Anthony Cupaiuolo recently got a letter from Columbia University offering him a Ph.D. for $600.
To be clear, Mr. Cupaiuolo already has a graduate degree from Columbia—a doctorate of social work, also known as a D.S.W. The letter was an announcement of the School of Social Work’s D.S.W.-to-Ph.D. conversion plan, which would allow those who graduated with a D.S.W. from 1967 to 1992 to convert their degrees to the better-known Ph.D. (Columbia replaced the D.S.W. with the Ph.D. in 1993.)
According to a university document, holders of the D.S.W. had been pushing for the option to convert their three letters to three different letters for at least a decade.
That wasn’t what bothered Mr. Cupaiuolo, who is a professor emeritus of public administration at Pace University. It was what he would have to do in order to get his Ph.D. In addition to the 600 bucks, he would have to provide four copies of the application, four sealed copies of his transcript, plus four copies of his dissertation.
His dissertation was more than 300 pages long, so four copies wouldn’t be cheap. And didn’t Columbia already have all of that stuff on file? Plus, wasn’t $600 a little steep? “I could have understood if they said ‘Hey, we’ve got permission to make the changes, and there’s a nominal fee,’” he says. “But why would it be so expensive and time-consuming?”
Mr. Cupaiuolo sent Columbia administrators a somewhat acerbic e-mail, but didn’t get a reply. The Chronicle also asked for an explanation and received the following written statement from a spokeswoman at Columbia:
The DSW has typically been considered a practice, not a research doctoral degree. The PhD, in contrast, is understood to be a research doctoral degree. When the School first awarded doctorates in the 1950′s, it awarded DSWs—for a research course of doctoral studies. The conversion was sought to align the degree awarded with the program of study. The copies are part of an administrative processing requirement.
For the record, Mr. Cupaiuolo says he got a great education at Columbia and never ran into any professional obstacles because of his D.S.W. degree (though once someone, upon seeing D.S.W. on his nametag, assumed he was an executive with the shoe company). It was the offer that struck him as “cheesy.”
Needless to say, he’s not going to be taking advantage of the conversion plan. “Why would I want it to say Ph.D. rather than D.S.W. on my tombstone?” he says. “That’s not going to do me any good because I’m going to be cremated.”
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19 Responses to Columbia U. Will Convert Your D.S.W. to a Ph.D. for $600
drkaj - September 3, 2010 at 4:13 pm
How sad that an institution of the calibre of Columbia would stoop to such a crass and mean-spirited attempt to extract (extort?) money from its graduates. Are those the core values driving the school?
goodeyes - September 3, 2010 at 4:34 pm
How could Columbia require all of those dublicate records that they should have? I hope Columbia uses the $600 fees to sign-up those responsibility for courses in Management and Leadership.
11182967 - September 3, 2010 at 4:51 pm
While the request for official transcripts (for which there would no doubt be a fee) seems a little silly, the request for copies of the dissertation and the general fee are not necessarily as strange as they might seem. Universities typically require doctoral candidates to submit several copies of their dissertations for filing in the library, the college and department, and elsewhere. If this was not required of DSW candidates, then it is not unreasonable to require it now if there are records requirements for the PhD which did not exist for the DSW. The $600 fee is also probably not unreasonable to cover costs associated with the conversion–special diplomas aren’t cheap, records have to be adjusted, etc. And the $600 is probably also a “nuisance fee.” Some might argue that Columbia should magnanimously perform a mass conversion of some sort and send out the diplomas to all their DSW graduates. But then you have to know where everyone is, who’s still alive (or whose heirs want a new diploma for grandpa’s reliquary), and who really cares. And how would they duplicate the dissertations if they don’t have them?From an administrative perspective, Columbia’s offer is pretty reasonable. And a lot of folks with PhDs would probably think that turning in a DSW (or DA or DBA or EdD, etc.) for a PhD is a pretty good deal for $600.
physicsprof - September 3, 2010 at 5:04 pm
I don’t get all the outrage. You (crowds of DSW holders) were ashamed of your degree (no longer offered) and wanted something more respectable so you pressured your university to let you have a different title. Now that it succumbed to your whining you complain that administartive costs of doing this silly exercise are too high. How more pathetic can it be?
rmelton5 - September 3, 2010 at 6:55 pm
Could I get my Columbia MS (Library Science) upgraded to a Master’s of Information Sciences? I bid $3.99.
