Use of Titles

Factual Questions
21

Alphagene posts:

No flames; just respectful disagreement.

A lot more prospective MDs fail to get into med school than prospective PhDs fail to get into grad school.

Once in, I suspect the early attrition rate is higher for med school, largely due to financial problems since assistantships are not generally available at med school. But, I suspect the overall percentage of entrants who earn MDs is higher than the percentage of grad school entrants who earn PhDs. Does this make grad school harder? Or do politics & irreconcilable differences with mentors make a PhD program more of a crap shoot than a medical school curriculum which demands less individual initiative.

I believe the overall amount of winnowing is a wash. The programs are very different in their essential nature; I doubt that a blanket statement can be made that one is harder than the other.

And to answer the inevitable criticism; yes I have been in grad school & know the ropes. I left after one semester with an MS in Biochemistry (since I had completed most of the requirements while an undergraduate) to do my Army payback, fully planning to return for my PhD. 4 years & 2 kids later, though, I decided that med school on Uncle Sam’s nickel was a better deal than grad school on my own.

Alphagene also posts:

It depends what kind of social situation you’re talking about, Alpha.

When I walk up to neighbors or other high school parents, I introduce myself as Sue, or as Rick’s mom. When I was a Girl Scout troop leader, the girls called mostly called me Mrs. Sue. The swim team kids called me coach. Since Dr. had nothing to do with my relationship with these people, it was IMO unnecesarily formal aka “dorky” to inject it there.

Those who insist upon being called Dr. all of the time (whether MD or PhD) never know who is using the term sincerely, and who is harboring some resentment at them for asserting their perceived superiority. OTOH, when people who know me as Sue introduce me to others as Dr., I know they are doing it out of genuine respect rather than social correctness.

My rule of thumb is if I am in a situation where I am using Susan, I use the honorific Dr. Otherwise I am

  • Sue
22

Dunno about most people,but I like to be called by my name…not a title.Cuts the pretenses,puts you on a non formal,more friendly footing with whom ever you are speaking.Do you PHD types “REALLY” think that the Dr title impresses anyone?
The ONLY time I can see EVER using a title (besides you MD’s out there) is in the military…And I’m guilty of having my sub ordinates call me by my first name.(drove the officers crazy) Rich MM1(SS/DV) m…o…u…s…e

23

Fair enough, Sue.

I have a lot of baggage, being a recently former PhD student. There is a much greater divide between MD students and PhD students (including how the institution treats them) than between MDs and PhDs.

Some of my best friends are MD’s. :smiley:

Gypsy: Tom, I don’t get you.
Tom Servo: Nobody does. I’m the wind, baby.

24

My father was a PhD in, and Professor of, Anthropology. My mother was an MA in Archeology (never finished her PhD thesis due to intervention of marriage and munchkins). He was a dean, Dr. and Professor; she was a lecturer and professor (at different schools). I grew up around that academic community and my father was “Dr.” or “Professor” on campus or in an academic environment (oh, those social science cocktail parties), but he was Mr. beatlefather in the rest of society.

I work in a technical field and have several peers with PhDs. None of them use the title “Dr.” except on those rare occasions that somebody gets a group of us drunk enough to write a paper and we’re going to max out the credentials.

I do remember a marketeer for a tech company who had her title (Dr.) before her name on her business cards, but she was shilling seismic processing and her doctoral degree was in sociology. 'Twas percieved as pretentious. Well, maybe she could have been of help with some of those misbehaving seismic lines (how did they really feel about the shothole driller’s relationship with his rig?).

25

Watch it, CK!

Arnold Winkelried, B.S.

26

I heard that in the days of the british Empire, some Indian civil servants would actually use the “title” “BSc (Failed)”. I guess these days that would get you laughed out the door!

27

I agree with Cooper. But it doesn’t apply to just Dr. I think it’s a symptom of poor character even to say "Hello, I’m Mr. Soandso. Never never refer to yourself with a title. Your title is for others to use - not for you.

-D

28

I think it depends a lot on the culture of the country where you live. In Germany, everybody who is a doctor (medical or otherwise) gets addressed in that way. Just across the border, in Holland, people would laugh in your face if you did that. I have never used my title in normal conversation, only sometimes on conferences etc. The same holds for my colleagues.

Don’t you know there ain’t no devil / That’s just God when he’s drunk (Tom Waits)

29

I always feel that we fought the Revolutionary War, in part, to get rid of titles. My grandfather, who was a small town mayor, used to say that “a man doesn’t need any title more than Mr.” I would ask him about women and Ms./Miss/Mrs., but he’s dead.

Anyway, I tell my students the first day of class that if they call me “Professor” that I will call them Skipper or Gilligan or Mary Ann. I know that at least one of my Master’s degrees was more work than some doctorates from Bob’s Correspondance School O’Learnin’ & Stuff, but I don’t ask people to call me “Master.” (Well, maybe if I had a genie. And of course, bjOrn.)

Dr. Karolides used to go by Doctor in class, but he also addressed me as Mr. Fay and others with the appropriate titles. If you want me to use your title, you certainly should not be using my first name! If you’re a surgeon but we meet through bowling, you’re just Suzie or Claude or Bubbles.

Until we start getting titles for EVERYTHING that requires study and discipline and intelligence and sacrifice and etc., I don’t propose to use anyone’s title outside of their professional life.

P.S. Why call former coaches “Coach” or former senators and such “Senator?” If they were so good at coaching or being governor, wouldn’t they still have the job?

Bucky (that’s Professor Bucky or Coach Bucky to some of you–Uncle Buck to others)

Oh, well. We can always make more killbots.

30

I believe that this is still the case in India. The reason is that simply having been accepted by a university is an academic achievement which puts the individual in something like the top percentile, in terms of academic achievement.