Do I Have to Finish My Dissertation
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Do I Have to Finish My Dissertation? - Advice - The Chronicle ...
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January 24, 2012
Do I Have to Finish My Dissertation? By Ms. Mentor
Question: What do you recommend for a doctoral candidate who's lost her passion for her dissertation topic? It's been a quickand-dirty end to a long love affair. I had been working as the director of a community program, which (I found out) needed serious help. I'd started turning my notes about the program into a case-study dissertation—when the ax fell. The boss abruptly and without any warning cut the program and left me unemployed. There's an alternative site where I could finish the research, but I've lost my enthusiasm along with my job. I'm now teaching as an adjunct, but in a department that isn't connected with the subject of my research. Although I've finished my coursework and passed comprehensives, it's hard to get motivated to do the research proposal that's the next step. Do I tell my committee and my family that I just can't go on? Or do I suck it up and try to finish? Answer: Some call it a dark night of the soul. Ms. Mentor calls it dissertation writing. It's a process filled with rage and despair, bursts of exhilaration and rivers of whining. A lot like real life—except that you don't really have to do it if you don't want to. And so Ms. Mentor suggests you ask yourself the following questions.
Do I believe that it's character-building to finish what I start, and that I'll let down my team if I don't?
That is a common delusion, especially among young people who go straight through school without pausing for real-life jobs. Just as you fought your way through the eighth-grade bullies, sat through strange electives as an undergraduate, and endured widely varying seminars in graduate school, now the last endurance test is at hand.
Do you have what it takes?Ms.
Mentor notes that half of the students who
reach the A.B.D. stage where you are—with exams and course work done—never do finish the dissertation. Especially in the humanities, many of them decide it isn't a good investment for
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young adults. In English, it takes an average of 11 years from the start of graduate school to getting the Ph.D., followed by three years of applying for tenure-track jobs that most Ph.D.'s will never get. "I spent my youth on one dead general," historian Blanche Wiesen Cook has said about her dissertation on Dwight D. Eisenhower. She wonders sometimes about the roads not taken. If you mainly need to demonstrate your self-discipline to friends and relatives who've thought you were "farting around with grad school" for years, Ms. Mentor thinks finishing a dissertation is a very long and arduous way to seek their approval. If you're going to walk a long, lonesome highway, be sure you've chosen it for yourself.
Do I need a Ph.D. for my chosen profession?In
some fields you do, like in
medical research, astrophysics, or any field involving large machines doing expensive calculations. You also need a Ph.D. for university teaching—but only if you want to work full time, on the tenure track. Adjuncts, who now teach the majority of college courses, may or may not have "terminal degrees." Some are working professionals, such as musicians, artists, and community organizers, who may have no degrees at all. You do need a Ph.D. to teach esoteric branches of literary criticism or political theory. The ivory tower is the only place where impractical ponderers may still be cherished. (And even so, philosophy departments are closing down everywhere. Studying the meaning of life no longer sells.) Your research, though, sounds practical and socially useful. You don't need a Ph.D. to write and publish a book about your project, especially if it has lessons for people who come after you. You've already done the community work—and you've been punished for it. Your book could be an inspiring tale of rising from the ashes, transcending failure and moving on. A book will reach a larger audience, and few people will care if you have "Doctor" in front of your name. (And once you do, you'll be disheartened by the number of people who ask "Are you a real doctor?," meaning a medical one. You'll be tempted to take out their appendixes anyway, just for fun.)
Is my work an original contribution to knowledge?That's
the traditional test. A
dissertation should tell the world something new, although
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Do I Have to Finish My Dissertation? - Advice - The Chronicle ...
