Whatever – Misnomer, if the question was “are there people who don’t take the Ed.D. to be a degree on a par with a Ph.D.,” the answer is “yes, and I’m one of them.”
What your degrees means and how you get them depends a bit on what subject you’re studying.
I went to a liberal arts college for my undergraduate education. They only offered BA degrees, unless you were in their engineering department (which is unusual to have at a liberal arts college.)
I had to take only 32 courses (I took more), 20 of which had to be outside of my major, which was chemistry.
Since I’m a chemist, trying to get just a master’s degree would have been pointless. Generally, people only try to just get master’s degrees in chemistry to teach highschool. Otherwise, a master’s degree is a consolation prize if you quit or are kicked out of a Ph.D. program. After 1 year of my Ph.D. work I asked the graduate school to give me a master’s (just for kicks), and they said ok. Most people don’t bother.
I’m now studying to get a Ph.D. in chemistry. It takes an average of five years at my institution. This is pretty standard for chemistry. I also have my tuition waved and I am paid what I think is a considerable sum just to go to school. This is also pretty standard for chemistry.
Coursework entailed just 1 year of classes. I took four the 1st semester, and two the 2nd semester. I joined a research group in my second semester. I now only do research until my advisor decides it’s time to get rid of me. I piece together my thesis, which is largely already written because I’ve been publishing papers along the way. I present to my thesis commitee, which is largely just a formality, and I get a piece of paper saying that I now have a Ph.D.
Presumably I will have had a postdoctoral fellowship lined up at this point. This will be ~1-2 years of research in a different academic lab. After that, I should be qualified to get a real job somewhere.
Weighing in on the EdD debate–some folks with EdDs are smart people who learned a great deal getting their degrees. They went to good programs. However, some people with EdDs are idiots. They could never have survived a PhD program, and the programs they went to were Mickey Mouse. I don’t find this to be true with PhDs–the ones I have met are smart people who know their field.
disclaimer: I have a PhD, not an EdD, so I might be a trifle biased. 
And you collaborate with Steven, do you? How’s the Unified Field Theory coming along?
I’m sorry but I couldn’t let that pass.
Is the Ed. D. actually in education, or are people with those degrees usually a kind of therapist? Seems to me I’ve seen the designation "Ed.D. on office doors in medical buildings.
To the OP, just to clear up a minor point: although a BA is usually given for a liberal arts or social science major, and a BS is usually given for natural science or engineering, there are exceptions. My undergraduate college gave everyone a BA no matter what major, and their science and engineering programs are held in high regard. I suppose there are also colleges that give BS degrees to liberal arts majors. In any event, which degree it is usually isn’t that important, it’s the major that matters.
EdDs are everywhere.
There are some therapist types who get an EdD in Counseling Psychology through an education department. Others get a PhD in counseling psychology or clinical psychology, but if they have a PhD, the program was generally not through an education department. Confusing enough? EdDs are in the minority among therapists, though–more PhDs and LCSWs (licensed clinical social workers) than EdDs.
Many EdDs are in education–most of the people teaching education in colleges and universities will have an EdD, as will many school principals and administrators. Others with EdDs end up in various administrative type jobs.
a J.D. is the last type of doctorate I know of (Juris Doctorate) or as we used to call it, the “ghetto doctorate.” Three years of school-only exams, no paper necessary.
I had been doing the research for several years beforehand, so while I was required to take research hours, they were really just on paper. I also took my Master’s degree at the same place (Purdue), so I had taken the core of courses for my Ph.D. before I started. I still had to make up the credit hours, but because I wasn’t constrained by what core courses were available when or by needing to do research on top of class work (though I was part of two research groups, and doing consulting work that was applicable to my dissertation), I was able to take four courses each of my first two semesters and two courses the third semester, and there was my thirty hours finished.
I did my prelims the first semester. I wrote and defended my dissertation at the very beginning of the third. Because I had lived and breathed the research for so long–and because I am one of the three top authorities in my particular niche–it was very easy to just sit down and type the sucker.
The Ph.D. record for my program before me was 28 months.
A JD in the US is a law degree, and very few lawyers I know are addressed as “Doctor”, even though they could be. The exceptions were university professors.
Robin
I looked at your profile…Is your field linguistics? I have long regretted my decision to switch my undergrad major from linguistics to German. What was I thinking?
To get back to associate’s degrees for a moment, there are different types. The community college where I work offers an associate in arts degree that’s basically the first two years of a four-year degree, with the credits transferable to a university. You don’t get an A.A. in a specific subject, but you tailor the courses you take around the major you plan to pursue in your last two years of college.
We also offer associate in science and associate in applied science degrees that are “terminal” degrees, meaning the credits aren’t meant to transfer, and students who complete the programs go directly to a job (hopefully) in their chosen field – things like dental hygiene and paralegal and graphic design.
I am currently going for a BS in history. Why a BS? The foreign language requirement for a BA would have caused too many problems for me, so I decided to take a couple extra math and science courses.
There’s also DDS, which is what dentists have. It might stand for doctor of dental surgery…then again, it might not, I have no idea.
And do vertrinarians have their own degree, or is it just a PhD?
DVM – Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.
A JD is actually the initial law degree. There are two degrees after it, the master’s in law (LL.M., I think) and a PhD. I gather that the first is unusual, but the second is very rare.
There’s also the business degrees–everyone’s familiar with the master’s in business administration, but there are also corresponding bachelor’s and doctoral degrees.
Details, details. The LL.M is usually reserved for advanced legal topics, like tax law.
As for the PhD, it’s not uncommon for some law students to do both at the same time. For example, if I were so inclined, I could do a simultaneous JD and PhD and specialize in communications and First Amendment law.
Robin
More on the differences:
An arts degree is a great way to meet women.
An engineering degree allows you to spend four years on your parent’s nickel drinking large quantities of beer. And, you can get a ring as a lovely parting gift.
A science degree is good for getting more science degrees. If you get enough science degrees, you can teach people how to get science degrees.
A degree in education qualifies you to educate people, although you may not know anything worth teaching.
PharmD–a “doctorate” in pharmacy, though it’s really just an extra year added to the regular pharmacy degree–which one can start with no prior degree and finish in five years.
An aside: at our engineering school one could to a “thesis project” instead of writing a thesis for Master’s Degree.
And Sam Stone that was MY nickel, thankyouverymuch. And I love beer to this day. 
I attended an institution that had a similar program - you worked for your Master’s and your Ph.D. at the same time, and if you left early and finished a Master’s thesis, you would get a Master’s instead.
I also wanted to clarify that an Associate’s degree is not necessary to get; rather, it’s typically the degree you get if you go to a two-year/community college, and you can go on to another institution to get a Bachelor’s. I don’t think most four-year colleges/universities grant Associate’s degrees at all.