If you have a Ph.D

[fryjack2]

Are you happy that you earned your degree?

If you feel comfortable naming the school, where did you attend?  Was it an online program? Brick and Mortar?  Combo? 

Please share anything you might like about your Ph.D. earning experience  

[sequins]

I logged in to procrastinate from writing my grant proposal, so that tells you how my Ph.D. is going lol. Mine is ongoing but I made a similar thread a few years ago before I joined and had so many helpful responses.

pandce.proboards.com/thread/606898/posters-phd-advice

[smock]

Hello, Dr. Smock checking in. I earned a Ph.D in history, got a tenure-track job, earned tenure, and then left academia. I had a great experience in my doctoral program and would have happily stayed in academia if I could have chosen where to live.

BUT I would probably encourage my kids not to get a Ph.D unless they have a SUPER CLEAR career goal that REQUIRES a doctorate. It's such a huge commitment, and most Ph.D programs train graduates for a very limited number of positions. That varies hugely depending on the discipline, of course, but in so many cases people spend years in a doctoral program only to find themselves unemployed.

[bears]

Sept 13, 2022 17:41:03 GMT -5 smock said:

It's such a huge commitment, and most Ph.D programs train graduates for a very limited number of positions. That varies hugely depending on the discipline, of course, but in so many cases people spend years in a doctoral program only to find themselves unemployed.

This is why I call academia a pyramid scheme in jest.

I was planning on getting my PhD and after a week into my Masters program, I decided I would stop once I got my MS. I liked getting my MS, but I realized that it wasn't worth it to keep on grinding.

[mich1]

Sept 13, 2022 17:41:03 GMT -5 smock said:

Hello, Dr. Smock checking in. I earned a Ph.D in history, got a tenure-track job, earned tenure, and then left academia. I had a great experience in my doctoral program and would have happily stayed in academia if I could have chosen where to live.

BUT I would probably encourage my kids not to get a Ph.D unless they have a SUPER CLEAR career goal that REQUIRES a doctorate. It's such a huge commitment, and most Ph.D programs train graduates for a very limited number of positions. That varies hugely depending on the discipline, of course, but in so many cases people spend years in a doctoral program only to find themselves unemployed.

Very much this.  I am ABD from my PhD, and when I got sick, I timed out from the degree.  My illness resulted in disability, so I never went back.  I do regret not finishing up, but my health trumped the degree.

I used to work at a university, in a lab.  I loved all of it, other than teaching and the administrative stuff so when I went for my PhD, the goal was that I’d still be in my position, but with the ability to advance financially a bit more.  It wasn’t financially significant enough to go into debt for though, my path was I could take classes for free.  So everything was paid by my employee benefits.  I would not have done it on my dime.

The one disadvantage, that I was very aware of was that it had the potential to educate me out of the job I liked to one not so much.  It also was going to pigeon hole me, and possibly make it much more difficult to get a job.  

[keweenawlove]

I have a PhD in biomedical engineering. I currently direct a niche clinical department and have a research faculty appointment. I can say overall I'm happy where I ended up and need a PhD to do it but the PhD process is long without a guarantee of a "better" job at the end. I do struggle with giving advise to students who want to go this route. I finished my PhD in 4.5 years but then did a 4 year postdoc before I got a "real" permanent job so it's a long path depending on the field.

I did a traditional program right out of undergrad. The lab was NIH funded so my tuition was paid for and I got a small stipend bit I was expected to be there lile a full time job. I went in thinking I wanted the traditional tenure track faculty route but that path seems to get harder and more demanding every year. My friends in those portions are constantly working 80 hour weeks and that wasn't the lifestyle I wanted.

[purplinsky]

I have a Ph.D. in Chemistry and landed a job at a large tech company right out of school and I still work for that company 14 years later. I opted not to do a postdoc because I wasn't interested in academia and I wanted to stop living paycheck to paycheck.

I went to a brick and mortar school since the vast majority of the program is lab research; I can't imagine a chemistry program that would really work online. My program did not allow students to work outside jobs since the school and/or your advisor covered tuition, health insurance, and was paying you a very small stipend that was barely enough to live on. In exchange you were expected to TA (if your advisor couldn't cover all your costs) or dedicate all your free time to your research; TA and/or research was your full time job and the hours could be very long at times.

Overall, I'm happy I got my Ph.D. and I loved the work I did for my dissertation, but I also don't necessarily recommend it to folks unless there is a real need for the degree or they're really passionate about it and want to go that route with no expectation that it increases their pay or gets them a better job. It really is a lot of work for very little reward so you have to really enjoy your program and your research. There is also the drawback of being overeducated/overqualified for jobs, as another poster mentioned, it can be a double edge sword for sure.

[doctoranda]

I have a PhD in Anthropology. I am a non tenure track professor at a small Jesuit university. I love my job.

