There is a gendered matter here, though. There are studies that suggest students do not take female professors as seriously as they do male professors, and I know some female profs who do insist students call them doctor to reinforce the point that they too are authorities in the subject.
Interesting… My second year students and up, they call me doc, and can’t seem to stop calling me that even if they see me outside of class (Ok, they may revert to Miss, but never my last name or first name). Meanwhile, in a combined class I teach students from different disciplines, some students later saw me and flagged me down as Miss, not Doc, despite they saw me at the hospital.
I still get irritated about a fellow on TV who wanted to start a performing-marriage business and sent a couple of checks to the internet: Now I’m a Doctor Reverend! He didn’t know the form for their use. As far as I’m concerned he wasn’t either one.
- Are you a Dr. because your in medicine or thru academia?
Medicine - Do you use the Dr. title often? If so where and when?
Only at work and for work business, like dealing with insurers, trying to get tests scheduled, calling patients. - Do you use Dr. when signing checks or only when such a title would be required?
No-and I don’t usually sign MD on the checks but always sign official medical stuff Psychobunny, MD (not using Dr.) - Are you ok when someone calls you “Doc”?
They do all the time-half my patients call me “Doctor Firstname” anyway.
If chiropractors can do it, I’d say the term is available to anyone.
You’re a doctor? :eek:
Actually a lot of the time in PhD, particularly non-humanities (science, engineer, architecture, medicine, etc.), involves a lot of tinkering around equipment and methods… so there’s little deep thinking and things more related to cooking, plumbing, gardening, electrician, etc. If you’re reducing an MD to plumber, I’m sure you can reduce many PhDs to that.
Only reason my MSc took 3 years is that it’s an aborted PhD; if it had been a Master’s with Thesis under an advisor who took his job seriously, it would have been one year. If my advisor hadn’t turned out to be a git, I would have gotten a PhD in 3.5 years.
My other Masters have all been 1 year. That is also the expected length for that degree level under the current EU University System (aka “Bologna”).
SiL is a doctor in the medical sense but doesn’t have a doctorate: licenciatura en medicina (6 years of medical school), especialidad en medicina de familia (3 years on the job training as a Family Doctor).
I have a mere Master’s but the spouse is a Dr. so I’ll answer on her behalf:
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PhD - academia
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Pretty much only in any situation where a title is normally used and/or in a professional capacity where such distinctions matter. While she is fairly informal and doesn’t insist on constant usage, she will (politely) correct anyone who refers to her as Miss, Ms or Mrs. I believe her students tend to call her “Dr [firstname]” as her surname is quite long.
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Do most people add a title in their signature? I wouldn’t have thought so. Name only.
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I’m pretty sure this has never happened to her. Depending on context she would either find it funny or annoying.
People do tend to treat her more seriously in some contexts due to her title, which is always interesting to watch. She has always made it clear that she is not a medical doctor (or, as she likes to joke, a “proper doctor”).
IME it would be odd in most contexts for an academic to refer to themselves as “being a doctor”. Obviously they would use the title “Dr.” but the phrasing would more likely be that they “have a doctorate” rather than “are a doctor”.
On a lighter note, this all reminds me of one of my favorite Big Bang Theory exchanges:
Not quite. The flavor of the Bologna system that I know is 3-year Bachelor’s, 2-year Master’s. And IME if you’re taking a 1-year Master’s it had better be on top of a 4-year Bachelor’s, not a 3-year Bachelor’s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bologna_Process#Qualifications_Framework_of_the_European_Higher_Education_Area
And re: the OP:
- Academia
- I was first going to answer “never”, but have to admit I do like BetsQ does, i.e.
- HELL, no!
- I probably wouldn’t realize they were talking to me. I’m pretty informal, and it took me quite a while getting used to foreign students addressing me by any honorific. First name is fine with me as soon as we’ve been introduced and are working together in some way.
Both Bros, one SiL and I are all currently taking 1yr Masters. Actually no, SiL already got hers (she defended right after Easter). The two-years I know are either “1yr catchup plus 1year actual” or “1yr coursework plus howeverlong project”, where the total length is given by how long you take with your project; SiL’s masters for example can be done like that but she got it in one year by starting the project simultaneously with the coursework.
I’m pretty sure I’m not your wife, but this is how I feel. When referred to as “Ms/Mrs [LastName]”, I always ask them to call me [FirstName]. If that fails, it’s “Dr [LastName]”. Online forms that insist on me picking a title will result in me choosing Dr. I just hate the whole Miss/Ms/Mrs thing with a passion. Thank goodness I don’t teach undergraduates.
One time when a nurse called regarding my son, I replied to “Mrs [LastName]?” by “No, but I am [Son’sName]'s mom”.
Not sure about sciences, but my wife completed an MBA in 18 months despite only having classes two days a week. I didn’t know there was such a thing as a masters’ thesis though.
