Note that by PhD I mean the degree itself, not the person holding it -- I'm sure highly talented people do PhDs in Europe. The simple fact that a US PhD is more

Note that by PhD I mean the degree itself, not the person holding it -- I'm sure highly talented people do PhDs in Europe. The simple fact that a US PhD is more time consuming would be enough to account for a difference in esteem. Check out arjunnarayan's comments on this same topic on a parallel thread -- he has more to say about it than I do. I'm repeating what I've heard, and IIRC I heard it from CS professors where I went to college -- the same one where Mor Harchol-Balter works.