.
Yeah, i was only ever trying to "buy" one because my mom was never willing to invest in my actual attempts at going to college, but the online PhD for $2k i guess seemed reasonable to her 👀🤷🏽 Either way, i already knew it was only to sell books i wrote or boost my credibility in that particular field, not attempt to pass myself off as an actual Doctoral Recipient, although technically, yeah, i would've been that had i completed the program. Either way? It was always just a temporary fix. Like a baby degree to motivate my sense of accomplishment so that i could complete my previous attempts at actual university and grad school. i was never going to be satisfied until i actually had a PhD from a university in the field of Psychology/Neuroscience... But maybe that's just me 😶
In science, we had people who faked their research post Ph.D., which I think is what happened to Alzheimer's research. And then there is Jan Hendrik Schön who almost faked his way to a Nobel prize.
While you describe "the swelling of sadness, ..." when a person is asked about their PhD, the reality is that it will only be discernible by other people with a PhD. It is subtle enough that the general public will miss the reaction. 🤣
Also, if that person is a psychopath, they could very well lie and steal credit for other people's work. And do so smoothly. If even polygraphs don't work on psychopaths, then people are going to be convinced by one who didn't work for an actual PhD
IDK about that, I completed undergrad studies and it's been really negative experience to me. It's really just depressing and just not positive. My grades were mid and really unstable.
A PHD instantly makes you more believable, via appeal to authority and expertise. It makes it easier to get certain jobs. Some of these jobs and uses for a PHD don't actually require the knowledge associated with earning the PHD. At the end of the day a PHD is a piece of paper stating that you received a certain amount of training and wrote a dissertation which may or may not have added any value to the world.
Most jobs don't need any other education, as long as you don't have intelligence of unga-bunga and are willing to learn, you actually can do that job just fine. The problem starts when there are like 30 people all with degrees competing for same position and you have to pick the best. It would be just weird to give a chance for less formally educated candidate.
That is very true, it's an ID to be a member of the club and get a do-nothing job where you're grossly overpaid. I had to train two Ph.D.'s at my work on the bureaucratic/paperwork side of the systems engineering that we were doing. They were such dumbass rocks, I explained it all a couple of times and got deer-in-the-headlights looks. When I went into it again slower and in more detail, I discovered that they couldn't read basic engineering drawings. Come on, that's level of knowledge for an undergrad that hasn't even graduated yet. These guys supposedly had 15 year careers in engineering, makes me wonder what that career was in. Can't even read a drawing or plating spec?
@@jostafro4967 In engineering, the difference is a project where you have to write a 150-page thesis that the old profs like. And you have to pay about $50,000 for the privilege, so you better be on scholarship or else you're going to be making truck-payments on it for a long time.
I know someone who purchased a fake doctorate. I backtracked the awarding institution and found a website that gave their price list for an "honorary" bachelors, masters, and doctorate. I guess the guy decided he could split with the cash required to purchase the PhD, because that was what he got. Even posted pictures of himself (all smiles and preening like a peacock) on social media receiving the degree. I was really disgusted.
BTW - I have a masters degree, am a 29+ year educator at a community college, and I still correct people when they call me "doctor." That's called professional pride and courtesy!
@@thedevilsadvocate5210 He knows that. Read what he wrote again. The reason people call him Doctor is that most college professors do have PhDs, so his students assume he does as well. He is honest though and tells them he is not a 'doctor.'
I've known people who made sure you knew about their degrees and such, and then others who you'd have no idea. One friend did her PhD while pregnant and then with a newborn, which I found impressive, but then she had tons of energy and was brilliant, so that helps. :)
I have just started a doctorate of law, 3.5 years ahead of me. I am and Aussie in the middle east and i suspect a lot of people around me have fake credentials. Very frustrating!
I have a PhD, and after leaving university my supervisor agreed to me giving his name as a reference. When I applied for a job, the employer checked up with him. They called me with some shocking news: my supervisor had died. He was a young man: in his early 30s. When I reached out myself, the university told me his wife had asked them not to give out any details about his death. I contacted one of his other students, who completed a little after me, and said that one day our supervisor simply didn't come into work, and nobody would tell him any more other than he had died.
Dude that’s horrifying. Besides the personal relationship you may have, your advisor is hugely important in getting your career established, especially in certain fields.
Of course if you want to verify a Ph.D. you can always do a google search on the person's name. Not only should the dissertation come up, but journal papers should also come up. At least for STEM, you should have at least one journal paper during the course of your graduate research.
I just think "Why?" In physics, since everybody has a doctorate, the title is generally not used except in formal correspondence. People are more likely to ask you your research area. I know, that's what I've done at conferences.
I'm guessing it's because industry enjoys the titles. It makes the company more attractive to investors or clients. However, it is the same in biology. People hardly use it except for formal correspondence.
@@cesardejeronimo8184 People only know that all the scientists in the company have PhDs because people have been telling the world that scientists have PhDs for a century.
I wonder if they have a fake dissertation supervisor for a fee lol. I'm almost done my doctorate, and writing chapter 4 and 5. Anyone that is claiming to have a doctorate should be challenged to present their dissertation and DOI link.
Haha! I cracked when you mentioned “sadness swelling in their eyes” 😂 PhD is a process of giving birth to new knowledge, of course it hurts like hell. And I am darn proud of my baby lol. No pain no gain 💪😂🤣
Most people will never read your research. The vast majority of bound PhDs end up unread on a dusty shelf. The main point of a PhD is the process of turning you into a professional researcher.
@@AnthonyLauderIt feels to me that we are entering a time when even if humans cannot read everything that other humans research and write, computers will be able to, and they will be able to parse and organize and make available this information far more efficiently than we have ever been able to do. Maybe the information in all of these papers will not be unread for very long?
I absolutely LOVE your videos Dr Stapleton. You are hilarious and very practical. You have been my lifesaver during my Doctoral journey and I really appreciate your content so much. Thank you.
I know plenty of people who "fake" MBAs by enrolling in a course, adding it to their LinkedIn profile, and then withdrawing from the course but conveniently leaving it on LinkedIn. Fake PhDs though... I'm almost 5yrs into mine and still don't feel qualified 😂
@@UnconventionalReasoningI've just started mine this month, I already suffered from terrible imposter syndrome, but it has worsened since I began this PhD. Just had my 2nd project meeting, thought I was making progress, but now I'm back to square one. Feels like I can't find the start line for this PhD marathon I'm meant to be running, and time is ticking away.
@@Nicole-kc1vx I promise that you are supposed to be there. You're supposed to be walking at the start of the marathon, warming up, getting used to the course, and getting ready to hit your stride. You've got this!
I'm just an undergraduate student majoring in physics, but I will be graduating next spring. Already I don't feel ready to get into a graduate program, because I am so convinced that I will never get in no matter how much I try, and I feel utterly inadequate compared to the graduate students in my major. As an upperclassman, I am ashamed to say that I spent an entire year studying general relativity and still can't understand a lick of it.
@@jessicatsao92 General relativity is supposed to be challenging. There are a lot of topics in physics a student can understand and use while having some which remain a mystery. The graduate students in your major often grew into the role, just as you will. Instead of seeing them and being frustrated by the comparison, use that as a guide for your continuing academic development.
In some cultures, copying or plagiarism is seen as acceptable and often viewed as the highest form of flattery to the supervisor. A fake one from a good quality Phd mill provides a perfect format with no errors (except it is obtained fraudulently of course!). Fear of failure, people pleasing family and impressing academic colleagues, and scarcity of funds is often the driver for people to cheat. AI can also help with manipulating data.
Hello there, dr. Stapleton! First things first, a big thank you for your input on academia and PhD research subjects! It has really helped me see where I'm at right now. The thing is, I'm a year and 2 months into my PhD program at the moment and I feel like a total failure. I entered the program to buy myself some time right after graduation - in my country you get drafted to the army if don't have an official excuse against it (like studying, yeah). I thought I'd like it, but... It feels mentally draining. It's a fully remote mode of education - so no lab work for me, and I feel no incentive to get in touch with my colleagues and the supervisor. I'm still responsible for what I do, for sure, but this mode does not make it any easier. Besides, I feel like I can't read into academic communication subtleties - I don't really know when the faculty administration or the supervisor mean and intend well and what they mean in terms of our shared work on my project, which makes me more vulnerable yet oblivious to criticism and negative feedback, since everyone is so polite and straight-faced till it's too late for me to fix mistakes in my work. The thing is, I wanted to apply for another program, but didn't have enough energy and vigor to, and right now it's kind of late to change the situation. On top of that, I openly scolded my supervisor a year ago on some in-university issues and it didn't affect well our professional relationship - which means I'm not top priority among other students from then on. It feels very underwhelming, especially given lack of visible result in everything I do and many people telling me to press on and finish it nevertheless. Very, very confusing stuff - as in I haven't really achieved anything so far because I took my time to mentally recover and tend to what I like doing (other field of research, not officially supported and underdeveloped around the parts I live). And still - I feel no incentive to press on and see no future for myself if I do.