I did a traditional program at Brandeis University and my tuition was paid for and I got a stipend. It was really rough at times on my mental health but it was also a very special time in my life and I would do it again.

[wildrice]

My H has a PhD. He actually got it from the same school as another poster in this thread (different field though). His is in counseling psychology, and he works in research. I posted in the thread from 2019, but I have a slightly different perspective now that he's been done for a few years.

He enjoyed his program, but found it very stressful. There were plenty of times when he was wondering why he signed up for so much stress and criticism. He does not have thick skin so he struggled a lot with the pressure of the constant feedback and demands to do things a certain way. His program involved a ton of practicum and internship so I'm not sure if that's quite typical of all PhD programs, though. Largely because of this, he decided against doing academic research and went to work for a private company last year. He does like his current job (despite the lack of work life balance) and I think he's ultimately glad he got the PhD, but between the program, internship, and post doc, it took about a decade to get there.

My biggest frustration as a partner has been financial. He was funded for a large portion of his program, but they didn't guarantee funding and didn't always have assistantships for everyone, so there were a couple of years when he paid totally out of pocket and since it was out of state tuition, it was expensive. He accrued a lot of loans in those couple of years and we'll be paying a significant chunk of his salary toward those for a while. He also was unable to hold a traditional job while in this program, so he was making 25k a year for most of his 30's.

As I'm typing this though I wonder if that's even the route you'd go at this point? I have also known several people who got their PhD by attending part time while working and with work paying for it, and I think it's been a very different burden and experience than what my H went through. I think it would hard to balance a PhD with working full time, though!

One other note, I personally would not want to do a fully online grad school unless the classes met synchronously. I am currently teaching a master's level class completely asynchronous online and while the students will get the ultimate goal of a degree, I don't feel that their experience can compare to my in-person experience as a student in a very similar program. They just aren't getting the class interaction and as an instructor I also feel like I have so much that I could share with them that I just can't do virtually (without bombarding them with long winded emails, at least).

[Saudade]

I respond for my dad. Lol

He got his phd later in life, early 90s, at a state school. Worked in underfunded academia his entire career afterwards. He really started to resent it towards the end.

He strongly encouraged me not to pursue a phd because of the time, the commitment, the lack of support. But here I am, so much time and money spent, I could have done one in a field I was passionate in 😬

[Saudade]

Also, knowing your career field, I’m curious what you envision doing with it!

[ste]

My brother has his in one of the sciences, from Northwestern. He works in tech and doesn’t use it at all. I don’t think he regrets it though, especially since he got to do some interesting research and got paid. I doubt he’d do it again, though.

[joy]

YES. I loved getting my PhD and where my career is after.

I have a PhD in chemistry from UPenn.

EDIT - I am not in academia. I spent a lot of time post-docing because research was fun. I ultimately switched to pharma and the paycheck made me faint.

[UMaineTeach]

Sept 13, 2022 19:00:54 GMT -5 Saudade said:

I respond for my dad. Lol

He got his phd later in life, early 90s, at a state school. Worked in underfunded academia his entire career afterwards. He really started to resent it towards the end.

He strongly encouraged me not to pursue a phd because of the time, the commitment, the lack of support. But here I am, so much time and money spent, I could have done one in a field I was passionate in 😬

I’m going to assume that he got it in the 1990s and not later in life in his early 90s. I was super impressed for a minute, then I got it. 🤦🏼‍♀️

[SusanBAnthony]

H has one and is somewhat neutral. It might have slightly helped his career but otoh he lost 5 years of work.

I started a PhD in the same degree, different university. I quickly realized I didn't want a tenure track job mostly because I didn't want to work 80 hour weeks for a decade+, and in my major earning potential and type of job you can get is about the same, so I quit. Best decision ever.

[Saudade]

Sept 13, 2022 20:14:53 GMT -5 UMaineTeach said:

Sept 13, 2022 19:00:54 GMT -5 Saudade said:

I respond for my dad. Lol

He got his phd later in life, early 90s, at a state school. Worked in underfunded academia his entire career afterwards. He really started to resent it towards the end.

He strongly encouraged me not to pursue a phd because of the time, the commitment, the lack of support. But here I am, so much time and money spent, I could have done one in a field I was passionate in 😬

I’m going to assume that he got it in the 1990s and not later in life in his early 90s. I was super impressed for a minute, then I got it. 🤦🏼‍♀️

🤣🤣🤣
I can see now how you thought that. He definitely was not in HIS 90s 😝😝😝

[fryjack2]

Sept 13, 2022 19:02:50 GMT -5 Saudade said:

Also, knowing your career field, I’m curious what you envision doing with it!

