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Comment by actualdc1 | Hacker News Reader

I could be wrong, but I believe that Princeton PhD's go by "mister" instead of "doctor."

Princeton considers itself a unique institution in this way. They do not accept transfer students, they do not have any professional degree programs, etc.

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University of Virginia does this as well:

"Out of respect for the founder of the University who did not have a Ph.D., University faculty are referred to as Mr. or Mrs. instead of Doctor, even if they have a Ph.D. Students and faculty historically addressed each other in this manner. Medical doctors are the exception to the rule and they should be referred to as Doctor."

http://www.virginia.edu/deanofstudents/studenttraditions.htm...

> I believe that Princeton PhD's go by "mister" instead of "doctor."

Would you have a reference for this? This is really interesting.

From http://www.princeton.edu/communications/services/editorial/r... :

> “Use the title Dr. only when referring to a medical doctor.”

Thanks!

Apropos of nothing, these rules seem mechanical enough to be codified as software. Has anyone done so?

P.S. A more specific link would be the "Titles" subsection, http://www.princeton.edu/communications/services/editorial/r...

The line before this says "don't use courtesy titles" (e.g. Mr.)

That's a style guide for writers who happen to be attending Princeton, and a fairly common one, at that: generally one says John Doe, Ph.D. for a non-physician and then later says Doe, not Dr. Doe or Mr. Doe (the blanket rule against courtesy titles is also common and independent of Dr.). As for not using Dr. as a title for certain types of degrees, that is not universally accepted and has been the minority in my experience (with the exception of Juris Doctors). Pretty much every Ed.D. I have met styles themselves Dr., for example, though half of the etiquette people discourage it.

To the root point, your citation has absolutely nothing to do with a proper title for a Princeton alumnus.

I'll take a look around.

An instructor of mine in college had attended Princeton, and thus the information came to me from him by word of mouth.

I can't find anything online supporting this.

I learned that "don't use Doctor except for medical doctors" was a thing in high school (South Carolina), and this custom was practiced at both my undergraduate school (Brandeis) and my grad school (UVa, Astronomy.)

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