Very interesting topic you bring up. Part of the problem is that the lay public does not understand what getting a PhD entails, and equate it to professional doctorates like MD, JD, PharmD and others. Earning a PhD involves novel, innovative research that leads to the creation of new scholarly knowledge, whereas professional degrees demonstrate competency in a particular work specialty. It is easy to track professional doctorates because in order to work a the particular specialty, licensure is requires, and the professional organizations do this for the public (partially to control numbers of workers and thereby keep salaries high). PhDs are an academic level above these professional doctorates, but it is hard to "license" scholarly research, much as it is difficult to license other creative endeavors like music or art. Perhaps a central registry of PhD thesis, PhD advisor, and university would be useful to the lay public. This would at least facilitate verification of an individual's claim of a PhD in an easy-to-understand manner.
And there in you just described the problem with PhD programs. Do you really think that the dissertation, "Student Retention at the Community College: Meeting Students' Needs" would be more appropriate for a degree in Marketing or for an Ed.D.? What is really sad though is that it is more of a dissertation and statement on the failures of the American public school system more so at the secondary school level, than anything else.
Here in Malaysia we have a database for all the phd holders from reputable and established universities so we can check their accreditation but still, it doesnt stop people and usually politicians from faking their PhDs
Not quite the same as a diploma mill, but I know someone whose parents paid for his undergraduate, but he spent their money on rent, games, and parties and never attended classes. On what should’ve been his graduation day, he didn’t invite his parents, but he sent them a photo of him wearing his roommate’s graduation gown and holding his roommate’s diploma. His parents think he’s working in an office when he’s actually working in their warehouse of this company.
Other way around is annoying too... I often get called professor or dr in speculative emails, calls... Balls to that nonsense, I barley scraped through uni because I was windsurfing and partying too much
This has nothing to do with stolen valor. A person faking service in the military, is stealing or insulting the person that put his life on the line for his country and for other people. A person masquerading he has a PhD for "Literature," or, "Mathematics," isn't the same. However, claiming to have anything medical and actually working in a medical field is criminal due to putting people's lives at risk.
In my case, I lost interest in my field as I was pursuing my PhD. This was almost 50 years ago. The field itself was changing rapidly and a lot of what had attracted me to it had fallen out of favor. One of the professors I had been working with failed to get tenure and left to work for an engineering company. I was also hired by the same company part time, and I was doing that work much more than the work in my field. I considered dropping out of the PhD program, but finally gritted my teeth and cranked out a dissertation. The people in the department signed off on it, which got me the degree, but now in a field I didn't want to work in. Through a series of random steps, I found my self doing computer support and development in a VA (medical) research center. And in that context, surrounded by MDs and PhD clinicians, I found my self being called Dr and getting a much more decent pay level than I would have had I not had the degree. I later got into research there myself, but in a subject matter only distantly related to what my degree was in. So, I suppose I am an example of someone with a fake PhD, even though it took me a total of 12 years to finish it, what with various gaps, and even though what I studied and the research I did for it were never again relevant to my life.
I wouldn't say that at all. At the end of the day it is a degree in philosophy, not in a particular field. If you have spent years going through the exercise of researching at topic, thinking critically about it, comparing different arguments, summarizing this in a thesis, publications, etc., this is all training for any kind of intellectual work. Indeed, there are many, many examples of people who did a PhD in one field and ended up working in a completely different field. These skills are very transferrable.
Exactly! ‘The benefit of a university education is… training the mind to think’ (Einstein, paraphrased). Unlike an undergrad degree where you’re retreading the thinking of others, for a PhD, you have to think for yourself. Or to put it differently, completing a PhD proves you can think.
For most people, many years of institutionalized learning for a piece of paper that allows one to add title letters to their name is a waste of time and a scam.
If somebody asked me about my PhD, I'd start enthusiastically telling about my thesis. Sorry, no sad stories about reviews here (they were all positive), and my supervisors mostly let me do what I wanted, which is rare, I admit.
In germany we have probably at least one major politician per year getting exposed for their fraudulent dissertations for over a decade now (keeping in mind that this is maybe a group of 10.000 people of which only a small fraction pretend to hold a PhD among a populace of 80 million being closely monitored). Not ones bought but those that plagiarize the works of others. So you also have to takes these into account because they are not represented in the 50.000 being bought, but they are part of the 45.000 being "achieved legitimately. Of course the numbers for germany are others (50k and 45k respectively) and the amount of plagiats in the anglo-saxon academia might be different from germany as well. In the end it is safe to assume that the number of genuine PhD's based on a persons academic merit is much, muuuuch lower then 50% of the current value.
Not to mention that not each diploma was done with the same effort and pain, and therefore does not represent the same level of achievement/personality traits people would associate with a PhD. In the end you can only judge people's character and thoughts by listening to them and observing them in practice while solving problems.
I never faked a phd or seriously considered doing so, but I get where people could be tempted by the professional respect it affords at least at first blush. In my early 40s I went back to school for a pre-med sequence with the idea of going into pharmacy school. It was undergrad but a pretty intensive series of STEM classes and I excelled at it and deeply enjoyed the subjects. I found some independent research opportunities in molecular biology at the state's flagship university where I worked as a visiting researcher in an established lab. For about half of the first semester, I was surprised how helpful everyone was. When I'd go begging for some chemical at one of the other labs or time on some piece of their equipment, the doctoral students and everyone else was tripping over themselves to help. I late found out that due to my age they assumed I was a postdoc or PI - one of the Brahmin caste in other words!🤣
I'm in the first year of my work, and I already have the "thousand mile stare." 😶 (Of course I'm a mature student, working full time, my spouse's caregiver, research assistant for my PhD supervisor, doing my pre-candiacy coursework part-time. BUT it's still fun and there's LOTS of overlap with my work-work, PI's research, and my research; AND the coursework is SO relevant to all my work.)
I really doubt the numbers for the US about % of people with PhDs includes the diploma mill ones. Those are almost always 'honorary' PhDs and used for vanity more than anything; for one thing, none of those places are accredited. Any job requiring a graduate diploma is going to run a background check and find out it's B.S. I think it's more for entertainment purposes, like becoming an ordained minister with the click of a button.
I agree, I posted here about degrees in the evangelical world, where fake degrees appear to be the norm. These have currency only within the evangelical world. Step outside and your potential employer will simply run the name of your institution through a database and find it is not accredited. This is usually a red flag for any HR department.
I'm glad this is the content at hand, since Andy seems not get out much. Most "actual" PhD professionals are too busy doing PhD things to even care about mills or credentials. Most of the PhD professionals I know here in the states really do not try investigating other PhDs professionals and credentials. However, I can tell you a lot of people mostly people in business, buy these things only to receive funding or capital from investors for there business or business's. Its really hard to open up a business with a PhD for being a licensed professional. Our tax system, city, county, state, and federal officials would know what type of business you have then audit you to meet the correct requirements. Don't think you can just buy a piece of paper and think you have a PhD, there are safe-guards in place that fix that. For example I'm getting a Professional certificate from M.I.T and they have there own blockchain for credentials. They don't even give paper PhD/MBA's/BA's/Pro Certs/Etc/Etc as credentials anymore, you have to actually go to the registrar's office and ask for it in person. Most of the reputable colleges do that now but not have there own blockchain. Its pretty funny how some people still fall for this lunacy of buying a degree online. And if your think someone doesn't have a PhD just because they might not understand X,Y, doesn't mean they dont have their PhD. That just means they have not experienced as much as you have, because they were attaining their phD. Most of the PhD people I know are very calm and steadfast in being logical about everything. To normal people that might seem weird, to them that how they built themselves to do what they did. People in general need to get out more including Andy, stop being paranoid my friend we got your back ! 😂
Why do you say it’s paranoia if the figures that he opened with were 45,000 real PhDs per year and 50,000 diploma mill PhDs. What is paranoid about half of experts not actually being experts?
It depends how PhD, or a doctorate, is defined. In the US, unlike say the UK, physicians graduate as an MD. In the UK, physicians graduate with an MB, BCh, BAO, I believe. Lawyers end up with a JD. That point alone inflates the number of people with doctorates. I am sure the diploma mills double the figure in the US again. I’d guess that the percentage of people that have earned a bone fide, research driver doctorate is probably 0.2% or thereabouts.
For Navy SEAL veterans, supposedly the ratio of fake ones to real ones is closer to 100:1. The concept of "stolen valor" does not even seem to exist in Europe, as there's no prestige to be stolen from the soldiers there (and obviously it's prestige, not actual valor, that's being stolen). On the other hand, Germany had a chain of scandals around real doctorates earned with fraudulent dissertations that made politicians fall like a chain of dominoes, including arguably the greatest talent in politics or political self-promotion in a generation. What impostors claim to be tells us what a society values. The diploma mills seem to be fairly harmless, though. The high numbers there for America don't seem to be a consequence of Americans holding doctorates in particularly high regard, but of greater freedom of speech and education in America making it so that selling Mickey Mouse diplomas is not in itself prohibited, whereas in Europe it is. With large number of totally different institutions using the same degree names in America, the name of the degree really doesn't say much without looking at the school, even for actual schools.
There’s no prestige to be stolen from European soldiers? I suspect there are many servicemen who would disagree strongly including retired members of the SAS.