http://chronicle.com/article/Do-I-Have-to-Finish-My/130397/
creators of new knowledge aren't always honored at first. Thomas Kuhn, the namer and discoverer of paradigm shifts, bounced around from physics to history to philosophy, and was even turned down for tenure at Harvard University because his book was "too popular." But his Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) is now a landmark in the history of knowledge. He was an original thinker, not confined to a single academic department, and so are you: You're already doing research in one field and teaching in another. You have admirable versatility, and, it seems, a unique story to tell. Ms. Mentor wonders if it's the bureaucratic hoops that are getting you down, or a deeper malaise ("my research sucks"). Departmental barriers can be transcended, especially if you find a powerful mentor to vouch for the value of your work. But "this is useless" is a common refrain among dissertation writers, and some never do sing any other tune. Ms. Mentor suggests giving yourself a few months of rumination time. Then consider: Do you miss the research? Do you yearn to write it for your academic peers, or get it before the world as a book? Do you find yourself hearing about other programs' mistakes and twitching ("I know what they should be doing")? The best work can live after you. Ms. Mentor thinks of Josiah Royce, a gruff Californian who earned one of the first four American Ph.D.'s (from the Johns Hopkins University in 1878). Royce went on to coin the term "beloved community," the dream that moved a young doctoral student named Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950s, decades after Royce's death. The dream of a beloved community today inspires the Occupy protests for social justice. If your work can change the world, or even just your little corner of it, Ms. Mentor thinks you should continue. If not, you have her permission to stop and do something else that you find meaningful. Writing a dissertation when you no longer care can consume your life and destroy your dreams.
Question: A young colleague was struggling with a bureaucratic task I can easily do, but when I tried to explain it, he snarled at me and said he knows all that's current, and I am hopelessly behind the times. Should I persist in trying to mentor him, because it's the right thing to do, or rant to my peers about the ingratitude of the younger
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generation? Or would Ms. Mentor rather hide from the whole question? Answer: Hide. Sage readers: Despite fervent pleas from her flock, Ms. Mentor will make no predictions for the new year. She is not a pundit. She will urge everyone to do the right, smart thing, whatever that might be, and to save the best barbed comments for her and for intimates (and not for Twitter, Facebook, or university e-mails). Otherwise, the opportunities for satire and mortification are much too delicious. As always, Ms. Mentor invites queries, rants, and theories. She regrets that she can rarely answer letters personally, and never speedily. All communications are confidential, and identifying details are always puréed. They can suspect it's you, but they won't know. Ms. Mentor, who never leaves her ivory tower, channels her mail via Emily Toth in the English department of Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge. Her latest book is "Ms. Mentor's New and Ever More Impeccable Advice for Women and Men in Academia" (University of Pennsylvania Press). Her e-mail address is [email protected]. (c) Emily Toth. All rights reserved
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annon1234 1 day ago
With regards to the dissertation question... there is also value in telling yourself, "There are good reasons why I decided to do this to begin with. The fact that I can't remember any of them now is insufficient reason to drop out". Huge numbers of PhD students get discouraged at least once, and often more than once, during the process. Generally speaking their previously supportive (or at least not actively obstructive) advisers leave them to suffer through this on their own under the archaic belief that the dissertation is a do it yourself project and it is in the best interests of the student for the suffer through on their own (of course there are others who attribute more dubious reasons for this faculty behavior, and benign neglect is not one of them). Setbacks during the dissertation process are common, unfortunate and often expensive. That faculty don't give students the support to get through all this hoop jumping is unfortunate and a huge waste of the intellectual capital in this country.
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esmo8393 23 hours ago
so very, very true. It seems as if so much of the dissertation process is simply sucking up whatever neglect or stupidity one's committee throws out. Having worked in student services positions for years, it pains me to be forced to jump through hoops simply because that's the way it's always been done. Would it really hurt an adviser to actually give advice? In plain English? Or how about just not changing his mind over and over again? This dissertation hasn't been MY work in a long time, it's been changed so many times. The whole process after comps stinks--and I've worked at MANY universities where the process is just the same. It all just seems so very petty. NOT the way I want my students to feel after I've advised THEM, that's for certain.
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esmo8393 23 hours ago
so very, very true. It seems as if so much of the dissertation process is simply sucking up whatever neglect or stupidity one's committee throws out. Having worked in student services positions for years, it pains me to be forced to jump through hoops simply because that's the way it's always been done. Would it really hurt an adviser to actually give advice? In plain English? Or how about just not changing his mind over and over again? This dissertation hasn't been MY work in a long time, it's been changed so many times. The whole process after comps stinks--and I've worked at MANY universities where the process is just the same. It all just seems so very petty. NOT the way I want my students to feel after I've advised THEM, that's for certain.
Like
esmo8393 23 hours ago
so very, very true. It seems as if so much of the dissertation process is simply sucking up whatever neglect or stupidity one's committee throws out. Having worked in student services positions for years, it pains me to be forced to jump through hoops simply because that's the way it's always been done. Would it really hurt an adviser to actually give advice? In plain English? Or how about just not changing his mind over and over again? This dissertation hasn't been MY work in a long time, it's been changed so many times. The whole process after comps stinks--and I've worked at MANY universities where the process is just the same. It all just seems so very petty. NOT the way I want my students to feel after I've advised THEM, that's for certain.
