Agreed. I work with many Ed.D’s, and they all refer to themselves as “Dr. So-and-so.” This is pretty much unheard of among PhDs with unquestioned credentials; it seems the more comfortable a professor is with his or her academic standing, the less he or she cares about this kind of crap.
Hey, waiter!
I think it depends what the degree holder does for a living and in what context you’re interacting with him or her. You bet that when I’m talking to a PhD, EdD or PsyD who’s providing clinical services in a hospital setting, I call that person “doctor,” as I do the MDs, unless invited to do otherwise. But if I’m eating lunch with that person, it’s first names. And if an MD calls me by my first name rather than “doctor” in a clinical setting, I that is what s/he gets back from me. BTW, in my private practice, I give clients the choice. They call me by my first name unless that’s culturally incongruous for them. Same at the university where I teach.
I wonder what sort of Dr. is Dr. Who? Perhaps I’ll give the University of Gallifrey a bell to find out.
Thanks for the input. I wouldn’t suggest Dr. Death’s advice to undergrad college students…it is sure to lower your grade a notch or two. I agree with the consensus on that one.
Back to my OP: Let’s say you were addressing a letter to a Ed.d. Now, would you address him as Dr. So-n-So, or Mr. So-n-So?
Thanks,
- Jinx
If it is in an academic context, it’s Dr. Anything else it can be Mr. or first name, depending on the circumstance.
It’s truly amazing to me how a simple question, “How does one address someone who’s doctorate is in Education?” gets turned into a thread for some of the most stunningly moronic statements trotted out as though they’re fact. That comments meant for y’all, KenP and spingears.
The individuals I know who’ve received such a doctorate run the gamut from those who prefer to be called by just their first name to those who prefer to be called “Doctor.” Since they are, in fact, doctors, then there’s nothing dishonest about that wish.
Oh, those same individuals also run the gamut from being incredibly easy to get along with to being incredible jerks.
Drat! Please change who’s in my posting above to whose when you read it.
Not in my experience. I know plenty of PhDs who feel that they worked their asses off for that degree and would like to be addressed as “doctor” in many settings.
My PhD sis-in-law uses her title “Doctor” in professional settings, such as the classes she teaches, official correspondence, the lab she runs, and her publications. She does not use “Dr. Jennifer” in social settings, although she could. It is a personal preference on her part.
But if it’s a professional setting, a person with good manners refers to her as “doctor.” It’s politeness.
Here are what I feel are the unwritten rules (I am in graduate school in medical research):
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Undergraduates in a classroom setting or office hours always refer to the professor as ‘doctor’ unless otherwise stated. Undergraduates working in the lab should use ‘doctor’ until they check with other lab members to see what they call the boss.
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Doctors never refer to other doctors as ‘doctor’ unless there is a huge age difference or position gap (someone fresh out of grad school probably won’t go around calling chairmen of departments by their first names)
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If your boss is a Ph.D. the odds are 99 out of 100 that you’ll call them by their first name after the first week (I only have one friend who calls his PI ‘doctor’).
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Grad students/young post docs initially should refer to everyone as ‘doctor’ until otherwise told or a relationship is formed. Eventually you’ll be on a first-name basis with everyone in your department even if they don’t give you specific permission.
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Professors in other departments should be referred to as doctor until specifically told ‘call me ___’.
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Use ‘doctor’ for introductions (like seminars) or correspondences, but it will rarely be used outside an acedemic setting.
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The older you are, the higher your position, and the larger the age difference the more likely a person will refer to you as ‘doctor’
I’ve never heard anyone say ‘call me doctor’ in academia.
If someone has a doctorate, be it an M.D., Ph.D, D.V.M, Ed.D, or any I might have left out, you refer to them as Doctor So and So, at least in professional situations, unless told otherwise. If they prefer not to be addressed as Doctor, they’ll let you know, the same way I’ll let you know that I prefer not to be addressed as Mrs.
When unsure, err on the side of formality. As for the OP, a professional letter to an Ed.D. would be addressed to Dr. Thus and Such. A personal letter would depend on how well you know this person. The rule of thumb I go by is this: If the person didn’t have a doctorate, would I use Mr./Mrs./Miss?
