Doctor of philosophy: that title carries a lot of weight. It speaks of years of struggle and deep thought on a very specific topic. W ithin the academic community t he conferral of the title implies a certain standard and a sense that we've been through the same rigorous process and made it out the other side (or at least will, for those of us still going through the process). By talking to attendees of international conferences, I have reached the distinct impression that PhD programs vary incredibly - even within the same field. Nowhere is this difference greater than the Europe/North-America divide. In North America, a doctorate is a nominally four year program (assuming you're in the sciences - we won't speak of the humanities where it's not unusual for some people to take seven years to finish). This is usually after the conferral of a masters degree meaning that the typical North American Doctoral student w...
Reviews of literature, breakthroughs, and trends with my reactions.