Seeing it Through

Tom Coates has posted a long entry with a number of good points to consider before starting a doctorate, which reminded me of a letter I wrote to The Australian a few years ago out of similar concerns.

The only point I’d disagree with is his claim that “it’s definitely not the best and the brightest, the most imaginative thinkers or the people with the great ideas that get through”. Plenty do, including many people I’ve known. What I’d say is that whether you’re the best, brightest or most imaginative has no direct relationship to your chances of getting through, although it may play a role. I wouldn’t even weight thoroughness and professionalism as heavily as Tom does.

What’s most important is your own determination to see it through. Where that determination comes from can vary enormously from person to person—it might come from a belief that you’re making a valuable contribution to your field, or even that you’re the best and brightest or most professional—but once it goes, it’s very, very hard to finish. I came close to giving up eighteen months in, and only a successful stint of fieldwork turned it around for me; if that had gone badly I’m not sure I’d have made it. And I would have been the same person with the same degree of imagination, thoroughness, or whatever, either way.

I’m not saying that people who don’t finish Ph.Ds aren’t determined, or that they lack stamina; I’m saying that determination to finish the Ph.D. is the most important factor in doing so. If finishing it stops being important to you, for whatever reason, or other (incompatible) goals in your life become more important, you’ll be far less likely to make it.

Which all seems pretty obvious, really. The most important message for those contemplating the Ph.D. path is (as Tom says, more or less) that the motivation you feel at the outset might not always be there when you need it, and that you owe it to yourself to consider—and to find out—the implications for your life and career if you don’t finish. And, for that matter, if you do.

←@→