If my mother, say, were addressing something to DrJ before he graduated, she certainly wouldn’t have addressed it to Mr. J. Who’s that formal with their in-laws? It would be silly and pretentious of her to address a letter or card to us using Dr. because of the relationship involved.
Just wondering–how many of the Nobel Prize winners in Medicine are Ph.D holders and not M.D. holders?
I have no idea of the answer to my question. (I imagine a google search would do it)
But my point would be–who would tell a Ph.D. with a Nobel Prize in Medicine that they are not “worthy/qualified” of the title “doctor”?
After posting the above–
I would agree with EjsGirl and Bob55. They sum up what has been most of my experience.
Good ground rules and basically just what goes on.
Wheras “Doctor X” is actually the title of a 1930s movie. Remember?
“Science Fiction Double Feature
Doctor X will build a creature
See androids fighting Brad and Janet
Anne Francis Stars in Forbidden Planet
Oh - at the late night double feature Picture Show”
Psst… DrDeth, a quiet word in your ear. Do you know what Ph.D stands for? No? I’ll tell you - * philosophiae doctor*, as in Doctor of Philosophy (its Latin). Hence if one has a Ph.D, then one has a Doctorate, and is fully entitled to be addressed as “Doctor”. Doctor is not simply a title, it is an academic rank, conferred by merit, and hence, anyone who does have a Ph.D is fully entitled to call themselves “Doctor”.
Sheesh! I’d like to see you try and tell the entire academic community, who, in my opinion, are fairly knowledgeable as to who can use doctor and who can’t, that they can’t be addressed as Dr So and So on a professional basis.
If you’re at a medical institution, and answer to the title “doctor” you’d best be prepared to run a “code blue”.
In most other settings, I personally don’t care who wants to be called “doctor”. If they say their title is “doctor”, that’s what I’ll call them. Unless they’re in prison for impersonating a doctor.
Just MHO.
This works but its easier to go with ‘Sir’ or “Ma’am” until you have your facts straight.
(1) After I once addressed a professor as “Dr. ______,” he “corrected” me and asked to be called “Mr. _____.” This puzzled me, as I was certain he had a Ph.D., so I sort of argued the point with him a little (which I now realize must have come off as rude or fawning or both) and pressed him to explain his preference. Without a trace of pretentiousness, he said that a college campus is a “community of scholars, students and teachers alike,” and that since he addressed all his students --“my fellow scholars,” as he put it – as “Mr.” or “Ms.,” he expected that he would be addressed similarly; “that way we’re less likely to forget that each of us is learning something from the other,” he explained.
(2) The J.D. thing has some interesting history. Until the early 1970s or so, the basic law degree awarded at most American universities was the LL.B. (Bach of Laws), with the J.D. designation sometimes reserved to indicate that the LL.B. recipient had graduated “with [some level of] honors.” But many law facaulties (as well as, I believe, the American Association of Law Schools) came to believe that a basic law degree merited a more pretigious-sounding designation; thereafter, the JD became the standard throughout the nation. (A few schools might have held out against the conversion for a while, but I’m nearly certain that everyone has now fallen into line; a few schools even offer (for a fee, no doubt) to re-issue new JD diplomas to alum who had received LL.B.s).
I’ve seen evidence suggesting that some had believed American lawyers would thereafter be commonly addressed as “Doctors,” as they are in other parts of the world, but it was not be (although ther reason for this, I can assure you, is not that lawyers view their clients and other laymen as “fellow scholars”).
As undergrads we were expected, unless told otherwise, that academics were to be addressed as “Dr. X”. The only notable exceptions were, in my case, my director of studies, who, after my 2nd year, expected me to call him by his first name, but that’s simply a case of familiarity. As postgrads, academics and postgrads are all on a first name basis with each other. I think my supervisor would freak out if I called her “Dr S”, and similarly our head of group would be slightly unnerved if we called him “Prof. P”.
YMMV
I’m a second year undergrad at Monash University in Melbourne, and have never called anyone anything other than by their first name. Please tell me I haven’t been committing some grave faux pas. I wouldn’t even call someone “Mr.” or “Sir”. I mean, we have names for a reason…