@@drzander3378 I haven't spent enough time in Britain to say if they might be somewhat of an exception, but it seems safe to say that in Germany etc. the prestige of the military is about as likely to be stolen as the prestige of the sanitation department.
I think when you look at other regions with lower literacy rates, having a PhD comes with social ascension and status, you are viewed almost as a prophet 😅 in some areas I know people chasing a real phd not for the sake of research and academic contribution but just for that title Dr before their names. I think nowadays you can judge a phd by their publications and citations although it’s also debatable.
I imagine most schools have dissertations online as mine does, so it's trivial to check. And I don't know about other fields, but in hard sciences you should have a least a handful of publications by the time you finish. Someone claiming to have a Ph.D. but with no publications would be immediately suspect.
Back when I was in graduate school most (60%? 70%?) of PhD's were reported to never have published another paper after their thesis. Just sayin'. [Note: I earned my PhD well before the internet.]
One of my profs at a college supposedly had a PhD. We looked it up because there was nothing about him that indicated he'd had any grad school training. The place he did it wasn't a recognized university. His thesis title and abstract sounded like a cross between a Sokal hoax and new age mumbo-jumbo. For just a certificate, it's pretty easy to make a fake PhD. I made two to see if I could do it. Even top tier universities use easily available Adobe fonts, and stock paper available at many places (e.g. Staples). Bit of googling and you can find the signatures of the people you need to add. Trickiest part is making a hand-crafted die to imprint the gold sticker, but that was kind of a fun project in its own right.
In the 1960s, many people were hired as professors straight from grad school before they got their Ph.D. They never bothered to get one, but were called "professor" by students and colleagues, so everyone just assumed they had a Ph.D. My wife's advisor said that she would help some of these people actually get their Ph.D., but it was done in secret so nobody would know that they hadn't had one before.
I have a very real PhD, _summa cum laude_ from a proper research university. No fake data or other shenannigans (well, it's in philosophy, so data fraud is irrelevant). I have a decent record of scholarly publications, and am even (jointly) editing a small, but respected, scholarly journal. I have been unemployed for over a decade, and lost all hope of ever getting a job. Fake PhDs at least earn their holders some money...
summa cum laude? I have a PhD and it was either pass, resubmit with changes, or outright fail. There were no "cum laude" grades. Perhaps it depends on the country (mine is from the UK)
@@AnthonyLauder In my university (and it's the standard for the whole country) there is a _summa cum laude_ option, and about 5% of dissertations are awarded that distinction. At least that was the case around the time I defended mine (2008/9).
My doctorate is also from a UK uni. It was either pass (with or without corrections) or fail (in which case you might be awarded a master’s instead depending on how badly you failed). There were no Latin honourifics. There generally aren’t for any degree - undergrad, master’s or doctorate - in the UK. Some US universities don’t use Latin honourifics either.
It depends on how they got them. I have 5 or 6 I bought for $20 from "Braford" university I think, each with various fanciful degrees like "Advanced Springalian Studies" that I would rotate on the wall in my classroom to see if anyone notices. Are these counted in the survey? On the other hand, given grade inflation and reduced requirements in the US, there are plenty of people with a 20 or 40 year old MS or even a BS who should get a free upgrade to PhD. And then there is crazy difference between the 6 or more years of slave labor of a US PhD versus the UK D.Sc process (which I think is a lot smarter. I don't think I would want to be in the University system today without an independent income and tenure.)
It isn't. A PhD is nothing more than a training process to be a professional researcher. It shows that you can have original ideas but that more importantly you can follow through on them with several years of extremely boring investigation. Most people give up because they cannot cope with that long and boring process, and only want the fleeting excitement of orginal work.
I got a PhD when BBSes were still a thing and animated GIF's of cogs and cats on your academic homepage were considered cool... If they want to dig out my thesis it would be like the final scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark but in reverse...
A good example of old data. Bear used to publish books (the 1980s) on where to get non-traditional degrees. At that time accreditation was not as meaningful as today, many of these schools legally existed, and California proliferated with their own "approval" process. But since the time of the publication of this book, California did away with "approved" school where unaccredited degrees could lead to licensure, and all states have regulated away true diploma mills that legally operated. Back in the day there was a lot of grey area. Not so much anymore. Anyone with a "fake" doctorate now is easy to spot.
One thing its hard getting one for some. Plus the amount of time pour in to earn it. Its not worth getting a fake one. As in some cases the degree is going to be verified by some.
What I have never understood about degree mills, and they have been around for a very long time, is how any one who matters, such as a potential employer, would be fooled when the awarding institution must be stated on the certificate. Perhaps these fake degrees are just to impress by having something on the office wall, or for lying to 'underlings', who will not necessarily be in a position to check the degree certificate. In any case their usefulness seems questionable.
My brother in law has a PHD and you would never know it. He does not got about brandishing it, or expecting people to call him Dr. That is being humble, my deepest respect.
I heard this scam is kind of common in other countries. Especially if HR doesn't know anything about foreign degrees. They may want to have their fun at the numerous local community colleges or beef their resume. I can imagine it is ridiculously easy for these liars to fake with a Communications or Sociology PhD and just teach off of a textbook/give lots of group assignments and become completely lost in the system.
People with a PhD are, generally speaking, incredibly intelligent people who actually understand very little about the real world. They know a lot about such a narrow subject matter that they overlook all the interactions between a highly complex system with trillions of moving parts.
I know one case where an Ivy League university still didn't even ask a guy to present his diploma. However, that was a unique situation. The guy was doing research in a particular field of biology. He estimated that there were about 17 (seventeen!) professors (individual lab leaders) in that field worldwide at that time. Hence, everybody knew each other personally from conferences, collaborations, etc, and there was no need to verify paperwork. People rely solely upon individual recommendations.
Just because they are being sold doesn't mean anyone is taken in. Any recruiter should have a junior checking all the CV details, I can assure you. And they do - they catch people out all the time (at least in finance). So it's one thing to buy a fake, another to get away with it - its just silly. As for passing stuff off at lower levels 'a friend of mine' regretted their MBA project topic realising they wanted to work in the City and the project had been on IT in management, so chose another project off the shelf, scanned and modified it, studied it and spoke on it in interviews. Only to be told by one interviewer at a fund manager 'why did you repeat this kind of work - it's all been done before and nothing new'. In the end, they got a quant analyst job at a fund manager on the back of the MBA and started a quant career to become head of quant research at a major fund manager. The original project was actually more interesting BTW. Anyway that's different from totally inventing the whole degree which is silly and will get caught out PDQ!
As someone who is considering going for my DBA, this is pathetic. There are people who are really getting degrees from diploma mills & act as if it's OK.
I spent a large proportion of my life working towards, and getting a genuine PhD here in the UK I feel particularly aggrieved to hear about these fakes. Thank you for highlighting the problem. I am indebted to you.
I would think that most of them have government jobs that have a defined salary bonus for having the degree. Teachers, principals, school district administrators, etc.
I should also mention that even some of the people who have degrees from real universities have fake degrees. Back in 1984, my mom got me a summer job working at a high school, answering phones, sorting mail, etc. my mom had told my supervisor that she wanted me to improve my typing skills and so on my very first day, I was given a copy of the dissertation that one of the asst, principal’s had written and was to retype it with the other assistant principal’s name on it. I categorically refused and gave both of them a lecture about what giant Hippocrates they were since ap’s are supposed to discipline kids who cheat and not only were they cheating, they were making a kid participate in it. Neither of them understood why I was so upset. Weirdly, I was not fired for this. Eventually, the second ap decided to do his own typing because that would not be cheating.
Nobody knows anything about their own profession anymore, and I'll bet these fakers are partly to blame. "College Educated" means that someone read a few pages of a pamphlet on the subject, in-between their Alcoholism training sessions, and Lying, Cheating, and Stealing courses. All they do is look for ways to not do their job.
PhDs are real doctors, just not medical doctors. The term "doctor" comes from the latin word that means "scholar" or "to teach". I used to think the same thing until I actually looked it up.
@@arcadiosincero Yes, but knowing this doesn't stop other people from misunderstanding it. Lot of people also abuse this common misconception. For example, there are people with a PhD in geology or whatever who use their title, and advertise health products. If you're an honest person, it doesn't hurt to clear that misconception before it can occur.
@@arcadiosincero We are speaking english not latin. And in english(and a portuguese... maybe other languages?), doctor can mean both someone with a doctorate. Or a physician. (In portuguese.... sometimes we use that for anyone in who got in law school: lawyers, prosecutors, judges... or just anyone learned enough) Does a man stop being a bachelor when they marry? Even with a bachelor's degree? I know, languages which have ambiguous words should be deleted from existence. But they still exist and are shaped by their users, however ignorant they are of previous uses.
Even in Europe and North America, it is rather recently that physicians have mostly become doctors. I worked in hospitals for a long time, and when I saw parking places marked for doctors I felt free to use, them; when they were marked for physicians I did not. After all, my diploma says "with all the rights and privileges thereto pertaining."
@@matheusjahnke8643 But the OP's assertion was that people who have Ph.D.s aren't "real" doctors. I'm just saying that's not true. Currently, Webster defines a "doctor" (like you stated) as anybody that has a doctorate degree. Which means, Ph.D's are in fact "real" doctors.