Like
nyhist 1 day ago
I concur with Ms Mentor's advice that this student take a break for a couple of months to ruminate. But I would also ask the student to ask herself: will I forever regret not having finished the dissertation? Can I imagine my life 5 years from now having finished, and then not having finished? How do I feel about that result? Such questions have always been useful to me and my students when we face big decisions.
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landrumkelly 1 day ago
"Say not the struggle naught availeth. . . ." Be sure that the topic is really important to you, since, if it is not, what you produce has no chance of being considered valuable or important to anyone else. Formulating or reformulating a research proposal can be a good opportunity to establish the direction of your scholarly inquiries for many years to come. If you have come this far, surely there are some intellectual issues in your own discipline that fire your intellectual passion.
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bfrank1 1 day ago
As they say around my shop "Write up and get out." Every PhD student reaches the point, after immersion in the 'problem', when they realize it is an endless quest. Then it is time to regain personal autonomy by shifting focus from the 'problem', which can consume a lifetime, to the TASK, which is to get 5 names on the dissertation signature page. THAT is the transition that separates the sheep from the goats , and THAT is the transition that lets you stand tall again, and forever. The doctorate is a badge of persistence that does not tarnish. Get busy, get creative, and get done.
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chaz 1 day ago
I really resent the idea that "philosophy no longer sells." In reality, philosophy programs are growing at some universities and employers are increasingly realizing that philosophy majors are bright, articulate, thoughtful and inventive. Follow these links for more:
http://www.timeshighereducatio... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04...
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lydiatimmins 1 day ago
I took a break for a few years to birth my children... but I did get back on the track and finish the damn thing. I can only sympathize with the letter writer... in my case, I finished because I don't leave jobs half-done. But that's just me. your experience may vary.
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janesdaughter 1 day ago
The best counsel I received in the ten long years it took to finish the degree was that a Ph.D. is mostly a sign of persistence. We might like to think it means we are smart, or capable of original research, or an expert in a particular field. You can finish the dissertation and still not be any of those things. But you will be able to claim persistence as a character trait. Now you have two questions to think about. 1) Which of those things means the most to you? 2) If you choose character as the important thing, is persistence the trait that means the most to you? As Ms. Mentor and others have suggested, the answers to these questions can only come from the individual.
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matthewse 1 day ago
Very interesting and, for me, timely! I absolutely empathize with the letter writer, and while my situation hasn't changed significantly, I find myself from time to time asking the same question,"is it really worth it?" If I didn't consider the investment in time, money and mental resources - or if somehow I could time-travel back to day one, would I do it? Would I start the Phd knowing what I know lies in wait for me? The answer so far has been a resounding "YES"! Not for the fame (non-existent), not for the glory (ditto), certainly not for the economic compensation (ha!), but for the simple fact that I though "I" was worth the investment 4 years ago - and that hasn't changed. Course work (check); Comps (check); Topic (check). What's left is a lot less than what came before so I would encourage the writer to take a deep breath, take a short break, and then finish what they started! Just my $.02
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matthewse 1 day ago
Very interesting and, for me, timely! I absolutely empathize with the letter writer, and while my situation hasn't changed significantly, I find myself from time to time asking the same question,"is it really worth it?" If I didn't consider the investment in time, money and mental resources - or if somehow I could time-travel back to day one, would I do it? Would I start the Phd knowing what I know lies in wait for me? The answer so far has been a resounding "YES"! Not for the fame (non-existent), not for the glory (ditto), certainly not for the economic compensation (ha!), but for the simple fact that I though "I" was worth the investment 4 years ago - and that hasn't changed. Course work (check); Comps (check); Topic (check). What's left is a lot less than what came before so I would encourage the writer to take a deep breath, take a short break, and then finish what they started!Just my $.02
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amazona2 22 hours ago
I have the opposite problem as I write my dissertation. I have tons of passion and feeling anxiety about not been able to produce something great and lasting. A paradigm shifting piece of work. That is what most likely would cause me to drop out. I rather have nothing than a so-so diss. Not much motivated by the phd or the academy, as about being recognized as an important contributor to knowledge. I am trying to bring my expectations way down so I don't kill myself in the process because if I don't finish I will never know what I have. What does Ms. Mentor say to that?
