11-24-2010, 05:07 PM
(10-08-2010, 01:11 PM)WilliamW Wrote: What's the over and under on his return? Thanksgiving? Halloween? Tomorrow?
Correct response: 11-22-2010. JFK Assassination Day is a winner!
Now, I realize that "important" can be a fairly subjective term, but really, is this "important" to anyone at all?
Yes Rich, you effed up. No one is surprised.
Yes Rich, somehow you managed to get a useless (as you admit) PhD from a bottom rung school in make-up-your-own-major. Nice job, no one is impressed.
Yes Rich, everyone should get a degree in line with their career path. Know where the target is before you start firing. No one but you seems not to understand that, even amongst those of us without ~20 years in the military.
Rich Douglas Wrote:Why a PhD? (Or Any Other Degree)
As I mentioned in my last post, I might post something important (I think, anyway) from time to time.
We often get asked about which doctorate (or other degree) to pursue, but very often not why. But it is the latter that is the much more important question. I'll use a particular failure on my part as a case-in-point.
Longtime readers will recall the MIGS situation, as well as my involvement in it. (For those who do not, please search the archives, although you might draw enough from this post to suit you.) After being out of Union's Ph.D. program for a very long time, I had a yearning to complete my Ph.D., but didn't realize I could go back to Union to finish. Instead, I caught myself up in the MIGS situation, which was a personal disaster despite my good intentions.
Why would someone who knows a great deal about this field (nontraditional higher education ) subject himself to an operation that (a) had a shaky and suspect connection to an accredited (equivalent) Mexican university, (b) was run by someone (Danzig) with a track record of scamming, © had little in the way of resources to run its operation, (d) and seemed to be merely "renting" a foreign school's accredited status in order to operate a U.S.-based school? Very simply, because I was (sadly) obsessed with getting the Ph.D., and I was willing to cross a lot of lines to do it.
Oh, sure, there were tons of reasons to rationalize the decision. MIGS was operating under the authority of an accredited Mexican university, although that school didn't even offer the doctorate. MIGS got listed by the widely recognized International Handbook of Universities. I could get in on the ground floor and do my studies for free. I could build a good committee to supervise my studies. Blah, blah, blah, blah. And once it became clear MIGS was not going to run things legitimately, I contacted the Florida authorities and got the ball rolling that contributed to the death of MIGS. ("Contributed," because Steve Levicoff's legal battle with them was the real killer of MIGS, and rightly so.) But why?
Again, an obsession with getting the degree. A focus on the degree, but not on the reasons for getting one. So.....
I encourage anyone reading this and considering another degree to ask "why?" What is it you intend to do? What path will you take, and where will the degree take you? You see, I didn't consider these things, which led me into trouble. I managed to extricate myself from MIGS, but I still failed to answer the question, which is why my Ph.D. from Union has been only tangential to my career success. (Having the doctorate is great, but I don't really do work in the area in which I specialized.)
If you're considering a degree, please consider why you want the degree and what you're going to do with it. Obtaining that next degree isn't the answer; it is just another platform from which you can begin to explore.
For you future Ph.D. students, be sure you know what you intend to research and how it will lead your professional life. It is your opportunity to have a real impact on your profession and/or academic area--don't throw it away by being focused only on getting the degree. If you do, your sights are far too low.
Again, I love having a Ph.D, and it has done wonders for my career. But I wish I'd been more careful about aligning it with what I would do in the future, either by (a) choosing a degree that would fit my career path or (b) striving for a career along the lines of my degree. I did neither. While I certainly benefit financially from the degree, if I had it to do all over again, I would have created the alignment I'm talking about.
More on that next year. Until then, Happy Trails to all.
Rich