http://jovanevery.ca/going-on-to-phd/ Helping you be a better academic Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:56:33 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://jovanevery.ca/going-on-to-phd/#comment-39 Emma Whelan Sat, 27 Feb 2010 19:57:34 +0000 http://jovanevery.ca/?p=165#comment-39 Right on, Jo. I know of so many students who went on to an MA and then a PhD because they didn't know what else to do, or because they thought that being a professor was a cushy job. My feeling is that doing a PhD should be a compulsion, not a lark, because only a burning compulsion to do it will get you through all those years of poverty, self-doubt, and all the other downsides of the PhD process. Also I think many faculty are too afraid of hurting students' feelings to tell them they don't think they should do a PhD, so interpret professors' encouragement with caution. I'd suggest asking your professors to be *brutally honest* with you about what it's like to be a professor now, what it's like to do a PhD, the drop-out rates in most PhD programs (it was 70% in mine, and some of the smartest people dropped out), and most of all, whether you have what it takes to get through the PhD. That won't guarantee they won't softsoap their responses, but it might encourage them to be honest with you. Right on, Jo. I know of so many students who went on to an MA and then a PhD because they didn’t know what else to do, or because they thought that being a professor was a cushy job. My feeling is that doing a PhD should be a compulsion, not a lark, because only a burning compulsion to do it will get you through all those years of poverty, self-doubt, and all the other downsides of the PhD process. Also I think many faculty are too afraid of hurting students’ feelings to tell them they don’t think they should do a PhD, so interpret professors’ encouragement with caution. I’d suggest asking your professors to be *brutally honest* with you about what it’s like to be a professor now, what it’s like to do a PhD, the drop-out rates in most PhD programs (it was 70% in mine, and some of the smartest people dropped out), and most of all, whether you have what it takes to get through the PhD. That won’t guarantee they won’t softsoap their responses, but it might encourage them to be honest with you.

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