Politicians telling outright lies is certainly nothing new. Simply trying to mislead people sounds like an improvement to me.
I don’t know I heard one of those SEC commits say on Natl Signing Day he was committing to “The University of Ole Miss”.
However, it does appear that the general expectation is that politicians will try to mislead people, even if they are careful enough to avoid outright lying.
Its not just politicians in US.
Many tv personalities and entertainers in FOREIGN nations do that all the time. For example, PSY from Korea said “he graduates Berkelee”. However,since the public had no knowledge about schools in US, they just assumed its UCLA when he actually meant Berkelee School of Music(still good but misleading)…these two are also spelled same in Korean characters.
We just had dinner with friends who downsized. Wife had problems purging her personal stuff but husband (head of a urology dept at an ivy med school) even tossed all his diplomas. He just handed in his retirement notice effective end of the year.
"Employers are frequently fooled because they’re too lazy, cheap, or clueless to verify an applicant’s credentials. Says as much about them as it does about the person trying to exaggerate their experience or education. "
I think a corporate account for the national clearinghouse charges about $7/per degree verification. Companies spend more money validating parking for candidates…cannot comment or lazy or clueless, but it can’t be the cost since it’s practically negligible. It’s not like drug testing- which if you are a high turnover environment (fast food or retail) does end up becoming a line item in your on-boarding budget- the cost is very low to input a candidate’s name and hear back within minutes.
How about a public intellectual type who says on his web site, “earned a Ph.D. (Abd) at University of California, Berkeley in Chinese History.”
I first saw Ph.D (Abd) listed as a credential for this person on a television show where he was a panelist and found it rather sleazy since most people probably don’t have a clue what (Abd) means.
This:
“Marilee Jones, the dean of admissions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, became well known for urging stressed-out students competing for elite colleges to calm down and stop trying to be perfect. Yesterday she admitted that she had fabricated her own educational credentials, and resigned after nearly three decades at M.I.T. Officials of the institute said she did not have even an undergraduate degree”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/27/us/27mit.html?_r=0
(It’s and old story btw)
OH MY GOD!
But can you actually “earn a Ph.D” without the Dissertation at Berkeley?
I wouldn’t think so. I have never heard of any university awarding a degree called PhD (Abd).
But that is a quote from his biography on his own web site.
To be fair, getting to the ABD stage requires a LOT of work, and some recognition of that is certainly in order if you drop out. A MA degree doesn’t signify that you’ve passed your PhD comps and whatnot.
That said, the UCs have a special “degree” denoting ABD status – CPhil (Candidate in Philosophy) – and that wording is intentionally misleading.
@ucbalumnus wrote: What happens to someone who graduates from a school that later ceases to exist? Will an employer or graduate/professional school be able to verify his/her degree? If official transcripts are desired for such, what then?
It is common for another school to acquire those responsibilities, as well as anything left in an endowment after a school closes. Students don’t need to worry about not having their degree or transcripts verified.
The director of nursing at a local hospital (about 35 years ago) didn’t have a nursing degree. Everything about her turned out to be total fabrication. As director though she was great–it was a management job and she was a great manager and totally efficient (I don’t think she did any hands-on nursing at all). And then one day–poof!–she was gone.
In addition to my financial aid duties (and other assorted duties), I am the Registrar. I handle calls all the time from employers and third-party verification services, requesting verification of degrees. I can understand that perhaps employers did not verify in the past, but they should definitely do it today. Better to verify upfront, rather than to find out later that the person lied …
Oh, and anyone looking at my diploma would think it was fake. It has two sides, with a different school name on each side. My school’s name changed while I was a student, so they gave our class a dual-diploma so we could choose the side we wanted to display! 
They’re good as movie props at best…
“that wording is intentionally misleading.”
Yeah, you can’t “earn a PhD (ABD).” There’s no such thing. You list the M.A. as a credential, and then you can list your years as a PhD candidate with the ABD conclusion. I consider that biography dishonest. You may know as much as a PhD, and you may have worked way harder than another MA, but you cannot put a PhD you didn’t earn anywhere on your resume/bio except in the context of your candidacy.
Agree. ABD is ABD (unless there is a special designation such as the UC one above).
A candidate has not earned a PhD without defending the dissertation successfully – they have earned a Master’s, and completed coursework en route. That in itself is an accomplishment. Yet to say otherwise does not reflect well on the alleged level of education one has honestly attained.
I recently attended a conference where I somehow had the wrong credentials listed after my name. I didn’t personally register for this event and had no idea until I got there. Just being listed as attending with inflated credentials made me uncomfortable. Obviously not something I wanted to make an issue of with the sign-in staff though. I can’t imagine pulling off applying for a job or working knowing you aren’t being legit about it.
I confess that we have a Wall O’ Fame–but at our house, not at work. It even has stuff from high school.