Interesting Credentials Thread

Share your findings of weird, interesting, and excessive credentials found in articles, on resumes/CVs, LinkedIn, etc.

 

This guy is working on multiple MBAs, an MS, and two PhDs at the same time, allegedly. Either he's forgetting to put end dates, or he's working for eight companies simultaneously and concurrently holds multiple positions at some of these companies.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/globalmichael/

 

This man has three doctoral degrees in accounting, three doctoral degrees in finance, two doctoral degrees in economics (and additional economic development foci in some of the other doctorates), a JD, PhD in law, PhD in philosophy, PhD in politics, PhD in global ethics, two BAs in social science, and several other degrees.

https://robertwmcgee.wordpress.com/education-2/

 

At last count, this man has 30 master's degrees with most of them being related to education.
https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/2009/01/twentyseven_degrees_and_counti.html

 

This man, who has dyslexia, has 11 master's degrees from Ivy Plus schools, Oxford, Cambridge, and universities. He has one doctorate. Like so many others with more than three graduate degrees, he has a pattern of earning multiple degrees in similar majors. He has three master's degrees in real estate and development, two master's degrees in sociology, two master's degrees with a focus on politics, and two master's degrees related to education.

https://bolgerconsulting.com/about-1
https://www.linkedin.com/in/benbolger/

 

His website is no longer up, but this man had 14 associate's degrees at last count. Most of them were in various concentrations of criminal justice and business administration.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/arichall/

 

https://scholar.harvard.edu/drrobelyngarcia/home

 

14 associate degrees?!
Why not go just go for a PhD if you're willing to put in that much work for what in the end will be seen as only an associate's degree?

 

He attempted a doctorate at Capella and completed a few master's degrees, it appears. He wasn't exactly mentally stable based on the lawsuits he filed against the government, and he lived with his parents when he appeared to be in his 30s or 40s.

 

And mommy and daddy paid for the degrees too I assume?

 

I don't know. You can receive the Pell Grant until you graduate with a bachelor's degree, but there's a limit. There are also Texas grants. I would guess that he took out loans for his graduate programs.

 

I hope the guy at least landed a good job for all the effort he put into all those degrees.

 

Because 14--or 14 hundred--associate's degrees do not add up to one doctorate. The doctorate is a completely different concept than merely going to class and piling up credits.

 

Yes, but you also do the reading work.
So if you are willing to read that much, why not contribute to the knowledge in a certain field instead of re-chewing what the professor says?
I'm aware the associate's degree is lower than the doctoral degree but when you have the dedication for earning 14 associate's degrees, why not going for a greater good such as the doctoral degree?

 

I'm from Texas like this guy is, and I've attended three different community college systems in Texas. The courses don't require a lot of work. There are mostly multiple choice quizzes and short essays. In comparison, I had to write 10-page to 20-page papers for my master's degrees; my capstone paper was about 30 pages. My doctoral program required several research methods courses, advanced statistics, and four comprehensive exams. For the later cohorts, they added a publication requirement.

 

I didn't realise that earning an associate's degree is that easy in the US.
Here in Belgium it's quite challenging to earn an associate's degree. We don't have community colleges here, only university-colleges.
Someone who completes an associate's degree here is deemed fit for all levels of further study.

In general someone who wants to earn an associate's degree here needs to undertake 3000 hours of classes, proctored 4 hour exams, studying, internships, thesis writing, self-reflection etc.

Don't US colleges require internships and thesis defending from associate degree students then?

You say quizzes but are those proctored multiple hour exams or how should I see such a quiz in terms of seriousness?

 

On campus, quizzes are taken in class. Online, quizzes are typically unproctored because online proctoring is costly. The final exam and/or mid-term might be proctored.

There are no theses at the associate's degree level. Some schools have associate-level capstone courses, but it's not common. Theses aren't even common at the baccalaureate level, but there might be some kind of culminating experience, such as a research project or internship.

 

Writing a capstone/thesis paper isn't something that you really do in the US until Bachelor's level. You don't have to actually defend a thesis until at least Master's level. I honestly thought thesis defense was something only done at the Doctorate level but I will admit that I could be mistaken in that impression. Two-year degrees (Associate's) in the US are little more than repeating the last two years of HS but now you get college credit for it.

The exception to this is some AS or AAS degrees where you only take 15-21 credits of gen eds and fill out the remainder of the 60 credits with coursework that is specific to a given field. For instance, Computer Science would take a bunch of programming-related courses, nursing/nursing assistants would take about 45 credits of medical courses + practicum, a dental assistant would take courses related to dentistry, and so on.

 

There are master's programs that require a thesis defense. For my first master's, I chose the non-thesis option, so I completed an oral exam and additional electives. My classmate, with whom I'm still friends with today, chose the thesis option and had to defend it.