Richie news:He will receive an honorary Doctor of Humane ...

So basically it's a degree for poor ones who never had a brain to study?

I was thinking more along the lines of a degree you can buy. I'm glad it is only called honorary, as having given up 4 years of my life to get a real one I'd be pretty upset if the distinction wasn't made.

I don't think brains had anything to do with it. By the age Jon and Richie would have gotten out of college they were into the careers that made them multi-millioniares who are able to do pretty much whatever they want in life. I'm not sure how THAT translates into not having the brains to study.

Becky

I think it's more the idea that they get it without havign to sit down with a book or whatever. fair enough they've contr4ibuted a great deal to society but people who have actually had to sit down and get real degrees have contributed a hell of alot more.

It all kinda cheapens the idea of a degree really when you can get one for being famous but I wouldn't turn one down if it was being offered to me so I won;t judge.

but still only degree they can get is the one they can buy.....
there's more than one way to make a million, and not all of em requires brain. so is ur point that cash equals brain?

No, my point is being intelligent doesn't mean you have to go to college. There are many people with "brains" who do well outside the academic arena. In some ways I think those people are doing better than those of us who do go to college and I say that as a perfectionist who graduated with the highest marks achievable twice. They're out there doing and creating while students are reading, researching, memorizing and theorizing. I value my education, but I don't think that getting a degree is the only way for a person to use their intelligence.


Becky

Yup I totally agree. Though I think degrees that can be bought are a shame. Some people work hard for their degrees while ones with cash can walk in and buy one. I know bought one doesn't mean s**t after all, but it still is a degree.

Richie DID go to collage, didn't he?
I read somewhere that he wanted to be a psykologist (sp?)

I can't understand where this idea that Richie's doctorate has been 'bought' has come from. The university, one that he actually did attend at one point, has decidded to bestow an honour on him as a way of recognising his musical and philanthropic achievements. This not only is an honour for Richie of course, but more importantly gives the university valuable promotion within the media. How many had never heard of Kean university before yesterday?! At the end of the day, the committee at the university will have nominated and selected him as a recipient, and indeed this is something that happens at EVERY university that can get it. It has nothing to do with money on Richie's part; the university will merely gain promotion. That is all there is too it. Richie will never be able to tell people that he achieved it, but he will have the honour or telling people that he was awarded a doctorate and in some was its' even more impressive that he was hand picked. At the end of the day, as a university student about to graduate in July, I hardly feel that Richie being given an honourary doctorate belittles what I've achieved; it's merely a completely different thing in a completely different strand. They are not comparable. All I can say is CONGRATULATIONS of the highest order to Richie, after all 20 years of Bon Jovi is in itself the biggest achievement he could ever have wished for, a piece of paper isn't going to change that.

i dunno about Stateside but over here a doctorate is like a degree above a degree if you get what I mean.

so it isn't even like your run of the mill crap that tony blairs going to be giving away in packets of Corn Flakes in the near future.