
Ask HN: What is the easiest way to get a PhD? - Raed667
As a hypothetical exercise. You want to add a &quot;Dr.&quot; to your email signature, and you have $10K to spare.<p>What would be the easiest (in terms of effort and time) way to get a PhD that is somewhat legit (no diploma mill or fake university)?<p>The field or subject doesn&#x27;t really matter.
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impendia
I'm a math professor at a mid-tier PhD-granting university in the United
States. I'll share my perspective.

First of all, funding is not an issue. Tuition is free, and we pay a stipend
(something like $18k/year I think), provided that you are willing to spend ~15
hours/week as a TA for calculus.

That said, in practice, the question of "what's the weakest possible
dissertation you can get away with, and still earn a PhD" doesn't arise much.
We have a battery of qualifying exams, which are a significant obstacle. After
that, depending on your advisor's personality, you could possibly skate by
with a weak dissertation. Weaker students tend not to finish at all.

It's often said that a PhD is a "labor of love". And indeed, in the US, people
don't generally seek out PhDs with ulterior motives. This is an interesting
contrast to e.g. Germany where politicians are sometimes discovered to have
plagiarized their dissertations. In the US no one would bother, a PhD wouldn't
help you get elected in the first place.

So (at least in the context I'm familiar with) the answer is somewhat
ambiguous, probably depends on your definition of "somewhat legit", and
certainly would depend on random factors which couldn't be predicted in
advance.

~~~
ThrowawayR2
Out of curiosity, would a bottom-tier but legitimate Ph.D granting institution
be necessarily laxer, at least in some respects?

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impendia
_Necessarily_ , no, but in practice likely:

\- The qualifying exams are likely to be easier than at top tier universities;

\- The faculty will be more accustomed to weak students with little
motivation. Not all students will be weak, and indeed many students, at
whatever program, will be strong and motivated. However, weaker programs are
more likely to take chances on applicants with ambiguous track records.

\- That said, it's certainly possible that individual professors, at whatever
institution, decide that they aren't willing to put up with any shit.

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giantg2
If you just want to add doctor to your email, then you would need a diploma
mill or 'fake' university.

To get a legit PhD or DSc, you would need to become an expert in the field -
spending time doing research, projects, a thesis, and possibly teaching. Due
to this, the easiest subject to select would be one you are already know alot
about, hopefully via an undergraduate or graduate degree. This helps with the
entrance qualifications too.

Also, just because it is easiest does not mean it's best. The subject should
be something you are passionate about. You should also look at your return on
investment for the degree. If you aren't going to benefit from it and you just
want to add doctor to your title, you might as well use a diploma mill or
'fake' university.

I looked into doing a PhD for computer/information/data science. The best
option I found was a DSc from Dakota State University. It was relatively
cheap, online, accredited, and related to my job. I decided not to do it
because I felt the investment in time and money would not be worth it. It
would be a minimal raise at my current job. If I switched companies, then I
would need experience to go with the degree as it seems that companies value
that more.

Like most things, what you get out of a degree is based on what you put into
it. If you want a legit doctorate, it should not be easy.

~~~
non-entity
Personally I'd be wary of an online PhD. Most people still dont even trust
online bachelors degrees.

~~~
giantg2
DSU is a physical state school that offers some online programs. I would not
recommend a school that is only virtual and has no physical campus. It depends
on the accreditation too. I think the some of the online-only schools gave
virtual education a bad wrap. Although that may change due to the current
pandemic.

I guess the point that I didn't bring up is that for any degree, the public
opinion of the institution matters - community college vs state school vs
private vs ivy league, etc. Personally, I don't like the group-think
stereotyping that goes on in those comparisons.

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paypalcust83
Just add it for free.

If that's not good enough, buy a PhD from some random sham "school."

If that's not good enough, go work at a random, exclusive, graduate school
department of your desired university as an employee until they let you in
their program. (I saw someone do this at [one of: Stanford, Berkeley or
CalTech] and now they're a big-shot at Cedars-Sinai.)

But why would anyone want to add "Dr." to their email signature? The only ones
who do that, in my experience#, tend to be either narcissistic or deeply
insecure. Folks with lengthy creds don't tend to rub colleagues' noses in it,
and many societies at-large tend toward anti-intellectualism. (If you go to
Harvard or Yale and other people aren't WASPs, then you say you go to
Northeastern or NYU.)

# I worked at a department with a 2% acceptance rate that had multiple TED
speakers, and also a grad student married a decabillionaire.

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sloaken
I would think an honorary one, where a real university gives it to you for
your body of work.

~~~
JPLeRouzic
I know that some universities can admit a PhD student if they have wrote a
book.

I self-published a book on ALS (the disease) research [0]. I wonder if this
would be enough to be accepted as a PhD student.

[0]
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/1698147899](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1698147899)

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random_moonwalk
Not really an answer, but possibly food for thought. I suspect there are a
handful of funded projects that are retreading old ground in seemingly
disparate disciplines, for example by applying fairly simple computational
techniques to areas that have seen very little prior activity from anyone with
an interest in CS (arts subjects perhaps).

Also worth noting that if you're in the UK (possibly other non-US countries
too) you wouldn't have to go through the whole qualifying exam ringer which
cuts down the effort slightly and the expected number of years until thesis
submission to 3-4.

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airbreather
It is possible to get a PhD in children's writing, don't know how easy, you
have to publish a book, but I suspect way easier than most other subjects.

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Dahja2
Go to Vietnam. You can `buy` some Ph.D level there

