Douglass Dissertation Analysis Proves many Do Not have a Life!

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussions' started by Mike Albrecht, Jun 19, 2004.

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  1. Mike Albrecht

    Mike Albrecht New Member

    Title says it all!:rolleyes:
     
  2. Bill Huffman

    Bill Huffman Well-Known Member

    Can I get a copy of the analysis?

    :D
     
  3. Han

    Han New Member

    Agreed, it is pretty respectful here (with a few exceptions), but some of the other forums are horrible.
     
  4. Mike Albrecht

    Mike Albrecht New Member

    At least the UIU has a good looking doctoral gown: http://www.ermoore.com/regalia/union.html

    Whihc is probalby more important than the did too, did not drivel that continues here and other places.

    Hey chip how about charging the anal-izers for the bandwidth!
     
  5. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    "Douglas";)
     
  6. Bill Huffman

    Bill Huffman Well-Known Member

    Here's an apostrophe "'"``

    Perhaps apostrophes don't show up in the subject field? I'll test.

    Nope they show up.

    Perhaps a better method to test the question posed by this thread is how many posts a person has made to DegreeInfo. So I have either twice or half as much life as someone with only 1000 posts and the reverse with someone over 4000 posts.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 21, 2004
  7. Steve Levicoff

    Steve Levicoff Well-Known Member

    How amusing . . . It seems that almost all of those here who presumes to criticize someone's doctoral dissertation have no doctorate themselves.

    Jealous, boys? :D
     
  8. decimon

    decimon Well-Known Member

    What's a life? Who accredits? Can you get a life with Honors? Will a life acquired in the U.S. be accepted in the U.K.? Can life be done by DL?
     
  9. Bill Huffman

    Bill Huffman Well-Known Member

    I'm green with envy! :D
     
  10. Dennis Ruhl

    Dennis Ruhl member

    Haven't seen much criticism. The negative description of state approved schools in comparison with R/A schools has been criticized. We are lead to believe the author deliberately introduced the bias, so no problem.

    I think it is a wonderful dissertation in that its conclusion of 96% positive utility for state approved degrees wildly exceeds all my estimates.
     
  11. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    Well, if 96% temporary approval among the ignorant exceeds your expectations, you're content with very little "positive utility".

    The arbitrary twisting of the findings of a dissertation is a pretty good indication of no doc, too.

    Dennis, you remind me of Cardinal Newman when he was still a C of E priest, trying to convince himself that the 39 Articles were doctrinally identical to the Council of Trent. Unlike Newman, you don't know when to give up.

    If the fabled 96% is enough to make you happy, why did you get upset when CCU failed to get accreditation on this go-round? Why, in that case, was the temporary concord of the uninformed insufficient for your happiness?
     
  12. Dennis Ruhl

    Dennis Ruhl member

    Janko

    The 96% is irrelevant. What is relevant is that it is not the 0- 5 % that seems to be sold around here. The 96 % is just a pleasant surprise.

    Concord of the uninformed?? But the concord of the informed was 65%. This is also a pleasant surprise.

    I sing glowing praises to Douglas and I am criticized. If you think his results are crap, tell him so.

    How did I twist the findings? They are pretty straight-forward and hardly need interpretation.


    Quote

    "When State Approval was offered without a description, almost 96% of participants rated it at least "Somewhat Acceptable." Even after reading the provided description of State Approval, slightly more than 65% of participants still rated it at least "Somewhat Acceptable." This leads one to to conclude that two-thirds (or even more) of employers may accept degrees from unaccredited, but state-approved, schools."
    --Richard C. Douglas
    page 136, Dissertation, Project Demonstrating Excellence
     
  13. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    If I thought Dr. Douglas' results were crap, I would say so.

    Dr. Douglas is smart enough to know that I don't, despite your doubletalk.