A PhD actually means being acknowledged as one of many leaders in your chosen field of study, and your lecturers and teachers can only validate your knowledge and innovation up to a point, but any step beyond this is entirely your own responsibility. It is the academic equivalent to a normal person earning 1b dollars and continuing to make proper and well grounded investments, only in the case of academics with knowledge in the chosen field of study that provides understandable foundational thoughts (simplifying the complexities). There are plenty of academics with PhD in economics for example, but only those who show actual 'practical' results are in some sense listened to, but the work of everyone else with any doctorate degree is very important in creating a 'foundation' of thought for the inevitable breakthrough of innovative thought some genius may arrive at with that foundation one day.
If the college graduate level is about equal to the high school level of 50 years ago, then there has to be a way to distinguish yourself as Even Better educated to move up the ladder. It's a checklist that needs some check marks on it to get more pay.
This has been the case since the 1970s. They do it to gain prestige and respect and upward mobility. Some employers and others never ask for prove of the PhD
count me in! i do know someone with a fake PhD and still works at academia. I agree with you, it is many times about how much money one is willing to pay the spiritual #gods to get a PhD .... All one needs is GDPR for intellectual property or industrial secrecy..... meanwhile i needed 16 years to publish 3 sci papers from my first master degree and only after i was forced to spend , against my will, 3 weeks at the psychiatric hospital for observation..... in 2023 i finally was able to publish my 3rd and last paper from a sci. research work from 2007 in the area of carbon fibber composites. Innovation is quite a dangerous activity as a Portuguese .... #staysafe
A PhD is seen as a mythical license to "lord it" over other people. It's viewed by the uneducated in a vein similar to aristocratic titles such as Duke or Baron, as stated in this video it's a statement of exclusivity. "My opinion is worth more than yours because I have a PhD!, therefore I am automatically granted superiority in my arguments." I worked around academia and academics for almost 20 years and saw PhD's who literally couldn't make cogent and concise arguments to save their lives. I've also seen how they act in industry when they land a job, they think they're automatically the smartest person in the room. This is similar to what happens in the military when a newly commissioned Lieutenant is deployed and they mistakenly think they outrank the warrant and chief petty officers and are the final "authority" and learn the hard way that they're not. PhD Mills exist to scam the general population because too many people still believe in the mythos that more education=superior social standing and superior abilities, which is far from true. BTW, Fake PhD's are not a harmless scam just to get respect or a better job. It's been discovered there are fake PhDs in critical STEM areas in which that person has the ability to influence things like safety policies and design criteria. You sometimes get someone who is hired into say an engineering firm at a decision making level(not front line engineers) with the ability to approve engineering designs and who could make a mistake in not catching fundamental design flaws that they would have if they truly had the knowledge they claimed. There is a Johnny Carson interview with Frank Abagnale (the guy which the movie Catch Me if You Can is based on) from 1978, he relates to having impersonated a supervising Paediatrician at a hospital where he didn't actually have to do the "wetwork" but was the supervisor of interns who did the actual work but he was the "authority" whom they needed to get approvals from.
People should understand that "I want to do a PhD" ---> is NOT how it should work. It should be the other way around "this student is good, he should advance further", said by the professors. It should not be someone's choice to do a PhD, if you want meritocracy. But when you turn Universities into private businesses, then what did you expect ?
@@johnsmith1953x does anyone believe in that? Or do they think you are Mozart?:) 5 Phd in different fields of science means that you spent 25 years as minimum in studying and research:)
I worked with a fellow whom I strongly suspected to have appropriated a PhD earned by someone with a very similar name, whose thesis advisor had long since left the country.
I was reviewing CVs to hire graduate tutors and one of them definitely had a paper mill “PhD” listed. It took everything in me not kick up a fuss because this person was simply pompous. Very “I already have a PhD, but I’ll work among your plebs for this totally easy process” coded.
Hey, you might as well talk about academic ghostwriting in Russia. In Russia, you can just submit a thesis there for a doctorate, and so why not just outsource it?
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As someone with a real PhD I am still wondering where all this supposed prestige and clout is at...
Exactly.
The old joke about cults being merely "religions without tax breaks" is surely relevant to any discussion of the putative differences between overt degree-mill scams on the one hand, and fashionable Ivy League colleges' junk science on the other.
Every once in a while it pays off. It can be useful on Reddit, Quora, and some Discord servers.
Getting membership for private golf clubs or country clubs. Renting in Germany and Switzerland.
I think almost no one uses them (fake ones) to get a job, but it would be fun to troll people by making them call you Dr... kinda like getting one of those minister certs from the minister mills like Universal Life Church.
I wanted to say! If getting a phd hasn't humbled you, shattered your self worth and made you look into the abyss of despair then obviously you haven't gotten a PhD 🙄
I think we should shelve this myth. So much depends on the relationship with the advisor.
@@UnconventionalReasoning this has nothing to do with one's advisor. When equipment breaks down in the middle of a long planned measuring campaign, when a thought out plan doesn't yield the expected results and you are at a road block, when a paper gets rejected or harshly criticized despite you having put a lot of thought into it or when you discover you did a tiny mistake during an experiment and now 1 year worth of experiments are useless you are essentially getting to your limits. Other than some encouraging words and going over your plans, there is little the supervisor can do. So my statement still stands.
@@lilied1 Most of what you described is largely the advisor's fault: The thought out plan, the paper rejection, the tiny mistake in the experiment.
PhD- Pretty hellish Degree
@@UnconventionalReasoning It's not a myth. Anyone who has failed to realise how much they *don't* know at the end of a PhD is either a genuine super-genius, or a psychopath.
I have been in the middle of my PhD studies for too many years now, and I have lost all my interest in academic career. I knew already before I went to the elementary school (which is seven in Finland) that I want to be a university person and nothing else. But now it sucks the life and joy out of me every time I need to open the files, and I cannot read anything interesting without thinking that I _should_ be reading something thesis-relevant instead. Earlier today I got my latest rejection from a journal.
The only reason why I keep going is the unreasonably deep need to be called 'Doctor'.
*Something like this, e. g.:*
'Doctor! Doctor! Is there a doctor?'
'I am a doctor, ma'am,' I shall say proudly, rising from my seat.
'Help! My husband isn't breathing!'
'I can't help you with that. My PhD is in cultural history.'
I got cured of wanting an academic career during grad school.
This came from watching professors work themselves into early graves whilst putting up with huge amounts of crap.
The private sector is hardly paradise but it is not so bad. Get done and get out.
I was in grad school when the movie "Annie Hall" came out. In one scene at a party one woman mentions to the other that she found a good catch, the guy is a doctor! She replies saying "No, he's just a PhD" We used that line a lot for a few years.
Damn, that's rough. I'm a self taught software developer, so I've had my fair share of imposter syndrome working along side people with master's and doctorates. I'm in my early 40's, but I've often had the fantasy of going back to university, and maybe on to grad school one day. Why do we always think the grass is greener on the other side, yet we never account for the pit of despair in the middle of the valley?
I hope you can find the joy to finish your studies and one day look back and see the reward for all your hard work.
Ouch.
In Germany, there was a famous case of a man named Gert Postel, who pretended to be a physician specialized in psychiatry. During his "career" he was hired 6+ times as a psychiatrist and was even offered a job as head of department of a hospital for neurology and psychiatry. Other (real) physicians praised Gert Postel for his outstanding genius and attended his presentations, where he would basically just use fancy words (which he previously read in medical articles), and pack them into overly complicated sentences which nobody understands. Many of those working with him or attending his presentations thought "he sounds smart and even I don't understand him, so he MUST be a genius". Every year smiliar cases like this come to surface. People who can't even place an infusion into the patient's vein have worked as doctors in hospitals for way too long (resulting in many patients getting killed, long before the fake doctors got caught). Also I think it's safe to assume that once in a while you can find a fake professor at a college or university. I guess they give more "soft" classes (but I wouldn't be too sure about this either... we live in a world where certain "foreign country X experts" (even with REAL PhDs) are constantly asked on live TV to talk about country X and its history, just to feed the audience the most utter nonsense which any thinking person who lived in country X can spot as nonsense. Yet most people, even highly intelligent people, (choose to) believe it). It's *the way* in which things are presented, which builds a believable illusion for most in the audience. Not the accuracy of the content you're presenting. You can see this everyday in the news or hear it on the radio.
PhDs are called "Doctors" but they are not medics unless they also have an MBBS or MD.
Need to remember the name of this guy the next time some idiot back home asks me why we need such an " outdated" institution as professional colleges
Loved the part where you asked- tell me about your PhD....water in eyes and trembling lips ....too good 👍
Yeah; I know someone with a "matchbox" doctorate; I know someone else who faked the data for his dissertation. It happens. With the first, I stopped talking to him. Nine years slogging away through gradual school and this SOB bought his in nine days.
Yeah, i was only ever trying to "buy" one because my mom was never willing to invest in my actual attempts at going to college, but the online PhD for $2k i guess seemed reasonable to her 👀🤷🏽
Either way, i already knew it was only to sell books i wrote or boost my credibility in that particular field, not attempt to pass myself off as an actual Doctoral Recipient, although technically, yeah, i would've been that had i completed the program.