drchrishale - September 3, 2010 at 10:12 pm
I pray that the University of Bridgeport would offer a deal to convert the Ed.D. to a Ph.D., so many years of academic snobbery and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences making it clear that the Ed.D. is inferior to the Ph.D. Interesting that I worked full-time as a police officer while earning my Ed.D. my research all related to CJ. I wrote a 319 page dissertation “The Legal Authority of Police Officers and Security Officers in School Searches” that like any Ph.D. was defended, and prior the comp exams in statistics, research methods and my speciality in Ed. Law. Please UB- if you want some quick cash I would hand deliver the documentand make it an even grand ….It would be worth every penny!
matilda - September 4, 2010 at 12:43 am
Columbia SW faculty were very critical of Fordham and other schools when they retroactively upgraded their DSWs years ago. They swore they would never succumb to “status creep.”It’s all about money. Social workers cannot compete with psychologists who have PhDs. So the DSW was discarded. Some Columbia alumni who received DSW have been (falsely) claiming for years that they had a PhD. Some list both degrees (DSW, PhD) which is both pathetic and dishonest.Social work has never had a solid academic foundation — which is why both the DSW and PhD are meaningless. Ironically, for that reason alone, it doesn’t matter what they call themselves. It’s all a sad joke. However, this sort of stunt degrades all PhDs at Columbia because the University had to approve this charade. the CUSSW is a cash cow for Columbia. It’s all about the money.
trendisnotdestiny - September 5, 2010 at 7:19 pm
After reading this article I did a bit of free associating. I wondered why Earl Schieb wouldn’t want some advertising in higher ed: “I can paint that new doctorate for just $599.95″Or Baskin Robbins can sell 31 flavors of humanities’ credentials:— ABD’s = Rocky Road— TT Academics = Peaches & Cream— Clinicians = Superman— MA = Vanilla/Chocolate— PH’ds Educ = Rum Raisin— Economists = Mint CC— Social Justice = Sherbert— Humanities = Shit that looks like Fudge but really isnt— Engineers = Chocolate/Peanut Butter SwirlAlso, with the price paid for these services, scholars could be awarded nascar stickers to put on their depreciating investments of transportation to demonstrate how important we are…..Ricky Bobby is driving the POS with the $75K student loan PHD Philosophy sticker….. Columbia, You are better than this!
matilda - September 7, 2010 at 12:29 am
Columbia added research and statistics courses when it changed to a PhD. These DSWs never took those courses — which adds more credence to the fact that the CUSSW’s degrees are all shams.
morris47 - September 7, 2010 at 10:13 am
10. I’m surprised the Chronicle would print this “amusing” little tidbit without fairly rehearsing the issues involved, and allowing those who fought for this change to be heard. Those who made comments, using words like “sham,” and “whining” in reference to the process, clearly need to find out more about it. Hopefully some member of the task force respsible for the change in degree will respond and provide some additional perspective on the matter.
jammers - September 7, 2010 at 12:00 pm
It is not $200 a letter; it is $300 a letter (I am keeping the D). Also, research and stats were required of DSWs (stats as a pre-req and research in a series of courses).
haohtt - September 7, 2010 at 12:16 pm
Actually, law schools have been doing the same thing for many years an the coversion from a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) to a Juris Doctorate (JD) seems to be a more significant conversion than from one research doctorate to another. According to the Columbia Alumni site, a committee will review the candidate’s transcripts and dissertation to see if it they meet the current requirement for the PhD. Over the past few decades, a number of programs have converted from EdD to PhD, without singificant changes in the curriculum or requirements. Since the original view of the EdD and DBA as professional, rather than research degrees, never really materialized (except at a few selected universities), it makes sense (from both a financial and ego point of view) to offer alumni a path to convert to the more recognized degree. I’ll bet that many EdD holders who did the same work as those who received a PhD in education would jump at the chance to have their work assessed and coverted to a PhD for a few hundred dollars.
