Every graduate department probably has one—someone you hear about and maybe even witness in your first year of study. Someone who lives on coffee and cigarettes and socializes vigorously, perhaps even earning a storied nickname such as “the Professor” or “Rasputin.” Or someone who is reclusive and rarely seen, spiriting around the hallways or labs mostly at night, writing secret little notes that are crumbled and quickly stuffed into trouser pockets as you walk by. What these someones have in common is that they are graduate students (perhaps only allegedly) who are endlessly working on their dissertations.
There’s an old joke about a student being admonished by his professor: “No, I’m afraid students can’t get tenure.” Some grad students hang around long enough that they don’t seem to get that joke. They receive several extensions on their dissertations, perhaps even get part-time university-supported work teaching or doing lab research, and yet they never seem to finish what they claim is a legitimate and active dissertation, and instead become the stuff of puzzled ridicule and whispered legend.
How can such a thing happen? Quite simple: In graduate school, you are responsible for your own education. Hence, you can manage it well or you can squander it. Although graduate programs certainly do push their students along and support them, they also include a great number of hurdles than can be difficult to clear. Some sobering realities about graduate education follow:
Certainly, the picture is not always as grim as this, and many students relish their time in graduate school—in fact, some call it the best time of their lives, especially those who attend graduate school after some unsatisfying time away from education. However, there is also plenty of evidence to back up the argument that things go poorly for many. One 2004 article from The Chronicle of Higher Education [1] suggests that 40-50 percent of students who enter PhD programs do not finish.
To explain these numbers, despite the absence of national studies on the problem, research from institution-specific studies still reveals some noteworthy trends:
Considering these disappointing trends, one would think that graduate scholarship winners don’t fall into these patterns. But, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education article cited above, even scholars who are awarded graduate research fellowships from the National Science Foundation finish their PhD programs at about a rate of 75 percent, which is only slightly higher than for other science students in doctoral programs.
The purpose behind presenting these realities, of course, is both to help inform your decision-making process and to help you consider, if after serious self-reflection you decide graduate education is for you, the most effective way to compose your personal statements and other application materials. Being more informed about the culture of graduate study will both help you be more prepared and help you to be taken more seriously as you apply.
The web abounds with cautionary tales about the culture of graduate study. Here are some samples:
“Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don’t Go” article from The Chronicle of Higher Education [2]
“Is the Price of Graduate School Worth it?” article from about.com [3]