8 years - what about 5 months?

[ham]

If a man truly believes that crap about RA being the only way, why in God's name wouldn't he have at least obtained one good degree rather than all that pointless collection of titles, that no one, who knows better, and that is most people, will accept as being of quality and useful.

standards (=school standards ) are like democracy= they mainly serve to make privilege/short-cuts more desirable.
In other words, strict academic standards are a good umbrella for less-than-wonderful/"barely making it" kind of "schools", much as most cars in the average-to-low segment of purchasing power tend to "just look like" (as much as law allows ) cars in the "upper-to-high" segment.