alvitap - September 7, 2010 at 12:47 pm
Does this mean that teaching jobs demanding D.S.W.s or M.S.W.s will now be open to Ph.D.s in Sociology or Anthropology or Economics, etc.? EdD equal to Ph.D. = BS
abelragen - September 7, 2010 at 10:11 pm
Almost all American law schools offered this sort of swap long ago. My father happily converted the Ll.B. he had earned into a J.D. when the chance was offered to him. (He was tired of his brother the M.D. and his sister the Ph.D. lording it over him.) I think he was asked only for a $15.00 check, not the hundred of dollars and reams of documents Columbia is asking for. Well, they have New York prices to deal with and he went to a university in Omaha.The real question, of course, is what a doctorate is. My father’s original degree was correct: a first degree in a subject should be a bachelor’s. Today some law schools still award LL.M.’s as second degrees, topping off a beginner’s doctorate with a masters based on further work. (Stanford, and perhaps other law schools, offer a second doctorate, the J.S.D., to those who work beyond the J.D.) The obvious conclusion is that J.D.’s are inflated degrees, but we might also conclude that about M.D.’s, which are the equivalents of the Bachelor of Medicine and Master of Surgery degrees given in some other English-speaking countries. If the criterion for a doctorate is an “original contribution to knowledge”–and that is what I was taught by my aunt the Ph.D.–then beginning physicians are not real doctors.I don’t know if research was involved in the D.S.W.’s Columbia is replacing with Ph.D.’s, but here the question, from my point of view, is “knowledge.” As the name Social Work implies, that field is an area of practice, not a body of knowledge. The study of the knowledge on which the practice is based is grouped under psychology, sociology, philosophy, and several other fields. If there is to be a research degree in the practice, it would seem more appropriate not to call it a Ph.D.–”Teacher of the Love of Knowledge or Wisdom”–and instead name it by the field, as Columbia once did and all universities do with medicine and law. Or perhaps we might create a new name for research degrees in fields of practice. How about a “Doctor of Orthopraxis”? This is my faux classical version of “Teacher of Right Practice.”Please do not think I am disparaging Social Work. Another aunt from my father’s over-educated family spent many useful years pursuing a career in that field, with a master’s as her credential.
matilda - September 8, 2010 at 11:57 am
There’s been an argument for over 100 years about whether SW is a profession or not. The argument continues. And converting a DSW to a PhD does not help the field. Columbia required two (relatively easy) research and stat classes for the DSW. They upped the requirement to three of each when they converted to the PhD (and many of the students could barely get through the third class, but were passed anyway — and are on SW faculties nationwide). The DSW’s who will now pay for their “PhD’s” did not take these higher research/stat classes.And an LLB to a JD is more justified, although still questionable, because both are practice degrees. A PhD is awarded by the University, not the school — which is why this is a sad statement about Columbia University as a whole.
haohtt - September 8, 2010 at 1:33 pm
To alvitap,Several studies comparing the EdD to the PhD in education have been conducted since the 1980s. None of them have been able to identify significant differences between the two degrees across institutions. Of course, opinions and perceptions rarely involve such trivialities as data.
dpn33 - September 8, 2010 at 3:44 pm
I wonder what the folks outside of academia (i.e. almost everyone) would think of this tempest in a teapot.EdD: MY doctoral degree is as good as yours! I had to do research and write a big ole wonking dissertation!PhD: NO,MY degree is better! It’s got a Ph and I had to do REAL research.DWS: But, wait, my degree was both practical AND academic! I’m as good as you.PhD: No you’re not because I said so. So there.
alexandergcr - September 9, 2010 at 11:17 am
haohtt, some studies, and only some, have not been able to identify significant differences between the EdD and PhD across institutions. And most have identified significant differences between the EdD and PhD at the same institution. Where Columbia fails is in trying to convince people that a DSW, who didn’t have the same research and statistics requirements as a present-day PhD at Columbia, deserves the same degree. At best, this “conversion” is an honorary degree (which is a slap in the face to Columbia PhDs everywhere (and I am one).This conversion is driven by money. Social workers with DSW have historically had a hard time competing with psychologist PhDs — especially when managed-care panels were first instituted. And DSWs started complaining. By 1999, the CUSSW started to cave. Some DSW graduates started to call their degrees PhDs without any official Columbia approval. A PhD is different from a PsyD or DSW or JD or DBA, etc.. But Columbia is hoping that people will buy their spin.No one intelligent, or ethical, will.
stantonh - September 13, 2010 at 4:29 pm
I must first offer a sincere thank you to the obvious academic snobs who fervently tout the superiority of the PhD over the EdD which is the degree I possess. For years, I, too, accepted the notion that the EdD was a lesser degree and that the holders of the degree were not real academicians. Sadly I accepted this notion in the face of real evidence to the contrary as I moved about in the academy as a faculty member and administrator. After reading these posts today, however, I will enthusiastically and proudly claim my EdD. Thank you, to all those PhD snobs for your audacity to minimize a legitimate academic credential and for defining for me the essence of insecurity. Yours is a community to which I do not wish to belong.