    I haven't read Dr. Douglas' dissertation. I have no training in statistics, anyway--and do not claim to have. When I do get around to reading it, it will be his anecdotal material and summaries which I will read, because those parts I expect I will be able to understand

    My universe does not revolve around Dr. Douglas. (Rich, ain'tcha glad?) :p

    I'm also not opportunistically glomming on to any and every statement (by someone whom I've consistently slammed) that I figure I can decontextualize, deconstruct, and torque to pieces in order to prove what I can't prove by my own argumentation or evidence.

    Lead, kindly light.
     
  14. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    Yeah, I'm pleased. Dennis mis-quoted someone else's mis-statement about what was in there, and now is repeating it with great zeal, obviously hoping his statements will take on a life of their own.

    "The most brilliant propagandist technique will yield no success unless one fundamental principle is borne in mind constantly . . . it must confine itself to a few points and repeat them over and over."

    Joseph Goebbels
     
  15. uncle janko

    uncle janko member

    That's Dr. Goebbels (D.Phil. Heidelberg, some accursed year).
     
  16. Dennis Ruhl

    Dennis Ruhl member

    If the quote is not correct, what is the correct quote.
     
  17. Bill Huffman

    Bill Huffman Well-Known Member

    Dennis continues to show disdain and disrespect for the truth as he continues his campaign of spreading false and misleading information.
     
  18. Bill Huffman

    Bill Huffman Well-Known Member

    They are your false statements. Perhaps you should be concerned enough with telling the truth to actually read the dissertation on your own and to quote the conclusions properly?
     
  19. Rich Douglas

    Rich Douglas Well-Known Member

    I've already addressed this in another thread.
     
  20. BillDayson

    BillDayson New Member

    I don't have a Ph.D. I don't anticipate earning one in my lifetime. I simply see no point in doing so. Nevertheless, I have no reluctance to criticise dissertations if I feel that there are reasons to do so. Nothing is immune from criticism, not even the Bible.

    I haven't read Rich's dissertation. I don't know precisely what it contains.

    But I'll comment on the text that Dennis posted, whatever its provenance.

    "When State Approval was offered without a description, almost 96% of participants rated it at least "Somewhat Acceptable." Even after reading the provided description of State Approval, slightly more than 65% of participants still rated it at least "Somewhat Acceptable." This leads one to to conclude that two-thirds (or even more) of employers may accept degrees from unaccredited, but state-approved, schools."

    Personally, if I were presented with a questionaire asking about degree acceptability, I would probably choose "somewhat acceptable".

    There are a handful of CA-approved schools that I not only accept, I actively favor. There are many more that seem to provide valuable education of some description, even if it's inferior by RA standards, and which might even be competitive in unusual situations if better alternatives don't exist. Other state-approved programs are scams and mills, in my estimation. Many are simply lame, occupying some nondescript gray area.

    This makes any general question on the acceptability of state-approved degrees as a class much too blunt an instrument to draw a useful response from me. I would reply with the equivalent of "sometimes", or "it depends".

    Even if the questioner gave me an explanation of what accreditation and state-approval are, I would still put "maybe" or "it depends".

    I know as much as the next guy about CA-approval, I guess. But if I needed somebody to pilot a do-it-yourself spaceship, I'd consider a NTPS graduate. If I was looking for a computer animator or graphic designer, I'd be willing to look at an Expression College graduate's portfolio.

    But that stuff just doesn't generalize. Because I'd be willing to accept some state-approved graduates doesn't mean that I'd accept all of them, from every school, for any kind of position without exception. I simply wouldn't.

    It all just... depends.

    If I had to describe my general attitude towards state approved degrees as a single undifferentiated class, it's strong, albeit defeasible, skepticism. In general, a state-approved graduate would be at a serious disadvantage with me, if I were the one making decisions. How much disadvantage would depend on many variables and would vary from zero to complete rejection.

    Bottom line? "Somewhat acceptable".

    I'm not sure if a champion of state-approved schools would want to cite me as an ally or not. My "somewhat" is as much a condemnation as it is an endorsement. Probably more, since the stronger state-approved schools tend very much to be the exceptions.
     

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