Industry Or climb the leadership ladder higher.  My goal is to out earn H and I have a long way to go before I do that. Kidding.  Kind of

My masters is almost complete and will be in HA.  I may actually take some additional business classes or go back for an MBA at some point 

[mags]

My son is a few months out from getting his in Geotechnical Engineering. His was paid for in full with a small stipend that he lives off of. If it wasn't completely paid for I think he would have quit by now because he is still living like a 21 year old. He has gotten to travel and live in France and currently Norway due to his program. That part is he really enjoys. UMass is where his is getting it from.

[katfco]

Are you happy that you earned your degree? Yes, I'm happy I earned it. My degree was in education, with a focus on literacy, and I ended up also addressing social justice issues as well. I never would have had an interest in that or confronted my own privilege and the biases I had been taught had I not gone through the program. 


If you feel comfortable naming the school, where did you attend? Was it an online program? Brick and Mortar? Combo? I went to Ohio State. 


Please share anything you might like about your Ph.D. earning experience

I have not really turned my PhD into financial gain, other than an additional step in the teaching salary, but I hope to someday be able to either teach college or do something outside the classroom with it (not administration, though). 

My only regret is that it did saddle me with more loans. 

[gretchenindisguise]

H and I both have them and had very different experiences.

Hs is in biochem and was fully funded. He had a great mentor and looks back fondly of that time. As a wife and mom during that period it was fine. He was in the lab all week and Saturdays until after post doc. He now works in tech and loves it.

Mine is in clinical psych. Mine was uber competitive and hard. I had a tiff with the director of the program. A different prof took me under his wing. There was a lot of great things about it and a lot of not great things about it. If I had to do my life over, I’m not sure I would do it again. I worked directly with clients until last year and transitioned to a different work world last year. It saved my sanity, which is humorous given my field. Mine was also largely unfunded and had massive student loans that were finally forgiven through pslf. The loans have significantly impacted our financial lives. I often fantasize if I had just done my undergrad and then finished and started working.

[sadie]

I don't have a PhD, but started coursework for one. I went a slightly less traditional path-I worked at an Ivy, got a free Master's there. I was considering moving on from my job there (still working in higher ed) and my then boss pitched the idea of me staying in that job with time and resources made available to me to complete my PhD in Higher Education Administration. I had no desire to teach/do research and was only considering it to move up the ranks in higher ed administration. Ultimately, I decided I didnt want it that bad, even if it was nearly free. I did stay in higher ed following getting my Master's and have gradually moved up without a PhD.

My husband was in a PhD program for nearly 10 years before he decided he wanted nothing to do with academia and moved into the corporate move. His university was a good one and the faculty were all Ivy trained professors. If Ivy students got jobs at his good university, where would students from his university end up if they wanted to stay in academia? Academia jobs were pretty cutthroat then and it was pretty miserable while trying to earn tenure if you were actually able to land a job in academia.

I don't regret his decision or mine.

[fryjack2]

Sept 13, 2022 17:40:12 GMT -5 sequins said:

I logged in to procrastinate from writing my grant proposal, so that tells you how my Ph.D. is going lol. Mine is ongoing but I made a similar thread a few years ago before I joined and had so many helpful responses.

pandce.proboards.com/thread/606898/posters-phd-advice

HA! I typed this questions as I procrastinated reading a shitload of course reading. 

Thanks for that link.  I am not planning to do a program that includes a post doc or lab component.  At least not right now.  

I think I either have to just continue on with school once I finish my MA this spring, or not ever get a doctorate.  I don't know if I will be motivated to do so as the years go on.  

Also, hi Hope all is well! 

[sequins]

Sept 13, 2022 21:09:57 GMT -5 fryjack2 said:

Sept 13, 2022 17:40:12 GMT -5 sequins said:

I logged in to procrastinate from writing my grant proposal, so that tells you how my Ph.D. is going lol. Mine is ongoing but I made a similar thread a few years ago before I joined and had so many helpful responses.

pandce.proboards.com/thread/606898/posters-phd-advice

HA! I typed this questions as I procrastinated reading a shitload of course reading. 

Thanks for that link.  I am not planning to do a program that includes a post doc or lab component.  At least not right now.  

I think I either have to just continue on with school once I finish my MA this spring, or not ever get a doctorate.  I don't know if I will be motivated to do so as the years go on.  

Also, hi Hope all is well! 

Hi!! Hope all is well with you too!

To answer one of your questions, my PhD is in applied computational methods so I mostly WFH (although there is pressure to get back to campus). I did not have the remotest interest in working with cells or animals so this suits me wonderfully, especially with my masters in epi. 

[penguingrrl]

H and I have both been PhD track, though we both took a small amount of time after undergrad before pursuing further studies. I entered a PhD program in History at UMass-Amherst, but left after a year and a half due to clarity about the lack of job prospects after. I wanted to be a professor, but learned they were graduating 12 historians per tenure track position and the PhD could be limiting in other routes post grad. I knew I was good but not good enough, and I wasn’t willing to move literally anywhere in search of a tenure track position.

