Where do you draw the line on degrees earned?

I think the real head scratcher for me was a lawyer I knew years ago who went to law school after getting his MD from a U.S. school. Somewhere along the way he picked up an MBA.

There is a medico legal specialty for doctors and a med mal practice area for lawyers so I guess MD/JD is a thing but the MBA? Who ordered that?

 

I've also run across DDS/MDs though they're not common.

 

Then there was Chief Dr. Swift Eagle...

 

It's common among oral and maxillofacial surgeons. With more generalist intentions, Nova Southeastern has a dual DO/DMD program, and Case Western had a dual MD/DMD program until the 2010s.

 

Archbishop Chief Dr Alexander Swift Eagle Justice? Again? This should do:

https://www.degreeinfo.com/index.php?threads/saint-regis-university.61809/page-2#post-580190

He's in the DI search thing 12 times. I think I wrote about 8 of the entries. No more, please! Why has this -- luminary - garnered so much posthumous fame. I believe Chief Swift Eagle Justice died around 8 years ago.

Someone revived this topic on the other forum a couple of weeks ago. Is there a "Swift Eagle Season?"

 

I think I just never ceased to marvel at the magnitude of his self-aggrandizement!

 

I mean, why?

 

You need an MD to start your medical practice, an MBA (Management, Marketing, Accounting, Finance, Leadership, etc.) to manage your private practice, a JD...just incase you are being used for mal-practice. You also need a Ph.D. in IT for managing modern medical technologies.

 

Well, what about a D.Min. for consoling the relatives when the patient dies?

 

Actually, I think I'm the culprit in the Chief Swift Eagle Department. His memory should live forever!

 

Whatever happened to, "A lawyer that represents himself, has a fool for a client"?

 

C'mon. Say it with me.... me-ga-lo-ma-ni-a. ..... Good job!

 

Oral Surgery is a multi-year residency after dental school. In the US, there are two models for oral surgery training, a relatively shorter residency that typically leads to the granting of a master’s degree in oral surgery and board eligibility or a relatively longer residency that includes granting of an MD along with board eligibility.

As a for instance, the program at the University of Louisville is 6 years and grants the MD: https://louisville.edu/dentistry/residency/oralsurgery

University of Minnesota is 4 years and grants only a post-grad certificate: https://dentistry.umn.edu/degrees-programs/graduate-specialty-and-advanced-education-programs/oral-maxillofacial-surgery

University of Cincinnati offer the MD as an option to people pursuing their oral surgery residency: https://med.uc.edu/depart/surgery/residency-training/oral-and-maxillofacial-surgery

 

Advance for purpose, not pedigree alone. Credentials signal commitment - too many signal over-commitment. So, realistically consider goals, but there's nothing wrong with lifelong learning.

 

A member of clergy can also be a physician. Like St. Luke the Evangelist.

 

Education can become an obsession like anything in life. Too many degrees actually will not attract employers but might deter them. I personally drop degrees in my CV so it can be more focused.
In general, too many degrees from low ranked schools do not provide much value to your CV. It is better to have two or three (assuming a PhD) from good schools than 8 from non ranked or low ranked schools. Employers normally like to see focused CVs and degrees many times show the character and ambition of the person.
I collect degrees, I recognize it but try not to show in my CV my degrees from CLEA, Isabel, etc or any online non ranked or just include them in a continuing education section as certificates.

 

But the

But the insecure graduate would also feel insecure about having a doctorate from a low ranked school like Liberty. I rather an EdD from Harvard than a PhD from Liberty. In the academic circles, people respect more the institution than the designation of the degree in my experience. However, I agree that in general people feel that EdD, DBAs, DM or any non PhD doctorate is inferior. There as some schools that are renaming their applied doctorates as executive PhDs so people can still use the PhD designation.
In general, for academic positions, the PhD designation is preferred so I can see an EdD trying to get the PhD just to qualify for a full time faculty position.

 

I think that the number and discipline of the degree matters much, much more than its ranking. Someone with 8 degrees in unrelated disciplines is going to get side eye no matter what schools they are from., and most people cannot tell you the relative ranking of schools. While they might recognize a few dozen schools there are nearly 4000 schools in the US and tens of thousands more around the world.

I agree that employers want to see focused CVs and so listing a focused set of credentials is important. Since earning my first master's, I no longer list my Durham College diploma or certificate on my resume. I've earned a number of professional development certs that I no longer list either: training in tobacco cessation, suicide risk assessment and intervention, structured professional judgement (SPJ) tools like the SORAG and VRAG and a bunch of others. My diploma (evaluated as equivalent to an Associates in Social Work) and those certs are clinically useful but I'm not in a clinical role anymore so they fell off.

 

Oops, here's a great example of my clinical knowledge eroding. I was trained in the administration and interpretation of the SAVRY and SARA which are both SPJ tools. The VRAG and SORAG are both examples of actuarial tools, which is the opposite category of assessment tool.