Encouraging

Posted at 11:26 AM, October 5, 2007 · No Comments

Are you seriously considering a Ph.D.? Most people I know have had the thought cross their mind once or twice in their lives. You know who you are: You’re in a dead-end job; or you’re finishing up your Master’s and the job market is down; or you’ve just finished your Bachelor’s and the real world ain’t looking so hot. And so on.

Or are you already in a Ph.D. program? At the stage where you’re slogging away, with no sign of the end, the gray hairs increasing exponentially and your adviser(s) breathing down your neck, whispering those three magic words to you (and not in a nice way)? You know: All…But…Dissertation.

Well, I have some news for you. News that will tip you over to the other side.

For those who attempt it, the doctoral dissertation can loom on the horizon like Everest, gleaming invitingly as a challenge but often turning into a masochistic exercise once the ascent is begun. The average student takes 8.2 years to get a Ph.D.; in education, that figure surpasses 13 years. Fifty percent of students drop out along the way, with dissertations the major stumbling block. At commencement, the typical doctoral holder is 33, an age when peers are well along in their professions, and 12 percent of graduates are saddled with more than $50,000 in debt. [link]

Encouraging, no? And just to rub it in – I’m done with my Ph.D. Plus, I have no debt. Well, no academic-related debt, at any rate. (If my bookie is reading this, I’ll have the money for you by next week, I swear).