Either way?
It was always just a temporary fix. Like a baby degree to motivate my sense of accomplishment so that i could complete my previous attempts at actual university and grad school.
i was never going to be satisfied until i actually had a PhD from a university in the field of Psychology/Neuroscience...
But maybe that's just me 😶
In science, we had people who faked their research post Ph.D., which I think is what happened to Alzheimer's research. And then there is Jan Hendrik Schön who almost faked his way to a Nobel prize.
Drop a name, if you like. Fake PhD Investigator
While you describe "the swelling of sadness, ..." when a person is asked about their PhD, the reality is that it will only be discernible by other people with a PhD. It is subtle enough that the general public will miss the reaction. 🤣
Also, if that person is a psychopath, they could very well lie and steal credit for other people's work. And do so smoothly. If even polygraphs don't work on psychopaths, then people are going to be convinced by one who didn't work for an actual PhD
IDK about that, I completed undergrad studies and it's been really negative experience to me. It's really just depressing and just not positive. My grades were mid and really unstable.
A PHD instantly makes you more believable, via appeal to authority and expertise. It makes it easier to get certain jobs. Some of these jobs and uses for a PHD don't actually require the knowledge associated with earning the PHD. At the end of the day a PHD is a piece of paper stating that you received a certain amount of training and wrote a dissertation which may or may not have added any value to the world.
Also certain soft skills
Most jobs don't need any other education, as long as you don't have intelligence of unga-bunga and are willing to learn, you actually can do that job just fine. The problem starts when there are like 30 people all with degrees competing for same position and you have to pick the best. It would be just weird to give a chance for less formally educated candidate.
I feel like the difference between masters and PhD is time management and pain tolerance
That is very true, it's an ID to be a member of the club and get a do-nothing job where you're grossly overpaid. I had to train two Ph.D.'s at my work on the bureaucratic/paperwork side of the systems engineering that we were doing. They were such dumbass rocks, I explained it all a couple of times and got deer-in-the-headlights looks. When I went into it again slower and in more detail, I discovered that they couldn't read basic engineering drawings. Come on, that's level of knowledge for an undergrad that hasn't even graduated yet. These guys supposedly had 15 year careers in engineering, makes me wonder what that career was in. Can't even read a drawing or plating spec?
@@jostafro4967
In engineering, the difference is a project where you have to write a 150-page thesis that the old profs like. And you have to pay about $50,000 for the privilege, so you better be on scholarship or else you're going to be making truck-payments on it for a long time.
I know someone who purchased a fake doctorate. I backtracked the awarding institution and found a website that gave their price list for an "honorary" bachelors, masters, and doctorate. I guess the guy decided he could split with the cash required to purchase the PhD, because that was what he got. Even posted pictures of himself (all smiles and preening like a peacock) on social media receiving the degree. I was really disgusted.
BTW - I have a masters degree, am a 29+ year educator at a community college, and I still correct people when they call me "doctor." That's called professional pride and courtesy!
Someone with a master's degree is not a doctor
@@thedevilsadvocate5210 I guess that would be why he says he corrects people when they call him "doctor"?
@@thedevilsadvocate5210 He knows that. Read what he wrote again. The reason people call him Doctor is that most college professors do have PhDs, so his students assume he does as well. He is honest though and tells them he is not a 'doctor.'
not all PhDs are fake, but nearly all are simply insignificant. Like a PhD in "education" for example.
EdD degrees are mostly a joke. I'm sure some people work hard for them but it's not the same level as a proper research degree. Fake PhD Investigator
I've known people who made sure you knew about their degrees and such, and then others who you'd have no idea. One friend did her PhD while pregnant and then with a newborn, which I found impressive, but then she had tons of energy and was brilliant, so that helps. :)
I have just started a doctorate of law, 3.5 years ahead of me. I am and Aussie in the middle east and i suspect a lot of people around me have fake credentials. Very frustrating!
I have a PhD, and after leaving university my supervisor agreed to me giving his name as a reference. When I applied for a job, the employer checked up with him. They called me with some shocking news: my supervisor had died. He was a young man: in his early 30s. When I reached out myself, the university told me his wife had asked them not to give out any details about his death. I contacted one of his other students, who completed a little after me, and said that one day our supervisor simply didn't come into work, and nobody would tell him any more other than he had died.
Oh, so sorry for your loss. Usually when we'd hear about that it was for a specific reason, which is even more unfortunate.
Dude that’s horrifying. Besides the personal relationship you may have, your advisor is hugely important in getting your career established, especially in certain fields.
Drug overdose?
Pretty standard
Employer: do you have a degree in theoretical physics.
Guy named fantastic: i have a theoretical degree in physics.
Welcome onboard
Of course if you want to verify a Ph.D. you can always do a google search on the person's name. Not only should the dissertation come up, but journal papers should also come up. At least for STEM, you should have at least one journal paper during the course of your graduate research.
True! And I think a lot of schools require you to be published before you get your phd awarded as well, mine does at least
You should get even more precise results using "Google Scholar," not just a simple google search. Cheers, Guy
Do that with my name and you will come up with an entomologist on the other side of the continent. I am not an entomologist.
Not a good party trick, which os what most of the fake phds are for
I just think "Why?" In physics, since everybody has a doctorate, the title is generally not used except in formal correspondence. People are more likely to ask you your research area. I know, that's what I've done at conferences.
Some people get the physics PhD and then leave academia. Perhaps some of those who want to go that route get the fake one.
I'm guessing it's because industry enjoys the titles. It makes the company more attractive to investors or clients. However, it is the same in biology. People hardly use it except for formal correspondence.
@@cesardejeronimo8184 People only know that all the scientists in the company have PhDs because people have been telling the world that scientists have PhDs for a century.
I wonder if they have a fake dissertation supervisor for a fee lol. I'm almost done my doctorate, and writing chapter 4 and 5. Anyone that is claiming to have a doctorate should be challenged to present their dissertation and DOI link.
Good luck!
Haha! I cracked when you mentioned “sadness swelling in their eyes” 😂 PhD is a process of giving birth to new knowledge, of course it hurts like hell. And I am darn proud of my baby lol. No pain no gain 💪😂🤣
Most people will never read your research. The vast majority of bound PhDs end up unread on a dusty shelf. The main point of a PhD is the process of turning you into a professional researcher.
I don't even know if I've conceived yet 😭
@@AnthonyLauderIt feels to me that we are entering a time when even if humans cannot read everything that other humans research and write, computers will be able to, and they will be able to parse and organize and make available this information far more efficiently than we have ever been able to do. Maybe the information in all of these papers will not be unread for very long?
I absolutely LOVE your videos Dr Stapleton. You are hilarious and very practical. You have been my lifesaver during my Doctoral journey and I really appreciate your content so much. Thank you.
Wow, thank you!
I know plenty of people who "fake" MBAs by enrolling in a course, adding it to their LinkedIn profile, and then withdrawing from the course but conveniently leaving it on LinkedIn. Fake PhDs though... I'm almost 5yrs into mine and still don't feel qualified 😂
Imposter syndrome is a huge psychological weight. Anything a PhD candidate can do to get past that is valuable. Good luck!
@@UnconventionalReasoningI've just started mine this month, I already suffered from terrible imposter syndrome, but it has worsened since I began this PhD.
Just had my 2nd project meeting, thought I was making progress, but now I'm back to square one.
Feels like I can't find the start line for this PhD marathon I'm meant to be running, and time is ticking away.
@@Nicole-kc1vx I promise that you are supposed to be there. You're supposed to be walking at the start of the marathon, warming up, getting used to the course, and getting ready to hit your stride. You've got this!
I'm just an undergraduate student majoring in physics, but I will be graduating next spring. Already I don't feel ready to get into a graduate program, because I am so convinced that I will never get in no matter how much I try, and I feel utterly inadequate compared to the graduate students in my major. As an upperclassman, I am ashamed to say that I spent an entire year studying general relativity and still can't understand a lick of it.
@@jessicatsao92 General relativity is supposed to be challenging. There are a lot of topics in physics a student can understand and use while having some which remain a mystery. The graduate students in your major often grew into the role, just as you will. Instead of seeing them and being frustrated by the comparison, use that as a guide for your continuing academic development.
In some cultures, copying or plagiarism is seen as acceptable and often viewed as the highest form of flattery to the supervisor. A fake one from a good quality Phd mill provides a perfect format with no errors (except it is obtained fraudulently of course!). Fear of failure, people pleasing family and impressing academic colleagues, and scarcity of funds is often the driver for people to cheat. AI can also help with manipulating data.
They want them because of government requirements for promotion.
Hello there, dr. Stapleton!
First things first, a big thank you for your input on academia and PhD research subjects! It has really helped me see where I'm at right now.
The thing is, I'm a year and 2 months into my PhD program at the moment and I feel like a total failure. I entered the program to buy myself some time right after graduation - in my country you get drafted to the army if don't have an official excuse against it (like studying, yeah).
