AIBU - use of ‘Dr’ title - is this normal?!

[Cheesecake45]

Just not sure if I need to get with the times or not - is it normal to go by the title ‘Dr’ simply for having a PhD, if you aren’t in the medical profession? I’m talking one of the easiest PhDs to get (comparatively speaking), nothing vaguely linked to medicine.

AIBU??
YES = this is totally normal get over yourself
NO = wouldn’t be caught dead calling myself a doctor unless I could be assistance in a medical emergency!

I don’t think it’s unusual at all.. if you’ve completed a Doctorate I don’t see why you wouldn’t use Dr. I know several people who do this & ive never thought it pretentious. I think it’s quite normal! It’s not about being medically qualified.

Worked insanely hard for 7 years for my PhD (and believe me there are no easy ones!) quite honestly it nearly killed me to get it. Dr is the relevant title and it's weirder not to use it!

I do think that is quite pathetic wanting to be known as 'Mrs' now that I'm older. But as a 21 year old I thought it made me sound very grown up!

People in my work usually don’t. It causes a bit of eye rolling to be honest.

I just can't imagine being the type of person who eye rolls at someone's achievements. Do you eye roll when people have children? Get married? Receive a promotion? Are nominated for an award? Is it all achievements you devalue, or just educational ones?

One of my best friends has a doctorate, I am so proud of her and what she has achieved. I get a little frissson of delight when I address her birthday and Christmas cards as Dr J and not Ms J . Of course she is entitled to use her title, it's not pretentious, and if it flags up that she is a woman of substance and someone to be reckoned with, then great!

The true British suspicion of anything that smacks suspiciously of intellect.

I have a PhD. Professionally I use Dr a lot (email signature, company website, presentation slides, reports) because the nature of my work means people would expect me to have a PhD. CV and LinkedIn I just put PhD after my name, because I don’t want people to mistake me for a medical doctor, which in my field is a relevant but less valuable qualification. Verbally, I would just introduce myself as “Jane”, or “Jane Doe”, not “Dr Jane Doe”- because that does seem a bit too try hard.

In my personal life, I never actually have to use titles (does anyone??). If I’m filling out a form and Dr is in the drop down list I might choose it, might choose Ms. I’ve never bothered changing my title on driving licence/banks/utilities so I am a mix of Miss, Ms, Dr and Mrs - it doesn’t really matter. I avoid Dr on airlines and medical stuff so that cabin crew don’t contact me in an emergency and medics don’t think I’m a medic. The only time I’ve ever ‘corrected’ someone on my title was when a twattish acquaintance of DH referred to me as Mrs Hisname and I said I’m actually Dr Myname. I myself felt like a bit of a twat afterwards, but he deserved it.

Mate of mine has a phd in drama. Dr Drama I call her 😂

YABU, there’s no such thing as an easy to get PhD.

Call me what you like as long as it's not Mrs!!!

it doesn’t usually bother me either way, although I recently received an email from DS’s teacher, who addressed me by my Christian name and signed himself off Dr xxx, which felt very condescending!

I don’t have a PHD but if I did you can be damn sure I’d be using Dr as my title even if medically I wasn’t.

People that have a PHD have worked damn hard to get it, why shouldn’t they be proud to show off their hard earned achievement.

If I had successfully achieved a PhD, I would make everyone call me Dr, even my children 😂 it's a fantastic achievement, nothing wrong with using that hard earned title.

Please let me know what you consider an easy PhD area is!

In the US you can graduate medical school with a C average. That means an average for all of your classes. To get a graduate degree masters or PhD, its two C's and you are out. That is only two classes. It doesn't matter if you have A's in the rest of your classes.

I use Dr because I hate having to choose from Ms and Mrs (and Miss prior to marriage). If there was an equivalent female title to Mr that didn’t have any meaning related to marital status I might be less bothered about using Dr.

Why do lots of woman change their surname and title to Mrs when they get married?
Why isn't that ridiculed and seen as pretentious?

Maybe worth explaining as you clearly don't know - to obtain a PhD (and I assume this is the same for most) I had to study for 7 years part time (5 full time usually), and write 80,000 words predominantly of original thought. So I had to review all the existing literature in my field and then contribute something substantial and entirely original. For that I earned the title Doctor of Philosophy, so yes I'm Dr not Mrs!

Definitely. Good for her.

Why?

Why? For medical doctors the title of doctor is an honorary and not earn’t where as a person with PhD has earned the title of doctor.

A couple of young GPs I've seen recently have introduced themselves by their first name. It really impressed me. Much nicer for my nervous DD.

I've never come across a psychologist calling themselves 'Dr' but some psychiatrists do. Why would you have a problem with that? I think most people would expect a psychiatrist to be a 'Dr'.

It's actually quite important for formal documents to be consistent, particularly in relation to DBS's, if you ever have to be positively vetted or there is an insurance or HMRC inquiry in relation to your affairs it may become important.

Op, if you are asking because a friend or someone you know used the title, then you are a crap friend. If you are asking for yourself I wouldn’t worry about it because there is every chance that you won’t pass. You seem to know nothing about what it takes to achieve a PhD and if you think your subject is so easy then you are either a genius or a simpleton.

@Iamthemoom as I said earlier-wankery.

You don't need to explain!