The Prestigious Ph.D
After obtaining the Masters Degree and putting in years in the work force, comes the prestigious Ph.D. The Ph.D is an academic degree rather than a professional degree. It is considered the highest degree possible. The holder of a Ph.D is considered a doctor of philosophy, in other words, it's more focused on philosophical matters as opposed to professional matters. Most people that pursue a Ph.D do so with desire to be that of a teacher or educator and/or to be considered and respected as the top of the class.
If a person actively pursue a Ph.D it will typically take some where between 3 to 5 more years after obtaining the Masters. It is said that a Ph.D can be earned in 10 to 12 years after the completion of high school. Because earning a Ph.D requires extended study and intense intellectual effort, less than one percent of the population attains the degree. Society shows respect for a person who holds a Ph.D by addressing them with the title 'Doctor'.
Each university establishes general guidelines that a student must follow to earn a Ph.D degree, and each college or department within a university sets specific standards by which it measures mastery of a subject. To demonstrate complete mastery of the subject, a student may be required to complete additional graduate-level courses, maintain a high grade average, or take a battery of special examinations. In many institutions, students must do all three.
The Ph.D experience is about much more than learning to do deep work in some technical area. A Ph.D holder should get a sense of confidence in the power of rational thought and the range of its applicability. Everything in life is a problem of some sort of the other. How often do we think about it that way, and approach methodically the job of solving it? After obtaining a Ph.D, a person should have the inclination and ability to research anything, whether it be mortgages, biology, cooking or Toyota engines, and the expectation that you will understand it.
A Ph.D holder should get the confidence and inclination to question all that is around and seek out new ways of doing it or seeing it. A Ph.D holder should be more likely to ask why things are done a certain why, and how it could be made better.