ProperRogue
Familiar Face
- Messages
- 72
Do you want an education or a vocation?
I’ll start off with my opinion and explain why: If you are looking for an education, I would say no. If you are looking for a vocation, I would say yes.
My background: I have a BA, MA, and MS all from Colorado State University – GO RAMS! When I finished my Master's programs, I was offered and accepted a full fellowship for my Ph.D. at the George Washington University – conservatively a $75K offer. My eyes firmly affixed on path to academia, it was an offer I could not refuse. After six years of toiling at it, I withdrew two years ago ABD and got my sanity back.
Many people have asked why and my answer generally is I learned everything I need to know in my Master’s programs. I went into the program thinking it was educational and instead was vocational. Some may argue that a Ph.D. is educational, it really isn’t. It is vocational – the focus is on mentoring you on the ways of the hallowed Ivy halls and in art and craft of research. Every Ph.D. I have asked said that the educational leap between a Master’s and a Ph.D. is virtually non-existent. So, the mentoring focuses on indoctrinating you on the often inane ways they split the world, how the games of university politics are played, how to publish your dissertation as a book or multiple journal articles, and how to fill the funding pipeline. The second half is vocational experience in the art and craft of research where you become adept more at the management process then the actual craft. Other mentoring takes place around how to manage a class room, present a paper at a conference, counsel undergraduate students, etc.
What drove me out of the Ph.D. program were two things. First was the realization that as a GS-14 in the Federal government, I was already making more then most of my professors. Second, the idiotic battle that took place among three different versions of my dissertation committee over what my dissertation should be about. I realized then that it was less about the pursuit of knowledge and more about the politics of the organization.
It may sound like I am bitter, but I am not. It was a wonderful experience, but not what I expected. That experience and the connections I made in the program allowed me to get a job making well north of anything I would have dreamed about 10 years ago. But the truth is, it wasn’t the education of a Ph.D. that got me here, it was the connections. Did I learn anything ground-breakingly new? No, not really.
Just because you don't have a Ph.D. doesn't mean you can't do all of the wonderful things professors do. I commonly speak before groups of 10 to 1,000+, I have conducted base research and have published over 25 documents and articles, and I have been quoted in the Times, the WSJ, the Washington Post, and in Business Week among others. All without a Ph.D. I would suggest you might want to take a look at an older book titled The Independent Scholar's Handbook, by Ronald Gross on Amazon to get an idea of what I mean.
What ever your choice, best of luck to you,
PR
I’ll start off with my opinion and explain why: If you are looking for an education, I would say no. If you are looking for a vocation, I would say yes.
My background: I have a BA, MA, and MS all from Colorado State University – GO RAMS! When I finished my Master's programs, I was offered and accepted a full fellowship for my Ph.D. at the George Washington University – conservatively a $75K offer. My eyes firmly affixed on path to academia, it was an offer I could not refuse. After six years of toiling at it, I withdrew two years ago ABD and got my sanity back.
Many people have asked why and my answer generally is I learned everything I need to know in my Master’s programs. I went into the program thinking it was educational and instead was vocational. Some may argue that a Ph.D. is educational, it really isn’t. It is vocational – the focus is on mentoring you on the ways of the hallowed Ivy halls and in art and craft of research. Every Ph.D. I have asked said that the educational leap between a Master’s and a Ph.D. is virtually non-existent. So, the mentoring focuses on indoctrinating you on the often inane ways they split the world, how the games of university politics are played, how to publish your dissertation as a book or multiple journal articles, and how to fill the funding pipeline. The second half is vocational experience in the art and craft of research where you become adept more at the management process then the actual craft. Other mentoring takes place around how to manage a class room, present a paper at a conference, counsel undergraduate students, etc.
What drove me out of the Ph.D. program were two things. First was the realization that as a GS-14 in the Federal government, I was already making more then most of my professors. Second, the idiotic battle that took place among three different versions of my dissertation committee over what my dissertation should be about. I realized then that it was less about the pursuit of knowledge and more about the politics of the organization.
It may sound like I am bitter, but I am not. It was a wonderful experience, but not what I expected. That experience and the connections I made in the program allowed me to get a job making well north of anything I would have dreamed about 10 years ago. But the truth is, it wasn’t the education of a Ph.D. that got me here, it was the connections. Did I learn anything ground-breakingly new? No, not really.
Just because you don't have a Ph.D. doesn't mean you can't do all of the wonderful things professors do. I commonly speak before groups of 10 to 1,000+, I have conducted base research and have published over 25 documents and articles, and I have been quoted in the Times, the WSJ, the Washington Post, and in Business Week among others. All without a Ph.D. I would suggest you might want to take a look at an older book titled The Independent Scholar's Handbook, by Ronald Gross on Amazon to get an idea of what I mean.
What ever your choice, best of luck to you,
PR