I thought I'd like it, but... It feels mentally draining. It's a fully remote mode of education - so no lab work for me, and I feel no incentive to get in touch with my colleagues and the supervisor. I'm still responsible for what I do, for sure, but this mode does not make it any easier.
Besides, I feel like I can't read into academic communication subtleties - I don't really know when the faculty administration or the supervisor mean and intend well and what they mean in terms of our shared work on my project, which makes me more vulnerable yet oblivious to criticism and negative feedback, since everyone is so polite and straight-faced till it's too late for me to fix mistakes in my work.
The thing is, I wanted to apply for another program, but didn't have enough energy and vigor to, and right now it's kind of late to change the situation.
On top of that, I openly scolded my supervisor a year ago on some in-university issues and it didn't affect well our professional relationship - which means I'm not top priority among other students from then on.
It feels very underwhelming, especially given lack of visible result in everything I do and many people telling me to press on and finish it nevertheless.
Very, very confusing stuff - as in I haven't really achieved anything so far because I took my time to mentally recover and tend to what I like doing (other field of research, not officially supported and underdeveloped around the parts I live).
And still - I feel no incentive to press on and see no future for myself if I do.
Very interesting topic you bring up. Part of the problem is that the lay public does not understand what getting a PhD entails, and equate it to professional doctorates like MD, JD, PharmD and others. Earning a PhD involves novel, innovative research that leads to the creation of new scholarly knowledge, whereas professional degrees demonstrate competency in a particular work specialty. It is easy to track professional doctorates because in order to work a the particular specialty, licensure is requires, and the professional organizations do this for the public (partially to control numbers of workers and thereby keep salaries high). PhDs are an academic level above these professional doctorates, but it is hard to "license" scholarly research, much as it is difficult to license other creative endeavors like music or art. Perhaps a central registry of PhD thesis, PhD advisor, and university would be useful to the lay public. This would at least facilitate verification of an individual's claim of a PhD in an easy-to-understand manner.
And there in you just described the problem with PhD programs. Do you really think that the dissertation, "Student Retention at the Community College: Meeting Students' Needs" would be more appropriate for a degree in Marketing or for an Ed.D.? What is really sad though is that it is more of a dissertation and statement on the failures of the American public school system more so at the secondary school level, than anything else.
Here in Malaysia we have a database for all the phd holders from reputable and established universities so we can check their accreditation but still, it doesnt stop people and usually politicians from faking their PhDs
Not quite the same as a diploma mill, but I know someone whose parents paid for his undergraduate, but he spent their money on rent, games, and parties and never attended classes. On what should’ve been his graduation day, he didn’t invite his parents, but he sent them a photo of him wearing his roommate’s graduation gown and holding his roommate’s diploma. His parents think he’s working in an office when he’s actually working in their warehouse of this company.
Really? Sorry for his parents 😐
Typical brat behavior
I will name my kid "Preston-Harold Douglas", then he can introduce himself as "PhD, Bjerkvik" 🧠
Other way around is annoying too... I often get called professor or dr in speculative emails, calls... Balls to that nonsense, I barley scraped through uni because I was windsurfing and partying too much
This has nothing to do with stolen valor. A person faking service in the military, is stealing or insulting the person that put his life on the line for his country and for other people. A person masquerading he has a PhD for "Literature," or, "Mathematics," isn't the same. However, claiming to have anything medical and actually working in a medical field is criminal due to putting people's lives at risk.
In my case, I lost interest in my field as I was pursuing my PhD. This was almost 50 years ago. The field itself was changing rapidly and a lot of what had attracted me to it had fallen out of favor. One of the professors I had been working with failed to get tenure and left to work for an engineering company. I was also hired by the same company part time, and I was doing that work much more than the work in my field. I considered dropping out of the PhD program, but finally gritted my teeth and cranked out a dissertation. The people in the department signed off on it, which got me the degree, but now in a field I didn't want to work in. Through a series of random steps, I found my self doing computer support and development in a VA (medical) research center. And in that context, surrounded by MDs and PhD clinicians, I found my self being called Dr and getting a much more decent pay level than I would have had I not had the degree. I later got into research there myself, but in a subject matter only distantly related to what my degree was in. So, I suppose I am an example of someone with a fake PhD, even though it took me a total of 12 years to finish it, what with various gaps, and even though what I studied and the research I did for it were never again relevant to my life.
Not even close to a fake PhD.
I wouldn't say that at all. At the end of the day it is a degree in philosophy, not in a particular field. If you have spent years going through the exercise of researching at topic, thinking critically about it, comparing different arguments, summarizing this in a thesis, publications, etc., this is all training for any kind of intellectual work. Indeed, there are many, many examples of people who did a PhD in one field and ended up working in a completely different field. These skills are very transferrable.
Exactly! ‘The benefit of a university education is… training the mind to think’ (Einstein, paraphrased). Unlike an undergrad degree where you’re retreading the thinking of others, for a PhD, you have to think for yourself. Or to put it differently, completing a PhD proves you can think.
For most people, many years of institutionalized learning for a piece of paper that allows one to add title letters to their name is a waste of time and a scam.
One of the problems with society is too many people with PhDs, and not enough with plumbing licenses.
If somebody asked me about my PhD, I'd start enthusiastically telling about my thesis. Sorry, no sad stories about reviews here (they were all positive), and my supervisors mostly let me do what I wanted, which is rare, I admit.
Exactly! If the person can describe their thesis in a comfortable way, it's most likely legit.
I'd expect risking: "Wow, you are the first person in last 10 years who cared about this research" [insert long story]
In germany we have probably at least one major politician per year getting exposed for their fraudulent dissertations for over a decade now (keeping in mind that this is maybe a group of 10.000 people of which only a small fraction pretend to hold a PhD among a populace of 80 million being closely monitored). Not ones bought but those that plagiarize the works of others. So you also have to takes these into account because they are not represented in the 50.000 being bought, but they are part of the 45.000 being "achieved legitimately.
Of course the numbers for germany are others (50k and 45k respectively) and the amount of plagiats in the anglo-saxon academia might be different from germany as well.
In the end it is safe to assume that the number of genuine PhD's based on a persons academic merit is much, muuuuch lower then 50% of the current value.
Not to mention that not each diploma was done with the same effort and pain, and therefore does not represent the same level of achievement/personality traits people would associate with a PhD. In the end you can only judge people's character and thoughts by listening to them and observing them in practice while solving problems.
I never faked a phd or seriously considered doing so, but I get where people could be tempted by the professional respect it affords at least at first blush.
In my early 40s I went back to school for a pre-med sequence with the idea of going into pharmacy school. It was undergrad but a pretty intensive series of STEM classes and I excelled at it and deeply enjoyed the subjects. I found some independent research opportunities in molecular biology at the state's flagship university where I worked as a visiting researcher in an established lab.
For about half of the first semester, I was surprised how helpful everyone was. When I'd go begging for some chemical at one of the other labs or time on some piece of their equipment, the doctoral students and everyone else was tripping over themselves to help.
I late found out that due to my age they assumed I was a postdoc or PI - one of the Brahmin caste in other words!🤣
I'm in the first year of my work, and I already have the "thousand mile stare." 😶 (Of course I'm a mature student, working full time, my spouse's caregiver, research assistant for my PhD supervisor, doing my pre-candiacy coursework part-time. BUT it's still fun and there's LOTS of overlap with my work-work, PI's research, and my research; AND the coursework is SO relevant to all my work.)
Everyone worked so hard to be called Doctor [last name]. When I learned work smarter not harder and just went and legally changed my name to Doctor.
I really doubt the numbers for the US about % of people with PhDs includes the diploma mill ones. Those are almost always 'honorary' PhDs and used for vanity more than anything; for one thing, none of those places are accredited. Any job requiring a graduate diploma is going to run a background check and find out it's B.S. I think it's more for entertainment purposes, like becoming an ordained minister with the click of a button.
I agree, I posted here about degrees in the evangelical world, where fake degrees appear to be the norm. These have currency only within the evangelical world. Step outside and your potential employer will simply run the name of your institution through a database and find it is not accredited. This is usually a red flag for any HR department.
Dont famous people like politicians, etc. get honorary Ph. D.'s based on "life experience"? Are these also considered fake?
Absolutely, if you ask me.
Add to that the people that plagerize their thesis. We had a few super attendants that got caught in southern Minnesota.
I'm glad this is the content at hand, since Andy seems not get out much. Most "actual" PhD professionals are too busy doing PhD things to even care about mills or credentials. Most of the PhD professionals I know here in the states really do not try investigating other PhDs professionals and credentials. However, I can tell you a lot of people mostly people in business, buy these things only to receive funding or capital from investors for there business or business's.
Its really hard to open up a business with a PhD for being a licensed professional. Our tax system, city, county, state, and federal officials would know what type of business you have then audit you to meet the correct requirements. Don't think you can just buy a piece of paper and think you have a PhD, there are safe-guards in place that fix that.
For example I'm getting a Professional certificate from M.I.T and they have there own blockchain for credentials. They don't even give paper PhD/MBA's/BA's/Pro Certs/Etc/Etc as credentials anymore, you have to actually go to the registrar's office and ask for it in person. Most of the reputable colleges do that now but not have there own blockchain.