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ralphyj 3 hours ago
Look up several of those you admire intellectually/academically. How many of their doctoral dissertations have you read? I suspect it's somewhere between one and zero. Then look at how old they were when they wrote the work they are best known for. I suspect they were well post-PhD. Your standards are not simply 'too high', they are inappropriate to the task.
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espresso5 19 hours ago
A Ph.D. and a $1.50 will get you a coke at the store. Five years after finishing my Ph.D., I still wonder whether it was worth hassle and heartache. I have a job I like in my field, that I could not have received without a Ph.D., but as I look around at my friends and associates who did not go on to further their education and see them making several times my own salary, I struggle to see the upside to a Ph.D. That being said, I think not finishing would have left me with a severe chip on my shoulder (versus not bothering with grad school in the first place, which might have been the best choice of all). My friends from grad school that did not finish still seem to think they will get there one day, even though some haven't touched their dissertation in years. I can't imagine living with that over my head.
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espresso5 19 hours ago
A Ph.D. and a $1.50 will get you a coke at the store. Five years after finishing my Ph.D., I still wonder whether it was worth hassle and heartache. I have a job I like in my field, that I could not have received without a Ph.D., but as I look around at my friends and associates who did not go on to further their education and see them making several times my own salary, I struggle to see the upside to a Ph.D. That being said, I think not finishing would have left me with a severe chip on my shoulder (versus not bothering with grad school in the first place, which might have been the best choice of all). My friends from grad school that did not finish still seem to think they will get there one day, even though some haven't touched their dissertation in years. I can't imagine living with that over my head.
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11232247 6 hours ago
Here's a tip: When your faculty advisor begins to worry more than you do about whether you will or will not finish your dissertation, it is your first clue that something is seriously broken. Your advisor is neither your Mom nor your Dad. And while they will celebrate with you when you reach your final goal, do not think for a moment that they will also lose sleep (or a paycheck) should you fail. In the end, you, and you alone are your own best advocate. Own your choices and then live with them. In the non academic world, this is called being a grown up.
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Advice
Home Advice
January 24, 2012
Do I Have to Finish My Dissertation? By Ms. Mentor
Question: What do you recommend for a doctoral candidate who's lost her passion for her dissertation topic? It's been a quickand-dirty end to a long love affair. I had been working as the director of a community program, which (I found out) needed serious help. I'd started turning my notes about the program into a case-study dissertation—when the ax fell. The boss abruptly and without any warning cut the program and left me unemployed. There's an alternative site where I could finish the research, but I've lost my enthusiasm along with my job. I'm now teaching as an adjunct, but in a department that isn't connected with the subject of my research. Although I've finished my coursework and passed comprehensives, it's hard to get motivated to do the research proposal that's the next step. Do I tell my committee and my family that I just can't go on? Or do I suck it up and try to finish? Answer: Some call it a dark night of the soul. Ms. Mentor calls it dissertation writing. It's a process filled with rage and despair, bursts of exhilaration and rivers of whining. A lot like real life—except that you don't really have to do it if you don't want to. And so Ms. Mentor suggests you ask yourself the following questions.
Do I believe that it's character-building to finish what I start, and that I'll let down my team if I don't?
That is a common delusion, especially among young people who go straight through school without pausing for real-life jobs. Just as you fought your way through the eighth-grade bullies, sat through strange electives as an undergraduate, and endured widely varying seminars in graduate school, now the last endurance test is at hand.
Do you have what it takes?Ms.
Mentor notes that half of the students who
reach the A.B.D. stage where you are—with exams and course work done—never do finish the dissertation. Especially in the humanities, many of them decide it isn't a good investment for
1 of 8
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young adults. In English, it takes an average of 11 years from the start of graduate school to getting the Ph.D., followed by three years of applying for tenure-track jobs that most Ph.D.'s will never get. "I spent my youth on one dead general," historian Blanche Wiesen Cook has said about her dissertation on Dwight D. Eisenhower. She wonders sometimes about the roads not taken. If you mainly need to demonstrate your self-discipline to friends and relatives who've thought you were "farting around with grad school" for years, Ms. Mentor thinks finishing a dissertation is a very long and arduous way to seek their approval. If you're going to walk a long, lonesome highway, be sure you've chosen it for yourself.
