Question About Submitting PhD Thesis
Jonathan Groves
I had read a few months ago that Albert Einstein had earned his
physics doctorate by submitting his PhD thesis to the University
of Zurich, and it was accepted. In other words, he had earned his
doctorate without having to enroll in a doctoral program and without
having to "jump through all the hoops" to earn his doctorate.
I am wondering if there are universities today that allow people to
earn doctorates in this way, especially in mathematics. I had not
heard of anyone else, especially in recent years, that had earned
a doctorate this way. But I know that does not mean that it cannot
be done or that no one has. It makes sense to me if a university
allows students to earn doctorates in this way because the student
has demonstrated the required knowledge and research and problem
solving skills that anyone else enrolled in a doctoral program is
required to demonstrate to earn a doctorate.
I am also curious to see what others think of this alternate plan
for students to earn a doctoral degree.
Jonathan Groves
Ken Pledger
<1349661832.2298.12623...@gallium.mathforum.org>,
Jonathan Groves <JGr...@Kaplan.edu> wrote:
> .... I had read a few months ago that Albert Einstein had earned his
> physics doctorate by submitting his PhD thesis to the University
> of Zurich, and it was accepted. In other words, he had earned his
> doctorate without having to enroll in a doctoral program and without
> having to "jump through all the hoops" to earn his doctorate.
>
> I am wondering if there are universities today that allow people to
> earn doctorates in this way, especially in mathematics....
Certainly in Poland, and probably elsewhere in Europe.
Ken Pledger.
Jonathan Groves
Several other mathematicians had confirmed with me that, in the United States,
this can be done as well. However, they had told me that this is rarely done
because most college math major graduates will have a lot to learn before
being able to research and write a PhD thesis, and learning all that on one's
own is extremely difficult.
I had figured that getting a math PhD in this way would be extremely difficult
and perhaps unworkable or nearly unworkable for most people. Nevertheless,
I was just curious to see if it could be done, at least in theory, or for one
interested in going this route and is capable of pursuing this option since
I hadn't heard of anyone doing this.
According to the other mathematicians who had written to me on this subject,
colleges and universities (at least in the United States, perhaps elsewhere, too)
don't publicly tell others that they accept this option since most students have
far more to learn before writing a PhD thesis than they realize and because students
essentially need to become a part of the mathematical community, and becoming a
part of the mathematical community without enrolling in a PhD program is apparently
very difficult (in fact, I can see that because I can't imagine someone who is not
teaching for a research university or enrolled in such a program would have many
opportunities to afford membership in a professional organization for mathematicians
and to attend seminars and conferences and other mathematics talks and presentations).
Library access and Internet search options for mathematics papers are either very
limited in this case or are very expensive. For example, MathSciNet is extremely
expensive to pay for yourself (at least several thousand dollars a year).
Jonathan Groves
Ken Pledger had written:
> In article
> <1349661832.2298.1262389503746.JavaMail.root@gallium.m
Ken Pledger
<901665158.94099.12651...@gallium.mathforum.org>,
Jonathan Groves <JGr...@Kaplan.edu> wrote:
> ....
> According to the other mathematicians who had written to me on this subject,
> colleges and universities (at least in the United States, perhaps elsewhere,
> too)
> don't publicly tell others that they accept this option since most students
> have
> far more to learn before writing a PhD thesis than they realize and because
> students
> essentially need to become a part of the mathematical community ....
I've only just found this message, Jonathan. I mentioned Poland,
where people normally (but not always) enrol in "doctoral studies" with
supervision and access to the usual university resources. It's quite
flexible, and they apply to be examined when they're ready.
Ken Pledger.