Its pretty funny how some people still fall for this lunacy of buying a degree online. And if your think someone doesn't have a PhD just because they might not understand X,Y, doesn't mean they dont have their PhD. That just means they have not experienced as much as you have, because they were attaining their phD. Most of the PhD people I know are very calm and steadfast in being logical about everything. To normal people that might seem weird, to them that how they built themselves to do what they did.
People in general need to get out more including Andy, stop being paranoid my friend we got your back ! 😂
Why do you say it’s paranoia if the figures that he opened with were 45,000 real PhDs per year and 50,000 diploma mill PhDs. What is paranoid about half of experts not actually being experts?
I doubt you're actually getting any credentials from MIT.
It depends how PhD, or a doctorate, is defined. In the US, unlike say the UK, physicians graduate as an MD. In the UK, physicians graduate with an MB, BCh, BAO, I believe. Lawyers end up with a JD. That point alone inflates the number of people with doctorates. I am sure the diploma mills double the figure in the US again. I’d guess that the percentage of people that have earned a bone fide, research driver doctorate is probably 0.2% or thereabouts.
For Navy SEAL veterans, supposedly the ratio of fake ones to real ones is closer to 100:1. The concept of "stolen valor" does not even seem to exist in Europe, as there's no prestige to be stolen from the soldiers there (and obviously it's prestige, not actual valor, that's being stolen). On the other hand, Germany had a chain of scandals around real doctorates earned with fraudulent dissertations that made politicians fall like a chain of dominoes, including arguably the greatest talent in politics or political self-promotion in a generation. What impostors claim to be tells us what a society values. The diploma mills seem to be fairly harmless, though. The high numbers there for America don't seem to be a consequence of Americans holding doctorates in particularly high regard, but of greater freedom of speech and education in America making it so that selling Mickey Mouse diplomas is not in itself prohibited, whereas in Europe it is. With large number of totally different institutions using the same degree names in America, the name of the degree really doesn't say much without looking at the school, even for actual schools.
There’s no prestige to be stolen from European soldiers? I suspect there are many servicemen who would disagree strongly including retired members of the SAS.
@@drzander3378 I haven't spent enough time in Britain to say if they might be somewhat of an exception, but it seems safe to say that in Germany etc. the prestige of the military is about as likely to be stolen as the prestige of the sanitation department.
I think when you look at other regions with lower literacy rates, having a PhD comes with social ascension and status, you are viewed almost as a prophet 😅 in some areas I know people chasing a real phd not for the sake of research and academic contribution but just for that title Dr before their names. I think nowadays you can judge a phd by their publications and citations although it’s also debatable.
I imagine most schools have dissertations online as mine does, so it's trivial to check. And I don't know about other fields, but in hard sciences you should have a least a handful of publications by the time you finish. Someone claiming to have a Ph.D. but with no publications would be immediately suspect.
Back when I was in graduate school most (60%? 70%?) of PhD's were reported to never have published another paper after their thesis. Just sayin'. [Note: I earned my PhD well before the internet.]
One of my profs at a college supposedly had a PhD. We looked it up because there was nothing about him that indicated he'd had any grad school training. The place he did it wasn't a recognized university. His thesis title and abstract sounded like a cross between a Sokal hoax and new age mumbo-jumbo.
For just a certificate, it's pretty easy to make a fake PhD. I made two to see if I could do it. Even top tier universities use easily available Adobe fonts, and stock paper available at many places (e.g. Staples). Bit of googling and you can find the signatures of the people you need to add. Trickiest part is making a hand-crafted die to imprint the gold sticker, but that was kind of a fun project in its own right.
In the 1960s, many people were hired as professors straight from grad school before they got their Ph.D. They never bothered to get one, but were called "professor" by students and colleagues, so everyone just assumed they had a Ph.D. My wife's advisor said that she would help some of these people actually get their Ph.D., but it was done in secret so nobody would know that they hadn't had one before.
Nothing changed
Lord, the rejections... I've never been so afraid to read an email as when my mentor replied to my message PROMPTLY...
Can you do a video on how to get a job with a fake PhD?
I have a very real PhD, _summa cum laude_ from a proper research university. No fake data or other shenannigans (well, it's in philosophy, so data fraud is irrelevant). I have a decent record of scholarly publications, and am even (jointly) editing a small, but respected, scholarly journal.
I have been unemployed for over a decade, and lost all hope of ever getting a job. Fake PhDs at least earn their holders some money...
summa cum laude? I have a PhD and it was either pass, resubmit with changes, or outright fail. There were no "cum laude" grades. Perhaps it depends on the country (mine is from the UK)
@@AnthonyLauder In my university (and it's the standard for the whole country) there is a _summa cum laude_ option, and about 5% of dissertations are awarded that distinction. At least that was the case around the time I defended mine (2008/9).
Sad that philosophy is not a lucrative field
My doctorate is also from a UK uni. It was either pass (with or without corrections) or fail (in which case you might be awarded a master’s instead depending on how badly you failed). There were no Latin honourifics. There generally aren’t for any degree - undergrad, master’s or doctorate - in the UK. Some US universities don’t use Latin honourifics either.
It depends on how they got them. I have 5 or 6 I bought for $20 from "Braford" university I think, each with various fanciful degrees like "Advanced Springalian Studies" that I would rotate on the wall in my classroom to see if anyone notices. Are these counted in the survey?
On the other hand, given grade inflation and reduced requirements in the US, there are plenty of people with a 20 or 40 year old MS or even a BS who should get a free upgrade to PhD. And then there is crazy difference between the 6 or more years of slave labor of a US PhD versus the UK D.Sc process (which I think is a lot smarter. I don't think I would want to be in the University system today without an independent income and tenure.)
Who is to say what a real PhD is. It is all about ego.
It isn't. A PhD is nothing more than a training process to be a professional researcher. It shows that you can have original ideas but that more importantly you can follow through on them with several years of extremely boring investigation. Most people give up because they cannot cope with that long and boring process, and only want the fleeting excitement of orginal work.
“This is peak”… said as I stroke my torso!!!😂😂😂 You are soooo funny, my friend Dr. Stapleton!!!!!!
I got a PhD when BBSes were still a thing and animated GIF's of cogs and cats on your academic homepage were considered cool... If they want to dig out my thesis it would be like the final scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark but in reverse...
Some of the legitimate ones could be considered fake to given the knowledge volatility and cheating and networking skills.
why? visa...
A good example of old data. Bear used to publish books (the 1980s) on where to get non-traditional degrees. At that time accreditation was not as meaningful as today, many of these schools legally existed, and California proliferated with their own "approval" process. But since the time of the publication of this book, California did away with "approved" school where unaccredited degrees could lead to licensure, and all states have regulated away true diploma mills that legally operated. Back in the day there was a lot of grey area. Not so much anymore. Anyone with a "fake" doctorate now is easy to spot.
One thing its hard getting one for some. Plus the amount of time pour in to earn it.
Its not worth getting a fake one. As in some cases the degree is going to be verified by some.
What I have never understood about degree mills, and they have been around for a very long time, is how any one who matters, such as a potential employer, would be fooled when the awarding institution must be stated on the certificate. Perhaps these fake degrees are just to impress by having something on the office wall, or for lying to 'underlings', who will not necessarily be in a position to check the degree certificate. In any case their usefulness seems questionable.
WTH. I had no idea this exists.... What I don't understand is how is it even possible without any publication...?
It is possible to get a PhD without significant publications. Getting the follow-up job is the real issue.
It is really sad that we see faking and manipulation in everything, especially in science
My brother in law has a PHD and you would never know it. He does not got about brandishing it, or expecting people to call him Dr. That is being humble, my deepest respect.
Most people with a PhD don't go throwing their title around either. A few folks do, especially early on, but most don't.
People sometimes treat you worse or refuse to help you because "obviously you can figure it out". 🥴
I heard this scam is kind of common in other countries. Especially if HR doesn't know anything about foreign degrees. They may want to have their fun at the numerous local community colleges or beef their resume. I can imagine it is ridiculously easy for these liars to fake with a Communications or Sociology PhD and just teach off of a textbook/give lots of group assignments and become completely lost in the system.
People with a PhD are, generally speaking, incredibly intelligent people who actually understand very little about the real world. They know a lot about such a narrow subject matter that they overlook all the interactions between a highly complex system with trillions of moving parts.
It sounds like there is a market for a fske phd + thesis verification service that can be an upsell after purchase of the fake phd
I know one case where an Ivy League university still didn't even ask a guy to present his diploma. However, that was a unique situation. The guy was doing research in a particular field of biology. He estimated that there were about 17 (seventeen!) professors (individual lab leaders) in that field worldwide at that time. Hence, everybody knew each other personally from conferences, collaborations, etc, and there was no need to verify paperwork. People rely solely upon individual recommendations.
My degree mill diploma PhD came from Rutgers University (you can read my 500-page dissertation housed on campus).
