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Why Do Colleges Give Honorary Degrees?

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Re: Why Do Colleges Give Honorary Degrees?

#111

Post by Retra »

brightball wrote: post #83

At Clemson I've seen honorary degrees given to very successful people who gave a lot of money to the university. The degree was usually given during general graduation and gives the successful business person a chance to speak to the graduating class. Honestly, it never bothered me at all. It's one thing if you're saying "here, take this honorary degree and go work in a new profession"...but that's not what happens.…

I'm pretty sure Feynman would attribute his successes to his education and effort, not to the fact that he was awarded degrees for getting an education or making the effort. The degree itself is an honorary; it isn't intrinsically important.

So if you are successful, it doesn't matter whether or not you have a degree, so why should anyone care if you do?

>Honorary degrees are given in an area where the person has already proven themselves successful...so it's really nothing at all like an "honorary electricians license".

If you've proven yourself successful, what good is a degree going to do? Prove it again? The only thing an honorary degree can do is bestow trust onto someone who doesn't deserve it. If you already have trust earned through successes (enough to make anyone think you should have a degree,) you certainly don't need a degree to bestow it, do you?

At best, an honorary degree simply says what everyone already knows. At worst, it privileges people who don't deserve it.

Re: Why Do Colleges Give Honorary Degrees?

#112

Post by bojo »

tormeh wrote: post #103
brightball wrote: post #83

At Clemson I've seen honorary degrees given to very successful people who gave a lot of money to the university. The degree was usually given during general graduation and gives the successful business person a chance to speak to the graduating class. Honestly, it never bothered me at all. It's one thing if you're saying "here, take this honorary degree and go work in a new profession"...but that's not what happens.…

Being successful =/= Being rich And while being successful or making an outstanding contribution is a way to get an honorary degree, it is easier still to just buy one.

I prefer /=

Re: Why Do Colleges Give Honorary Degrees?

#114

Post by Retra »

peeters wrote: post #105

I think there is a case to be made for honorary degrees, but not with how they are commonly used today. To me it makes sense that if someone becomes one of the utmost authorities in a field, but didn't do it by spending half a million dollars and many good years at an Ivy League school, you can still recognize their credibility through an honorary degree.

If someone is the utmost authority in their field, they won't need a degree for you to recognize their credibility.

Re: Why Do Colleges Give Honorary Degrees?

#115

Post by pc86 »

brightball wrote: post #83

At Clemson I've seen honorary degrees given to very successful people who gave a lot of money to the university. The degree was usually given during general graduation and gives the successful business person a chance to speak to the graduating class. Honestly, it never bothered me at all. It's one thing if you're saying "here, take this honorary degree and go work in a new profession"...but that's not what happens.…

I'm pretty sure it's exactly like an honorary electrician's license, assuming you had to become an accomplished electrician to receive it :)

Re: Why Do Colleges Give Honorary Degrees?

#116

Post by CocaKoala »

coldtea wrote: post #85
deong wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the quote explicitly says "honorary degree". She doesn't have an honorary degree from Cornell.

This is equivalent to saying "does not compute". We're not computers, and we can't fix syntax errors in natural language from context. Not that what he said wasn't clear enough itself.

Before we start sassing somebody for interpreting a sentence improperly, let's look at the ACTUAL full quote;

"Supreme Court member Ruth Bader Ginsburg has an honorary doctorate degree from every single Ivy League School, with the exception of Cornell, which doesn’t give them out."

It doesn't seem unreasonable to point out that an earned undergraduate degree is significantly different from an honorary doctorate degree, and that perhaps when somebody EXPLICITLY SPECIFIES the second type, they aren't talking about the first. That's not a syntax error, and it's plenty clear.

Re: Why Do Colleges Give Honorary Degrees?

#117

Post by [deleted] »

pc86 wrote: post #115
brightball wrote: post #83

At Clemson I've seen honorary degrees given to very successful people who gave a lot of money to the university. The degree was usually given during general graduation and gives the successful business person a chance to speak to the graduating class. Honestly, it never bothered me at all. It's one thing if you're saying "here, take this honorary degree and go work in a new profession"...but that's not what happens.…

I'm pretty sure it's exactly like an honorary electrician's license, assuming you had to become an accomplished electrician to receive it :)

[deleted]

Re: Why Do Colleges Give Honorary Degrees?

#118

Post by BrainInAJar »

fiatmoney wrote: post #22
BrainInAJar wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think Stallman's honourary degree would be superfluous, because you like him?

Emacs or GCC alone are more impressive chunks of work than many Ph.D theses I've seen, if they were given a prettier write-up. But besides that, it's like giving a Th.D to St. Paul - GNU & free software in general is the reason a huge chunk of software and resulting work exists at all . An honorary degree doesn't really convey the scale of the accomplishment.

So he wrote some software that more or less copied extant software, which was well used. That's undergraduate thesis level stuff. Has he done much on the theoretical (CS/Math) side to justify an advanced degree? I'd argue not

Re: Why Do Colleges Give Honorary Degrees?

#119

Post by rahimnathwani »

lordnacho wrote: post #41

It's just a way to get some press and maybe some money as well. I doubt anyone would be fooled by the title. I went to Oxford, and the arts undergrads there can get an MA OXON 7 years after matriculation (arts courses are generally 3 years, and you don't do anything other than send in a form to get the Master's). I doubt anyone confuses it with the MEng that I got. Using the title is a poncey thing. The last time I r…

A few clarifications:

- When you say "you don't do anything other than send in a form", I presume you mean the form applying to graduate 'in absentia'. That's a common, but optional, route. You can also choose to attend a real graduation ceremony.

- The basic university education at Oxford (and Cambridge and Dublin) always culminated with the award of a Master's degree. The age of entry and the number of years of study/residence changed.

The most coherent explanation I've seen for this is from Jonathan Jones: http://urchin.earth.li/oxnet/FAQs/ox.FAQ.html#33

- The Bachelor's/Master's (or baccalaureate/magister) distinction as it exists today is a relatively modern invention, according to Wikipedia[0].

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_of_Arts_(Oxbridge_and_D...

Re: Why Do Colleges Give Honorary Degrees?

#120

Post by GFK_of_xmaspast »

vacri wrote: post #28
reuven wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stallman is a hugely influential person. He has contributed a great deal to the world of free software. And giving him an honorary degree is a great thing, demonstrating his many accomplishments. But it still really bugs me that he calls himself a PhD, and asks for the title "Dr." (And yes, I have a PhD, on which I worked for 11 years, at great cost to myself and my family. So feel free to take my comments with a gra…

> And yes, I have a PhD, on which I worked for 11 years, at great cost to myself and my family. Stallman's work hasn't entailed great effort, long years, and costs to himself and loved ones? As you say, a PhD is more about elbow-grease than intellect, but Stallman has that in spades - not only about the philosophy he espouses, but also that he personally created so much of the GNU environment that we take for granted…

"more about elbow-grease than intellect, but Stallman has that in spades"

Technically a lot of it is sebum.

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