H got a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Columbia and it changed the course of our life. He sadly has never worked in his chosen field, but contacts he made in grad school got him his job in financial tech software development and he has since wowed his bosses with particular skills picked up during his doctoral studies. He did a 5 year PhD, two years of postdoc, then a year as a visiting professor before giving up on the dream.

We both had free tuition, fees, health insurance and a stipend to live on from our departments in order to ensure we could pursue our studies full time. Columbia went as far as to pay for 50% of dependents health insurance as well, which was critical (we found out I was pregnant with our first as he was applying to grad school).

[jennistarr1]

Im ABD and consider the PhD a personal ambition than career one...and I really think I'll never quit yet never achieve. This conversation is helpful to me

[anonymous]

I have mine in a science from a state school on east coast. I then did a post doc at NIH. I hated it, hated research, and my advisor was horrible. But I couldn’t have my current job without it, and So for that reason it was worth it. If I could do it all over again, I would go to med school or become a therapist. Or have married rich. My current dream is to not work

[vasc]

My H has a PhD in French Language and Literature from University of Virginia.

He went into the MA/PHD program straight out of undergrad. It was also fully funded, with health insurance and a stipend. He did get a small job at the campus research library during his first year before he started TAing (they didn’t make first year MA students TA).

He graduated and transitioned into a tenure track job immediately. We’ve been lucky in that we’ve remained on the east coast close to our family, but during the job search he was applying all over the country. Like a PP said, there are far more graduates annually than jobs, at least in his field. He’s employed and debt-free, but that’s not a guarantee for everyone.

[trytobearunner34]

I have a PhD in curriculum and instruction.

Professionally it has done little for me. I wanted to move into academia but due to season of life (young child) and other factors it has none come to fruition. I continue to work in the K-12 realm in a state that does not enhance salary for advanced degrees😔.

Personally however my work through the program dramatically shifted how I think and my view of the world (both within the field
of education and beyond). As a result I have found the process completely worth the time and expense.

I attended a brick and mortar and, if I had it to again, would do it again in a heartbeat. It has yet to do anything for me practically but I hold the degree forever and at some point in the future hope it pays off in all ways personally, professionally and practically.

[joy]

Sept 13, 2022 22:12:45 GMT -5 jennistarr1 said:

Im ABD and consider the PhD a personal ambition than career one...and I really think I'll never quit yet never achieve. This conversation is helpful to me

I am a huge anomaly in the science/PhD world. I went to grad school for the wrong reason: I wanted to know if I could do it. Could I think like a scientist? Could I really understand it all? Then I had murky career goals: not a professor, not run my own lab, but do good, challenging research near my house (fuck commuting). My advisors contantly said “this is not a career goal. Say you want to be a PI.”

But. See. The day I defended was literally the most proud I’d ever been. What I learned about myself doing my PhD is immeasurable. I did it; I got it. I published papers, I gave talks to big wigs, my name is in big name journals and I *know* science. The pursuit and achievement of the PhD fulfilled me in a very fundamental way.

I post-doced for so long because challenging research also fulfills me. I did switch to pharma and found research there was also cool. So many jobs are interesting to me and I have this confidence that tells me “You can do it. Go try. Your PhD taught you how to learn, think, and ask the right questions.”

For me, it was 100% personal ambition. I have no regrets.

[cap]

Sept 13, 2022 17:30:01 GMT -5 fryjack2 said:

Are you happy that you earned your degree?

If you feel comfortable naming the school, where did you attend?  Was it an online program? Brick and Mortar?  Combo? 

Please share anything you might like about your Ph.D. earning experience  

I have a degree in horticulture/plant breeding and genetics from a major land grant, R1 university in the midwest. It was a brick and mortar program, both since I had to do a lot of hands-on research using the university farms and greenhouses, and because I finished my degree in 2005, and I don't think there were online advanced degree programs at that point, but maybe I'm wrong.

While I'm not in a tenure-track role at a university, nor do I ever want one, I do think having my degree helps me. I've had a few different jobs since finishing my degree and have moved around the country, but I'm now back at the same university where I earned my degree, running the extremely large research greenhouse complex that was quite mismanaged in the 10+ years before I came on board. I basically have to tell the 75+ faculty users what they can and cannot do without having any real authority over them, and having the same degree that they do gives my words some weight with at least some of them. It also gives me the confidence to know that decisions I'm making aren't disruptive to research, etc.

As is pretty much standard in science fields, I got a stipend while getting my degree - although it wasn't much, it was enough to live on if I was careful. I treated it like a job and was expected to help out with research projects that were not my own, which I think is great, as it keeps you from getting so narrowly focused on just your research. 

I know it's a lot different to earn advanced degrees in other fields, but I don't at all regret getting my PhD. I really enjoyed being in grad school.