Master P gets Doctorate

For those unfamiliar Master P is a rapper.

https://www.hot97.com/hip-hop-news/hot-news/you-can-address-master-p-as-dr-p-miller-he-received-a-doctorate-degree-from-lincoln-university/

It appears after some research it may be honorary.

 

Another honorary doctorate given to someone who donates money and is a celebrity... they really need to start putting the degree with Honorary doctorate in the front... people need to understand the difference from the people who worked hard for their doctorates

 

In particular, it's a bit disingenuous to say "From the projects to getting a Doctoral degree from @lincolnuniversityofpa Don’t be afraid to change, grow and educate yourself. I did it!" when what he "did" was be given an award. Luckily most sources, including Hiphop DX who the article linked above cite, do note that it's an honorary doctorate.

 

Not going to lie that was why I first posted this, then I did a little digging and was like damn it, now my claim to fame on degreeinfo is dumb posts.
Edit to add: you can't delete anything on this Board lol

 

This is too funny not to share. Someone used a website "spinner" which does that thing where kids replace words in their essays with different ones from a thesaurus, although online it's done to hide a stolen article from the search engines.

 

Yes, I am sure that he is now a physician. Right.

 

I mean...it's not like there's an earned "Doctor of Humane Letters" program out there. There are just some doctorates that are pretty much always honorary.

I'm also not sure how much people "need" to understand about it. Some of them are quite well deserved. Maya Angelou taught at a respected university with her only academic credential being her honorary doctorate. And, like his music or not, I don't think anyone can really say that the honorary Doctor of Music received by Billy Joel was a grave injustice to society.

Realistically, though, I think people need to examine their outrage over this. Because politicians and former military generals and admirals get honorary doctorates all the time and we aren't sitting here saying what a travesty it is. Again, I've not seen one person rant and rave that Augusto Odone didn't deserve his honorary doctorate.

The reality is I don't listen to Master P. However, I am not going to judge Master P's contributions to the arts or society as a whole because I just don't know enough about them. And I'd venture that no one here has really examined what he's contributed either. Just write him off as someone who donated money. Meanwhile, no such snickering at the throngs of senators who received them.

So I'll break ranks here and say that yes, if he worked his way from the projects to receiving an honorary doctorate, that is absolutely an achievement to be celebrated even if it wasn't an earned doctorate. It is still a prestige award that most kids in the projects will never see and will hopefully inspire others to dig deep and go for it.

 

Lets think about it for a second... If Master P or anyone else did not have donate money or were famous in some type of way would they receive an "honorary doctorate"? Yes he contributed music to the community and I am sure he has done a lot of great things but to consider him as "Doctor P" is an issue when you have people studying for 3-10 years to earn a PHD, Doctorate, or Medical degree in their respective fields. Do not get me wrong his music accomplishments are great and many others but it kind of feel mislabeled. Yes it is an award but to say I came from the projects and now earned a doctorate degree is misleading. They gave you an award for your accomplishment. Same goes for the senators who are given one. Do we call Senator Chuck Schumer as Dr.Schumer? People are misinterpreting that he actually earned a doctorate degree rather then he was given an award by the university. I personally think the award should say Honorary Music Accomplishment or something to that matter rather then Doctorate of Humane Letters... That is just my opinion again.

 

If a politician were named an Honorary Police Officer and then told people he came from the projects and was now a cop, we'd recognize that the reality and the claim don't line up. I do agree that receiving an honorary doctorate is an accomplishment and an achievement but it is a different kind of achievement than an earned doctorate and I think it rankles people to see them equated.

In a similar vein, people were not happy with Tyra Banks claiming she "graduated" from Harvard when she completed a 9-week executive education program there. (Funny enough, the program application asks for your yearly income but not your GPA.)

 

Tyra really played herself with that one. Her self-aggrandizing about it went from hilarious to sad once it was found out that it was just a 9-week certificate program.