Just because they are being sold doesn't mean anyone is taken in. Any recruiter should have a junior checking all the CV details, I can assure you. And they do - they catch people out all the time (at least in finance). So it's one thing to buy a fake, another to get away with it - its just silly. As for passing stuff off at lower levels 'a friend of mine' regretted their MBA project topic realising they wanted to work in the City and the project had been on IT in management, so chose another project off the shelf, scanned and modified it, studied it and spoke on it in interviews. Only to be told by one interviewer at a fund manager 'why did you repeat this kind of work - it's all been done before and nothing new'. In the end, they got a quant analyst job at a fund manager on the back of the MBA and started a quant career to become head of quant research at a major fund manager. The original project was actually more interesting BTW. Anyway that's different from totally inventing the whole degree which is silly and will get caught out PDQ!
As someone who is considering going for my DBA, this is pathetic. There are people who are really getting degrees from diploma mills & act as if it's OK.
I spent a large proportion of my life working towards, and getting a genuine PhD here in the UK I feel particularly aggrieved to hear about these fakes. Thank you for highlighting the problem. I am indebted to you.
*MOSTLY I FEEL SORRY FOR* people with PhD's - I know how they have suffered...
Add to that all the honorary PhDs and the number is likely to go steeply down.
I would think that most of them have government jobs that have a defined salary bonus for having the degree. Teachers, principals, school district administrators, etc.
I should also mention that even some of the people who have degrees from real universities have fake degrees. Back in 1984, my mom got me a summer job working at a high school, answering phones, sorting mail, etc. my mom had told my supervisor that she wanted me to improve my typing skills and so on my very first day, I was given a copy of the dissertation that one of the asst, principal’s had written and was to retype it with the other assistant principal’s name on it. I categorically refused and gave both of them a lecture about what giant Hippocrates they were since ap’s are supposed to discipline kids who cheat and not only were they cheating, they were making a kid participate in it. Neither of them understood why I was so upset. Weirdly, I was not fired for this. Eventually, the second ap decided to do his own typing because that would not be cheating.
Thanks.
Cool video.
Prof. Stapleton?
Minister?
General?
Nobody knows anything about their own profession anymore, and I'll bet these fakers are partly to blame. "College Educated" means that someone read a few pages of a pamphlet on the subject, in-between their Alcoholism training sessions, and Lying, Cheating, and Stealing courses. All they do is look for ways to not do their job.
But the PhD of Tsai Ing Wen from LSE is indeed fake and no one is talking about it
As a PhD holder, I use my name followed by the words "Ph.D" after it.
So that people won't think I can cure diseases (i.e., a real doctor).
PhDs are real doctors, just not medical doctors. The term "doctor" comes from the latin word that means "scholar" or "to teach". I used to think the same thing until I actually looked it up.
@@arcadiosincero Yes, but knowing this doesn't stop other people from misunderstanding it. Lot of people also abuse this common misconception. For example, there are people with a PhD in geology or whatever who use their title, and advertise health products. If you're an honest person, it doesn't hurt to clear that misconception before it can occur.
@@arcadiosincero We are speaking english not latin.
And in english(and a portuguese... maybe other languages?), doctor can mean both someone with a doctorate.
Or a physician.
(In portuguese.... sometimes we use that for anyone in who got in law school: lawyers, prosecutors, judges... or just anyone learned enough)
Does a man stop being a bachelor when they marry?
Even with a bachelor's degree?
I know, languages which have ambiguous words should be deleted from existence.
But they still exist and are shaped by their users, however ignorant they are of previous uses.
Even in Europe and North America, it is rather recently that physicians have mostly become doctors. I worked in hospitals for a long time, and when I saw parking places marked for doctors I felt free to use, them; when they were marked for physicians I did not. After all, my diploma says "with all the rights and privileges thereto pertaining."
@@matheusjahnke8643 But the OP's assertion was that people who have Ph.D.s aren't "real" doctors. I'm just saying that's not true. Currently, Webster defines a "doctor" (like you stated) as anybody that has a doctorate degree. Which means, Ph.D's are in fact "real" doctors.
A PhD actually means being acknowledged as one of many leaders in your chosen field of study, and your lecturers and teachers can only validate your knowledge and innovation up to a point, but any step beyond this is entirely your own responsibility.
It is the academic equivalent to a normal person earning 1b dollars and continuing to make proper and well grounded investments, only in the case of academics with knowledge in the chosen field of study that provides understandable foundational thoughts (simplifying the complexities). There are plenty of academics with PhD in economics for example, but only those who show actual 'practical' results are in some sense listened to, but the work of everyone else with any doctorate degree is very important in creating a 'foundation' of thought for the inevitable breakthrough of innovative thought some genius may arrive at with that foundation one day.
Excellent!
You have been really kicking it out of the park with interesting content lately Andy!
If the college graduate level is about equal to the high school level of 50 years ago, then there has to be a way to distinguish yourself as Even Better educated to move up the ladder. It's a checklist that needs some check marks on it to get more pay.
Many/most HR depts. are pretty bad about this.
This has been the case since the 1970s. They do it to gain prestige and respect and upward mobility. Some employers and others never ask for prove of the PhD
count me in! i do know someone with a fake PhD and still works at academia. I agree with you, it is many times about how much money one is willing to pay the spiritual #gods to get a PhD .... All one needs is GDPR for intellectual property or industrial secrecy..... meanwhile i needed 16 years to publish 3 sci papers from my first master degree and only after i was forced to spend , against my will, 3 weeks at the psychiatric hospital for observation..... in 2023 i finally was able to publish my 3rd and last paper from a sci. research work from 2007 in the area of carbon fibber composites. Innovation is quite a dangerous activity as a Portuguese .... #staysafe
If you can staple a "Ph.D." to a resume, get put to the top of the stack, and a bit bigger offer for the job, that's why.
A PhD is seen as a mythical license to "lord it" over other people.
It's viewed by the uneducated in a vein similar to aristocratic titles such as Duke or Baron, as stated in this video it's a statement of exclusivity.
"My opinion is worth more than yours because I have a PhD!, therefore I am automatically granted superiority in my arguments."
I worked around academia and academics for almost 20 years and saw PhD's who literally couldn't make cogent and concise arguments to save their lives. I've also seen how they act in industry when they land a job, they think they're automatically the smartest person in the room.
This is similar to what happens in the military when a newly commissioned Lieutenant is deployed and they mistakenly think they outrank the warrant and chief petty officers and are the final "authority" and learn the hard way that they're not.
PhD Mills exist to scam the general population because too many people still believe in the mythos that more education=superior social standing and superior abilities, which is far from true.
BTW, Fake PhD's are not a harmless scam just to get respect or a better job.
It's been discovered there are fake PhDs in critical STEM areas in which that person has the ability to influence things like safety policies and design criteria. You sometimes get someone who is hired into say an engineering firm at a decision making level(not front line engineers) with the ability to approve engineering designs and who could make a mistake in not catching fundamental design flaws that they would have if they truly had the knowledge they claimed.
There is a Johnny Carson interview with Frank Abagnale (the guy which the movie Catch Me if You Can is based on) from 1978, he relates to having impersonated a supervising Paediatrician at a hospital where he didn't actually have to do the "wetwork" but was the supervisor of interns who did the actual work but he was the "authority" whom they needed to get approvals from.
People should understand that "I want to do a PhD" ---> is NOT how it should work. It should be the other way around "this student is good, he should advance further", said by the professors. It should not be someone's choice to do a PhD, if you want meritocracy. But when you turn Universities into private businesses, then what did you expect ?
I have a PhD in hard knocks.
India and South Africa missing in the world map.... Why is that????
*I bought five PhDs: two in physics, two in engineering and one chemistry*
Shame on you.
How much did it cost?
Why? Does it make your happier, richer?
@@alexanderberyozkin Yes. I'm now CFO of a major company. Sucks to be u nerd!!!
@@johnsmith1953x does anyone believe in that? Or do they think you are Mozart?:) 5 Phd in different fields of science means that you spent 25 years as minimum in studying and research:)
Can’t shake off the feeling that the moustache guy in the background is about to ask for an update on the project… 😃
That's why we know them as "Pile it High & Deep."
All you have to do is call the university and ask if they received a PhD. From their university.
I worked with a fellow whom I strongly suspected to have appropriated a PhD earned by someone with a very similar name, whose thesis advisor had long since left the country.
Why isn't it illegal. This is clearly a fraud.
"Buyer beware"
I was reviewing CVs to hire graduate tutors and one of them definitely had a paper mill “PhD” listed. It took everything in me not kick up a fuss because this person was simply pompous. Very “I already have a PhD, but I’ll work among your plebs for this totally easy process” coded.
I think I was more mad that not one higher up verified this clearly faked degree. It took me 10 minutes to figure out.
Andy, I want a fake Phd. in "Bullshitology." I would so proudly display it on my wall! Lol.
Hey, you might as well talk about academic ghostwriting in Russia. In Russia, you can just submit a thesis there for a doctorate, and so why not just outsource it?
you have to defend it as well
Your PhD detection algorithm sounds about right.
A.DB. PhD, CLB, Etc.
How can someone pride themselves in having something they didn't earn? I know creationists love diploma mills.
A lot of companies increase your earns for having this degree!
I don't have a fake PhD but I'm seriously thinking about getting one or five!
Mike Ross be sweatin'