Do I need a Ph.D. for my chosen profession?In
some fields you do, like in
medical research, astrophysics, or any field involving large machines doing expensive calculations. You also need a Ph.D. for university teaching—but only if you want to work full time, on the tenure track. Adjuncts, who now teach the majority of college courses, may or may not have "terminal degrees." Some are working professionals, such as musicians, artists, and community organizers, who may have no degrees at all. You do need a Ph.D. to teach esoteric branches of literary criticism or political theory. The ivory tower is the only place where impractical ponderers may still be cherished. (And even so, philosophy departments are closing down everywhere. Studying the meaning of life no longer sells.) Your research, though, sounds practical and socially useful. You don't need a Ph.D. to write and publish a book about your project, especially if it has lessons for people who come after you. You've already done the community work—and you've been punished for it. Your book could be an inspiring tale of rising from the ashes, transcending failure and moving on. A book will reach a larger audience, and few people will care if you have "Doctor" in front of your name. (And once you do, you'll be disheartened by the number of people who ask "Are you a real doctor?," meaning a medical one. You'll be tempted to take out their appendixes anyway, just for fun.)
Is my work an original contribution to knowledge?That's
the traditional test. A
dissertation should tell the world something new, although
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creators of new knowledge aren't always honored at first. Thomas Kuhn, the namer and discoverer of paradigm shifts, bounced around from physics to history to philosophy, and was even turned down for tenure at Harvard University because his book was "too popular." But his Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) is now a landmark in the history of knowledge. He was an original thinker, not confined to a single academic department, and so are you: You're already doing research in one field and teaching in another. You have admirable versatility, and, it seems, a unique story to tell. Ms. Mentor wonders if it's the bureaucratic hoops that are getting you down, or a deeper malaise ("my research sucks"). Departmental barriers can be transcended, especially if you find a powerful mentor to vouch for the value of your work. But "this is useless" is a common refrain among dissertation writers, and some never do sing any other tune. Ms. Mentor suggests giving yourself a few months of rumination time. Then consider: Do you miss the research? Do you yearn to write it for your academic peers, or get it before the world as a book? Do you find yourself hearing about other programs' mistakes and twitching ("I know what they should be doing")? The best work can live after you. Ms. Mentor thinks of Josiah Royce, a gruff Californian who earned one of the first four American Ph.D.'s (from the Johns Hopkins University in 1878). Royce went on to coin the term "beloved community," the dream that moved a young doctoral student named Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950s, decades after Royce's death. The dream of a beloved community today inspires the Occupy protests for social justice. If your work can change the world, or even just your little corner of it, Ms. Mentor thinks you should continue. If not, you have her permission to stop and do something else that you find meaningful. Writing a dissertation when you no longer care can consume your life and destroy your dreams.
Question: A young colleague was struggling with a bureaucratic task I can easily do, but when I tried to explain it, he snarled at me and said he knows all that's current, and I am hopelessly behind the times. Should I persist in trying to mentor him, because it's the right thing to do, or rant to my peers about the ingratitude of the younger
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generation? Or would Ms. Mentor rather hide from the whole question? Answer: Hide. Sage readers: Despite fervent pleas from her flock, Ms. Mentor will make no predictions for the new year. She is not a pundit. She will urge everyone to do the right, smart thing, whatever that might be, and to save the best barbed comments for her and for intimates (and not for Twitter, Facebook, or university e-mails). Otherwise, the opportunities for satire and mortification are much too delicious. As always, Ms. Mentor invites queries, rants, and theories. She regrets that she can rarely answer letters personally, and never speedily. All communications are confidential, and identifying details are always puréed. They can suspect it's you, but they won't know. Ms. Mentor, who never leaves her ivory tower, channels her mail via Emily Toth in the English department of Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge. Her latest book is "Ms. Mentor's New and Ever More Impeccable Advice for Women and Men in Academia" (University of Pennsylvania Press). Her e-mail address is [email protected]. (c) Emily Toth. All rights reserved
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annon1234 1 day ago
With regards to the dissertation question... there is also value in telling yourself, "There are good reasons why I decided to do this to begin with. The fact that I can't remember any of them now is insufficient reason to drop out". Huge numbers of PhD students get discouraged at least once, and often more than once, during the process. Generally speaking their previously supportive (or at least not actively obstructive) advisers leave them to suffer through this on their own under the archaic belief that the dissertation is a do it yourself project and it is in the best interests of the student for the suffer through on their own (of course there are others who attribute more dubious reasons for this faculty behavior, and benign neglect is not one of them). Setbacks during the dissertation process are common, unfortunate and often expensive. That faculty don't give students the support to get through all this hoop jumping is unfortunate and a huge waste of the intellectual capital in this country.
