Where do you draw the line on degrees earned?

I would choose ANY doctorate from Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Cornell, etc over a PhD from Liberty. Absolutely!

 

But an EdD from UC-Boulder may be looked at worse than a PhD from Liberty, despite UC-Boulder being much better ranked because the relative rankings outside of the top are hard to suss out.

 

Degrees are useful for a relatively short period of time. You are right, things change too fast. If I graduate with a computer science degree and don't use it, in 5 years that degree is no longer relevant and most likely will be hard to use for an entry level position. I can earn now a PhD in AI and be in demand but in 20 years maybe no longer in demand.

Good point. If my EdD is from UCN (NIcaragua), maybe a good opportunity from an upgrade for something better. I wonder if this could become a trend, an upgrade for people with low ranked doctorates for a better one. Maybe Post PhD diplomas would be the next thing.

 

How many is "too many"?

 

The information often has a short shelf-life. But the degree? No.

 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tankwanhong/details/education/
Dr Tan has too many in my opinion. More than 40 degrees, some of them religious based but still degrees.

 

He has the EdD, so he might go for the Liberty PhD at some point.
His Bachelors is recent so he still has time to get another 50 degrees. He has all the degrees from ENEB and Isabel.

 

I see at least 4 unaccredited schools in there and one certificate mislabeled as an MBA which makes me doubt the rest of the list.

 

Well, that's an example. What is the standard? How many is too many?

 

You have seven, most people have one, I think your case qualifies as too many too. I also have seven (not counting CLEA, Isabel, etc) and this gave me enough for a teaching career but not so sure if it is worth the time, my salary is not that different that my salary as an engineer with only a masters degree in engineering. At some point, there is a saturation level where more education does not mean more money but maybe better life style and more job security.

Maybe, but even if many are substandard, he has more than 60 degrees. Just the effort to read the material and go trough the multiple choice exams is a ridiculous amount of time.
He has many good schools also listed like Monash University.

 

His LinkedIn's educational profile makes me dizzy.

 

In order for something--anything--to be "too" much, there must be negative consequences. I've experienced none. Three of mine I consider superfluous, but they took nothing to earn and cost only a few hundred dollars (total). I've never run into a situation where having "too" many degrees was a problem. In what way is this "too" many?

 

https://comb.io/NtR3yo

Marge: Or you could take an adult education course.
Homer: Oh, and how is "education" supposed to make me feel smarter? Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain. Remember when I took that home wine-making course and I forgot how to drive?
Marge: That's because you were drunk!
Homer: And how.

 

It depends on the field. A computer science degree can become obsolete very fast. Try using a computer science degree after 10 years if you have no computer science experience, would anyone care after 10 years?

 

I think few are going to say anything negative but they will just not hire you. I have seen few times where people CVs with two PhDs were tossed out because people hiring thought there was something wrong with the candidate. Too much education can give the impression of someone that might be too obsessed with education or too academic, not so positive for some positions.
If you look at the linkedin profile of the person I sent you, he is a freelance, I doubt anyone would want to hire someone with 10 doctorates from online schools.

 

"Too many?" For what purpose? If it's earning money, the law of diminishing returns applies. After a certain number, the extra financial return on another degree earned, vs. cost -- will result in a negative ROI. That's the "too many" point.

That'll be at a different number of degrees, depending on the field, quality and cost of each - and how they correspond with what the holder does for a living.

If it's for love of learning in general, or a specific subject -- get whatever number you can afford. But watch you don't earn the same degree five times. That's spinning your wheels. Aside from these two considerations - go for it.

 

I don't have any study to back this up but I have a strong feeling that after 4 or 5 degrees, your CV starts becoming undesirable. This means that after some level, not just there is no positive effect but negative. You can be seen as too arrogant, too disconnected with the real world, too this and that.
What is the feeling of the person with 60 degrees? Do you feel like hiring him just to do some accounting for you? Can you hire him to be a mystic and give some yoga lessons because his Metaphysical degrees? At some point, people do not want to hire you for anything because you know everything but nothing at the same time.

 

Even then, I think Rich's assessment is correct. A CS degree earned in 2013 from the South Dakota School of Mines would contain the following courses (I stripped out the electives):

• ENGL 101 Composition I
• MATH 123 Calculus I
• MATH 125 Calculus II
• MATH 225 Calculus III
• CSC 150/150L Computer Science I/Lab
• CSC 250 Computer Science II
• CSC 110 Survey of Computer Science
• CSC 251 Finite Structures
• CSC 300 Data Structures
• ENGL 279 Technical Communications
• ENGL 289 Technical Communications II
• CSC 314/314L Assembly Language/Lab
• MATH 315 Linear Algebra
• PHYS 211 University Physics I
• CSC 372 Analysis of Algorithms
• MATH 381 Introduction to Probability and Statistics
• CSC 317 Computer Organization and Architecture
• CSC 461 Programming Languages
• CSC 470 Software Engineering
• CSC 484 Database Management Systems
• CSC 421/521 Graphical User Interfaces with Object-Oriented Programming
• CSC 456 /456L Operating Systems/Lab
• CSC 465 Senior Design I
• CSC 467 Senior Design II

Calculus hasn't changed in a long time. Nor has Physics I, Probability, Computer Architecture, or the fundamentals of Operating System Design. Data Structures and Algorithms are likely to be the same too. The Survey of CS course is out of date, as would the Graphical User Interfaces course. The Database Management course principles would be the same, but the database they trained on would likely be different.

You'll need to learn the syntax for whichever programming language is most common once you start job hunting (in 2013 it was C followed by Java, in 2023 it's Python followed by Java) but the fundamentals have stayed the same. Someone with a degree earned a decade ago who has no experience would struggle to the same degree as someone who earned one this year. Both would make themselves employable by doing some projects.