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MIT also famously does not award honorary degrees [1] which restricts its commencement speaker pool. However, commencement speakers can get honorary Pirate Cert
by madars 3y ago
MIT also famously does not award honorary degrees [1] which restricts its commencement speaker pool. However, commencement speakers can get honorary Pirate Certificates which is way cooler: https://alum.mit.edu/slice/arrrr-mit-pirates-and-matt-damon-certified https://alum.mit.edu/slice/arrrr-mit-pirates-and-matt-damon-...
[1] https://news.mit.edu/2001/commdegrees https://news.mit.edu/2001/commdegrees
- esrauch 3y agoDo famous people really choose not to speak at MIT Commencement because they won't get an honorary degree for it? You'd think "spoke at MIT Commencement" would be an equal line item for a CV given the context.
- giantg2 3y agoI would think if someone was important enough to speak at commencement, the act of speaking at commencement would be a relatively unimportant and not worth putting on a CV (if someone in those positions actually needs to use CVs).
- madars 3y agoFrom what I've heard, yes. The choice is not between speaking at MIT+no honorary degree and not speaking at all; speak at MIT+no honorary degree/speak at Harvard+honorary degree -> well, could be swayed to speak at Harvard then!
- JohnFen 3y agoDo these people think that others are impressed by honorary degrees? Are there people who are impressed by honorary degrees??
- jstarfish 3y ago> Are there people who are impressed by honorary degrees?? Yes. Yokels who don't know what "honorary" means.
- krapp 3y agoRMS stans who insist that he be referred to as "Dr. Stallman."
- seabass-labrax 3y agoWell it worked, because it had never occurred to me that his was honorary!
- fbdab103 3y agoA quick skim of the previous commencement speakers[0] says these people do not need any additional bona fides. CEOs, Director-General of the WTO, governors, billionaires, etc [0] https://alum.mit.edu/slice/brief-history-mit-commencement-speakers-2022-edition https://alum.mit.edu/slice/brief-history-mit-commencement-sp...