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esmo8393 23 hours ago
so very, very true. It seems as if so much of the dissertation process is simply sucking up whatever neglect or stupidity one's committee throws out. Having worked in student services positions for years, it pains me to be forced to jump through hoops simply because that's the way it's always been done. Would it really hurt an adviser to actually give advice? In plain English? Or how about just not changing his mind over and over again? This dissertation hasn't been MY work in a long time, it's been changed so many times. The whole process after comps stinks--and I've worked at MANY universities where the process is just the same. It all just seems so very petty. NOT the way I want my students to feel after I've advised THEM, that's for certain.
1 person liked this.
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esmo8393 23 hours ago
so very, very true. It seems as if so much of the dissertation process is simply sucking up whatever neglect or stupidity one's committee throws out. Having worked in student services positions for years, it pains me to be forced to jump through hoops simply because that's the way it's always been done. Would it really hurt an adviser to actually give advice? In plain English? Or how about just not changing his mind over and over again? This dissertation hasn't been MY work in a long time, it's been changed so many times. The whole process after comps stinks--and I've worked at MANY universities where the process is just the same. It all just seems so very petty. NOT the way I want my students to feel after I've advised THEM, that's for certain.
Like
esmo8393 23 hours ago
so very, very true. It seems as if so much of the dissertation process is simply sucking up whatever neglect or stupidity one's committee throws out. Having worked in student services positions for years, it pains me to be forced to jump through hoops simply because that's the way it's always been done. Would it really hurt an adviser to actually give advice? In plain English? Or how about just not changing his mind over and over again? This dissertation hasn't been MY work in a long time, it's been changed so many times. The whole process after comps stinks--and I've worked at MANY universities where the process is just the same. It all just seems so very petty. NOT the way I want my students to feel after I've advised THEM, that's for certain.
Like
nyhist 1 day ago
I concur with Ms Mentor's advice that this student take a break for a couple of months to ruminate. But I would also ask the student to ask herself: will I forever regret not having finished the dissertation? Can I imagine my life 5 years from now having finished, and then not having finished? How do I feel about that result? Such questions have always been useful to me and my students when we face big decisions.
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landrumkelly 1 day ago
"Say not the struggle naught availeth. . . ." Be sure that the topic is really important to you, since, if it is not, what you produce has no chance of being considered valuable or important to anyone else. Formulating or reformulating a research proposal can be a good opportunity to establish the direction of your scholarly inquiries for many years to come. If you have come this far, surely there are some intellectual issues in your own discipline that fire your intellectual passion.
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1/26/12 5:02 PM
Do I Have to Finish My Dissertation? - Advice - The Chronicle ...
http://chronicle.com/article/Do-I-Have-to-Finish-My/130397/
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bfrank1 1 day ago
As they say around my shop "Write up and get out." Every PhD student reaches the point, after immersion in the 'problem', when they realize it is an endless quest. Then it is time to regain personal autonomy by shifting focus from the 'problem', which can consume a lifetime, to the TASK, which is to get 5 names on the dissertation signature page. THAT is the transition that separates the sheep from the goats , and THAT is the transition that lets you stand tall again, and forever. The doctorate is a badge of persistence that does not tarnish. Get busy, get creative, and get done.
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chaz 1 day ago
I really resent the idea that "philosophy no longer sells." In reality, philosophy programs are growing at some universities and employers are increasingly realizing that philosophy majors are bright, articulate, thoughtful and inventive. Follow these links for more:
http://www.timeshighereducatio... http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04...
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lydiatimmins 1 day ago
I took a break for a few years to birth my children... but I did get back on the track and finish the damn thing. I can only sympathize with the letter writer... in my case, I finished because I don't leave jobs half-done. But that's just me. your experience may vary.
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janesdaughter 1 day ago
The best counsel I received in the ten long years it took to finish the degree was that a Ph.D. is mostly a sign of persistence. We might like to think it means we are smart, or capable of original research, or an expert in a particular field. You can finish the dissertation and still not be any of those things. But you will be able to claim persistence as a character trait. Now you have two questions to think about. 1) Which of those things means the most to you? 2) If you choose character as the important thing, is persistence the trait that means the most to you? As Ms. Mentor and others have suggested, the answers to these questions can only come from the individual.
