Most bang-for-the-buck PhD?

[Slug]

Could you teach as an adjunct and see how you like it before jumping into something full time?

[geojen]

I was looking into getting my PhD after I finish my masters (which I will do in August). In my experience, while the institution is important, what is much more important is who you study under and how that person is perceived in your field. If you can study under somebody who is well know, respected, and has a good pedigree themselves, you will have a much easier time of it.

Plenty of people go part-time for PhDs, but think about this--even if you go full-time in school, realistically, you are looking at 5 years before you finish depending on the department. For example, at MSU where I am getting my masters, the school of social science (which includes basically everything besides education, engineering, and medicine) has it set up that you will take 3 years of coursework (i.e. 30 credits), then take your comps, spend 1 year researching, and then 1 year writing your dissertation. Even then, it is really pretty rare for someone to move through that quickly.

[Scanner]

Yes I do recall working in the biology dept. at U of D and I think their average PhD took 8 years, sometimes 10-11 years. Many people were complainng about the time and that it was the longest in the nation.

I am sure this was a weak part of my original interview. . .I was kind of unprepared at the idea of furthering my education and having direction in that regard.

[geojen]

Yes I do recall working in the biology dept. at U of D and I think their average PhD took 8 years, sometimes 10-11 years. Many people were complainng about the time and that it was the longest in the nation.

I am sure this was a weak part of my original interview. . .I was kind of unprepared at the idea of furthering my education and having direction in that regard.

I think the absolute best thing you can do for yourself, when evaluating a program, is to talk to current graduate students from that program. You will get the truth, the real low-down, on what it is like to be a student in that department, how long it is really going to take, what the pitfalls of certain profs/advisers are, etc. That was the best thing I did when i chose a program. When potential students visit the Geog. dept. at MSU we always take them out and tell them how it is really going to be. Their eyes get really wide when we tell them that even though the dept. chair has told you that if you don't finish your degree in x number of years it is your fault, no has EVER finished in that amount of time in the history of the program. This is the kind of honesty you need.

In my experience, faculty have a totally unrealistic view of how long it is going to take you to finish your degree and what the implications of that will be for you. Most faculty today finished their degrees in the 60s and 70s, when it was common to be single, have no children, full-time students living in dingy apartments working for peanuts in some prof's lab. These days, that is just not the case.

[Daylily]

A couple thoughts come to mind.

1. Are there really many programs out there that will let a person work towards a PhD on a part-time basis? That's not really the norm at some of the programs that I have looked at.

2. Feel free to correct me but aren't there a glut of PhDs out there? Even in the science/technical fields.

[geojen]

A couple thoughts come to mind.

1. Are there really many programs out there that will let a person work towards a PhD on a part-time basis? That's not really the norm at some of the programs that I have looked at.

2. Feel free to correct me but aren't there a glut of PhDs out there? Even in the science/technical fields.

You are totally able to get your PhD part time in most departments--you just won't be eligible for any departmental/school funding in the form of fellowships or assistantships.

2. There are a glut of PhDs trying to enter academia, but, it sounds like OP would already have a job in academia, so that problem is solved. I don't think there is a glut in the private sector so much as there is a smaller need for people with a PhD. I know in my field, environmental consulting, a PhD would really be overkill. Some people have them, they just aren't necessary.

[Scanner]

Well, you know. . .if I were to ever get offered and I accepted the position, the only "mandate" is that I engage in "scholarly activity."

I am truthfully not sure what that entails. . .the discussion moved towards getting a Phd or EdD and the Dept. Chair said, "In your case, probably a PhD."

But maybe if I work towards an MBA or something. . .that counts.

Again, academia is an enigma to me being in small business all of my life.

[geojen]

I think the hardest thing you will encounter in academia is the totally different lifestyle it entails. A coworker and I have this discussion all the time, because we both recently finished our advanced degrees and still have contacts in academia. The majority of people in academia have been in academia their whole lives. They have a somewhat skewed view of reality. A perfect example is a prof on my committee. He went straight through BS-MS-PhD. Never has held a full-time job outside of academia. He literally has no concept about what life is like for the rest of us. At the same time, he is totally oblivious to this fact. It makes it hard to work with him in a practical sense.

That might be the hardest part for you, being a business owner that has a radically different set of skills and experiences wrapped up in it. I don't know though, just my suppositions.

[Scanner]

Geogen,

I agree. . .small business and academia are probably about polar opposites as you can get.

In small business, you answer to multiple people (customers) every day. Nobody owes you an existence. In a way, you assume the most risk there is. In business one day. . .out of business the next. No benefits. Just money changing hands. Yet, at the same time, there is a little security in that nobody can ever fire you. I worry about the economy in a different perspective - consumers consuming.

The average worker worries about being laid off.

In academia, tenure-track positions are secure. The college "owes you" an existence so to speak. You have no hands in how "collections" are over at the Registar. You get a check every week whether you have 1000 students enroll or 100. Awesome benefits.

Yet. . .you are "answerable" to your peers and a hierachy so I don't mean to imply that it's a "cushy" existence.

I could foresee problems in adjusting to the "lifestyle." Self-employed people tend to just get up and do stuff whereas in academia, I get the impression everything goes before a committee and moves slower. I could inadvertantly end up being a "wild card" in that I have never really had a boss to deal with other than my summer jobs, part-time school jobs, etc.

I have been the boss, LOL.

Yet, I feel ready to go work for "da' man."

One thing they say, and I think it's true, when a company gets an ex-self-employed person working for them, they get someone with a work ethic that they have never got before. I can see it all the time at the hospital I work at. . .the workers bitch about this and that. . .I want to tell them,

"You don't know what it's like to work until you've worked for yourself. This is easy."