Okay, this is just a goofy idea, and I want to get some reactions to it.
Suppose you wanted a Ph.D. strictly as a credential. For example, say you're mid-career and qualified to be R&D Director of your company due to your experience, but you want to bolster your chances by having a Ph.D. on your resume. Or say you want to make a career change and teach at a small college where you wouldn't have to have cutting-edge knowledge in your field, but a Ph.D. would give you an advantage over candidates with only master's degrees.
You wouldn't want a Ph.D. that's a joke, like an online college, but you also wouldn't want to work your buns off for it for five years, since you're doing it mainly for the piece of paper. Are there any realistic options?
Remember this is hypothetical. I know that this would be a terrible reason to get a Ph.D., and that it's kind of naive to expect to get one without a lot of hard work. But just suppose you're looking for the best balance of reasonably valuable credentials without having to devote your life to academic study. What would you do?
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