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matthewse 1 day ago
Very interesting and, for me, timely! I absolutely empathize with the letter writer, and while my situation hasn't changed significantly, I find myself from time to time asking the same question,"is it really worth it?" If I didn't consider the investment in time, money and mental resources - or if somehow I could time-travel back to day one, would I do it? Would I start the Phd knowing what I know lies in wait for me? The answer so far has been a resounding "YES"! Not for the fame (non-existent), not for the glory (ditto), certainly not for the economic compensation (ha!), but for the simple fact that I though "I" was worth the investment 4 years ago - and that hasn't changed. Course work (check); Comps (check); Topic (check). What's left is a lot less than what came before so I would encourage the writer to take a deep breath, take a short break, and then finish what they started! Just my $.02
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1/26/12 5:02 PM
Do I Have to Finish My Dissertation? - Advice - The Chronicle ...
http://chronicle.com/article/Do-I-Have-to-Finish-My/130397/
4 people liked this.
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matthewse 1 day ago
Very interesting and, for me, timely! I absolutely empathize with the letter writer, and while my situation hasn't changed significantly, I find myself from time to time asking the same question,"is it really worth it?" If I didn't consider the investment in time, money and mental resources - or if somehow I could time-travel back to day one, would I do it? Would I start the Phd knowing what I know lies in wait for me? The answer so far has been a resounding "YES"! Not for the fame (non-existent), not for the glory (ditto), certainly not for the economic compensation (ha!), but for the simple fact that I though "I" was worth the investment 4 years ago - and that hasn't changed. Course work (check); Comps (check); Topic (check). What's left is a lot less than what came before so I would encourage the writer to take a deep breath, take a short break, and then finish what they started!Just my $.02
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amazona2 22 hours ago
I have the opposite problem as I write my dissertation. I have tons of passion and feeling anxiety about not been able to produce something great and lasting. A paradigm shifting piece of work. That is what most likely would cause me to drop out. I rather have nothing than a so-so diss. Not much motivated by the phd or the academy, as about being recognized as an important contributor to knowledge. I am trying to bring my expectations way down so I don't kill myself in the process because if I don't finish I will never know what I have. What does Ms. Mentor say to that?
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ralphyj 3 hours ago
Look up several of those you admire intellectually/academically. How many of their doctoral dissertations have you read? I suspect it's somewhere between one and zero. Then look at how old they were when they wrote the work they are best known for. I suspect they were well post-PhD. Your standards are not simply 'too high', they are inappropriate to the task.
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espresso5 19 hours ago
A Ph.D. and a $1.50 will get you a coke at the store. Five years after finishing my Ph.D., I still wonder whether it was worth hassle and heartache. I have a job I like in my field, that I could not have received without a Ph.D., but as I look around at my friends and associates who did not go on to further their education and see them making several times my own salary, I struggle to see the upside to a Ph.D. That being said, I think not finishing would have left me with a severe chip on my shoulder (versus not bothering with grad school in the first place, which might have been the best choice of all). My friends from grad school that did not finish still seem to think they will get there one day, even though some haven't touched their dissertation in years. I can't imagine living with that over my head.
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espresso5 19 hours ago
A Ph.D. and a $1.50 will get you a coke at the store. Five years after finishing my Ph.D., I still wonder whether it was worth hassle and heartache. I have a job I like in my field, that I could not have received without a Ph.D., but as I look around at my friends and associates who did not go on to further their education and see them making several times my own salary, I struggle to see the upside to a Ph.D. That being said, I think not finishing would have left me with a severe chip on my shoulder (versus not bothering with grad school in the first place, which might have been the best choice of all). My friends from grad school that did not finish still seem to think they will get there one day, even though some haven't touched their dissertation in years. I can't imagine living with that over my head.
7 of 8
1/26/12 5:02 PM
Do I Have to Finish My Dissertation? - Advice - The Chronicle ...
http://chronicle.com/article/Do-I-Have-to-Finish-My/130397/
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11232247 6 hours ago
Here's a tip: When your faculty advisor begins to worry more than you do about whether you will or will not finish your dissertation, it is your first clue that something is seriously broken. Your advisor is neither your Mom nor your Dad. And while they will celebrate with you when you reach your final goal, do not think for a moment that they will also lose sleep (or a paycheck) should you fail. In the end, you, and you alone are your own best advocate. Own your choices and then live with them. In the non academic world, this is called being a grown up.
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