Terminal Degrees Explained

Level 2 - Admissions 101

Welcome back! 

In some of our recent posts, we have gotten some questions about terminal degrees.To help provide some context, we have decided to put a simple guide together on terminal degrees.

What are terminal degrees?

A terminal degree is the highest achievable degree in a given field. In its simplest form, it is the highest degree you can earn in a field of study. 

For example, a terminal degree in law is a JD, while a terminal degree in psychology is a doctorate degree. 

Each individual field will have a different terminal degree level and that will heavily vary, even among similar fields. 

The key thing to remember is that terminal degrees come in two categories:

• Academic 

• Professional

Academic terminal degrees are most often PhD because they are the highest forms of degrees for “spreading knowledge.” 

Professional terminal degrees are the highest degree needed to be able to operate within the role, often due to licensing requirements. This is where the greatest variance exists. The highest degree level needed to operate a license may not actually require a PhD. For example, a mental health counselor’s terminal degree is a Master’s degree, even if they can earn a PhD in that field. 

Why do terminal degrees matter?

Academically, terminal degrees confer a level of expertise in a given area. A dissertation is the culmination of the degree, and highlights a substantial contribution to the field.

All of that makes sense. A terminal degree in the academic field is about being viewed as a contributor to the underlying research in the field.

In that sense, having a terminal degree is required to be taken seriously in the field. 

From a practical standpoint, there is a lot of scrutiny around this. This has played out openly in a “trust the science” debate, where academic credentialing is being challenged and is instead being viewed as virtue signaling. Whether that is true or not is largely irrelevant, but the value of an academic that is terminally degreed is diminishing. 

There is also the question of whether it matters in a practical matter. Yes, traditional research rules typically encourage terminal degrees to contribute, but the modern era does not have the same gatekeeping it used. 

A different example, but imagine journalism. It used to be that an individual had to have specific credentials to be deemed a journalist, but now, anyone can make contributions to journalism. And the only real requirement is the ability to disseminate news to build an audience. 

The same could be said for academic discussion - there are individuals on Twitter/X that openly disregard academic professionals in favor of their own knowledge - a common example is the use of “Broscience” to discredit modern medical perceptions. 

But professional terminal degrees are different.

Professional terminal degrees are not about meeting academic requirements or contributing to broader academic journals - it is about meeting a functional requirement to be licensed to operate within a given area. 

The standard is very different in this place - the challenge to professional terminal degrees is whether they are necessary for an individual to actually operate in this space in a professional sense. 

In other words, does an individual actually need to attend medical school for them to be capable of operating as a doctor? Remember, this is not about someone being able to make contributions to the research within the medical field. It is about whether they can be a doctor. 

That poses a different question. 

In our opinion, that makes terminally degrees more valuable. Why? Because the value in terminal degrees for licensing is ensuring a standard level of knowledge for individuals to operate in that space. 

That is helpful to the consumer - if you want a lawyer, you need to find a person who is barred, not someone who never went to law school. 

What are some of the challenges to terminal degrees?

In our estimation, there are two challenges to terminal degrees:

• Are they necessary for individuals to make academic contributions?

• Are they necessary to operate professionally?

The first question is much more straightforward. In our opinion, academic journals are losing their monopolistic control. It used to be that the only way anyone would see anything you wrote is if you submitted to a journal and were published. That is somewhat the same now, but technically, you do not need a journal if you can otherwise build the audience to read what you write. 

For example, imagine that you want to discuss children with autism. Once upon a time, you would have needed a PhD in something relevant to even be discussed in this space. Now, all you need is an audience and you can speak to anything that you have “researched” without any inhibitor. 

Is that good? Yes and no. It makes it harder to determine who is actually an authority, which leads to misinformation. But it also means that someone does not need to be a PhD in order to say the same thing they would have said with a bachelor’s degree. 

From a professional standpoint, terminal degrees are challenged by whether you actually need education to perform a given function. 

Take law school for example. Traditionally, law school teaches you how to think and part of that process is being able to conduct your own legal research to support your legal argument.

Now, technology changes that. AI, in theory, can actually find all of the relevant positions that support a given legal argument, including court cases with proper citation. In that sense, do you actually need a law degree to be able to craft an argument with the supporting casework associated with it? 

Not likely. It does not mean that terminal degrees for licensing are useless, it just means that they are useful for tasks beyond the most basic actions. 

But remember, licensing serves a more important social function - it guarantees that a person within a given profession meets basic requirements to assure the public that they can be trusted. 

What it means for you

Simply put, academic terminal degrees are probably in more danger than professional terminal degrees.

Academics will be challenged in the foreseeable future, and whether or not you need a PhD will be heavily critiqued. 

For example, how much more does a PhD know over their counterpart with a Master’s degree and 10 years of experience? 

But in our view, professional terminal degrees are insulated. Not because it is impossible to learn, but because protecting the public requires eliminating opportunities where non-licensed individuals can infiltrate a given profession. 

That means if you are pursuing a professional terminal degree, it likely makes sense to continue. If you are pursuing an academic terminal degree, proceed with caution.