MBAs are a specific degree, and while there may be projects, there’s no thesis like in other disciplines. They are similar to one-year non-thesis master’s degree.
So how many credit hours does a US masters require in, say, engineering?
See I thought the whole point of doing a Ph.D. program was to make people call you doctor.
- Are you a Dr. because your in medicine or thru academia?
Academia
- Do you use the Dr. title often? If so where and when?
I use the title when I need the authority, such as when being introduced for presentations about my research and books. I use it whenever I would otherwise be ‘Mrs Kelly’ - some formal situations.
In personal life, I never use it. I’m just Lynne.
- Do you use Dr. when signing checks or only when such a title would be required?
I don’t use any title on a check (or cheque as we would type).
- Are you ok when someone calls you “Doc”?
It has never happened. It would depend on the context. I’d rather be Lynne.
I’m a Medical Doctor.
I prefer that I be referred to as ‘doctor’ only in professional settings where my patients are involved. That is, in my office, in front of patients. Staff is free to use my first name if patients are not present. Some do, some use my title.
Away from the office, I prefer to be addressed by my first name. But if you insist on using my last name, call me Dr. and not Mr.
I sign all official work documents with my name and ‘MD’. I try to avoid adding the MD to other non-work signatures, but it is a strong habit.
I’m not thrilled to be called ‘doc’ but I can live with it.
I address my patients by their titles, also. Unless invited to do otherwise. Given my present practice, most of my patients are addressed by me as ‘Mr.’
Just the people who made fun of you in high school. 
In the hard sciences, there is generally a qualifying exam about two years into the PhD program. It varies by school, but for us, you had to spend several months generating a research proposal for several years worth of research on a topic deemed sufficiently outside of your thesis research; it had to be considerably different than your area of expertise. You submit that proposal, and it is reviewed by a panel of scientists (for which this IS close to their area of expertise) and they review the written part, and then they call you into a room for about three hours. They grill you on the proposal. They can also grill you on anything they damn well feel like grilling you on. If you pass that qualifying exam, you have a masters. You can walk away from the PhD program at that point, with a masters degree. If you complete the PhD, you pretty much consider that experience as part of the PhD and don’t really list that you have a masters degree was well.
I think most of us would agree that this was considerably more rigorous and stressful than the actual thesis defense. The thesis defense is largely a formality by the time it rolls around. This is because the committee that ultimately decides whether you passed your defense is largely the same as the committee that decides if you are ready to do that defense in the first place. If they didn’t think you were going to pass, they’d be sort of assholes to let you do it. The qualifying exam, on the other hand, you have to do whether you are ready or not. Many people fail it, and have to repeat it (with a brand new topic) the next year. But, I’ve never really heard of people failing their PhD defense (not that it doesn’t happen). More often, they just are never told they are ready to do a defense and they ultimately give up.
In terms of the right to use honorifics, in the biological sciences, the time to degree is over 8 years at this point. Twice the length of an MD. Plus, then you have to do postdocs (additional years of research) before you get your own lab. I lucked out and did the PhD in 6 years, and only one postdoc of 4 years before getting my own lab. But, 8 years, plus at least another 8 years of postdocs is more the norm.
Medicine.
I introduce myself as “Dr.” in hospital and clinic settings. If I’m signing up for something on a website and there’s a “title” drop-down box, I choose “Dr.” instead of “Mr.,” but that’s never made a difference as far as I can tell–I haven’t noticed any hotel goodies, for example, as mentioned by someone upthread. Among the general public, I don’t go around introducing myself as “Dr.” If someone calls me “Mr.,” I do find it a little jarring, but I don’t correct them.
(Ten or 15 years ago, a blogger at National Review’s The Corner blog made some comment about non-physicians using the title “doctor,” got a ton of reader email, and wrote a long article about it. His conclusion seemed to be that it was absolutely ludicrous for anyone but a medical doctor to use the title “doctor,” and that doing so was the height of pretentious buffoonery. I never understood that. For one thing, the vast majority of his readers said that when they were in college, their professors didn’t go by “doctor,” which was not my experience at all–we called almost all of our professors “doctor so-and-so.” And as others have stated upthread, at least when it comes to the hard sciences, a Ph.D. program is usually more strenuous academically, and takes longer, than getting an M.D., so it would be presumptuous of physicians to insist that we have an exclusive claim on the title “doctor.” At the same time, we’re stuck with the fact that in colloquial usage, the noun “doctor” (as in, “I’m a doctor”) as opposed to the title (as in, “I’m Dr. so-and-so”) has become a synonym for “physician.” Of course, most Ph.D.s know this and don’t go around telling random members of the lay public “I’m a doctor.”
I never sign my name as “Dr. so-and-so.” Who signs their checks with a title? If I think it’s called for, for example on a medical form, I’ll append the “M.D.” to my signature, but never in matters of personal business.
Yes, once in a while a patient will do this, and I barely even notice.