Archive for October, 2009
PhD Program in Education: Should you or shouldn’t you?
If you’ve just finished up your Master’s you’re probably struggling with whether or not to go ahead and enter a PhD program in Education now–or wait.
It’s not an easy decision. As usual, when it comes to hard decisions, understanding your reasons for each choice, and listing pros and cons can be a help.
What are your reasons for wanting to enter PhD study now?
This is perhaps the most important consideration–because so many people who didn’t finish their doctorates cite entering the program for the wrong reasons to begin with.
The worst reasons for entering a PhD program?
Money and status.
The money issue usually stems from wanting a career that requires a PhD. It’s true that you’re likely to have some better career opportunities that will result in a higher salary, but if that’s your only reason, it’s not a good one. How come? Well, for one thing, a PhD program in education is hardly a get-rich-quick scheme. First of all, the jobs that you are probably interested in with your EdD on your resume are fiercely competitive–you’re not even guaranteed a spot. And secondly, your PhD program in education itself is going to be costly. If your main motivation is making more money, it’s going to be really hard to maintain that motivation when you’re struggling as a doctoral candidate to make ends meet, when you know you could be looking for a well paying job right now.
As for status, obviously getting your doctoral degree does come with status. But a PhD program in education isn’t the “easy” way to earn status–that status comes with a doctoral degree because it’s well deserved. That is, hard to acheive.
But if your reasons are more in line of a long term career goal that’s important to you for its own sake, your love of your field, and your aptitude for research and writing, you might just be a prime candidate for doctoral study.
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