What made you say "yes" to getting a doctorate?

I'm currently trying to decide if I want to go on and get a doctorate. It has always been a personal goal of mine and it would benefit my career but on the other hand it is extremely expensive and a huge time investment. We've got a lot of people on here who have a doctorate or are working on one.

What made you finally decide that you were going to get a doctorate? What was the one thing that pushed you over the edge and you had to have it like a kid in a candy store?

Please give as much information as you can cause I'm sure it'll help me with my decision.

Also for those who already have a doctorate, with hindsight being 20/20, did everything turn out the way you thought it would?

 

When the school told me Gabrielle Union and Eva Longoria Baston would co-chair my Dissertation Committee.

Seriously - if you need us to "persuade" you into a doctoral program - then I'm not seeing a great potential commitment to the expense and effort involved. Maybe give some thought to what you could get with the money saved, if you DON'T do the doctorate - mountain getaway, Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, '57 Les Paul Gold-top... whatever turns your crank. The equation changes, of course, if your employer is footing the bill. (You did say it was good for your job.)

And think about what you would do with all that time... Cannes, Biarritz, Nice ... Monday Night Football...

THEN decide.

 

I've known since my freshman year of college that I want to be a history professor.

 

PS. - As you no doubt immediately suspected - I don't hold a doctorate. I'm 76, so it's unlikely I will - but you never know...

 

John Bear has a story about a guy who got his PhD when he was in his 90s.

 

IIRC, Ted, you earned three degrees - that's laudable. The last two were MBAs. What put you off pursuing the history track academically? I remember you did tell us a year or so ago you were starting, or had been accepted to a Master's in History program. How's that going?

 

John Bear has stories about everyone - pretty darn good ones, too. Heck, he's probably got one or two about me, so I'd better be careful, here.

 

Thanks for the reply. I don't think I need persuading to go get a doctorate, I just want to make sure that it is worth it. Basically if I got get a doctorate I'd be paying the bill in full. The only financial hold up here would be that I'd have to wait around 4 years to buy a house instead of a year or two (I'm 27 right now). My job isn't paying for any of it, but there is a nice pay raise for getting a doctorate. As far as time goes, there's nothing that I'd rather do more than learn. I enjoy learning and even if not enrolled formally, I'd probably still spend my time researching various things anyway. I guess the grandness of the whole process just scares me a bit. I wouldn't really have a problem committing another masters degree for example, but the large scale of a doctorate is a bit intimidating.

 

My last involvement with a history program was about a decade ago. I was accepted in 2009 to Western New Mexico University's Master Of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies with dual concentration in History and Political Science. I withdrew from my first two courses and unwittingly withdrew from the entire program. In 1991, I enrolled in City University's MBA in Entrepreneurship with the intention of starting a used bookstore.

 

Used bookstore? Seattle? 90s? You could've started Amazon.

 

Amazon started out as an online seller of new books and only added used books later on (after they bought Bibliofind). My comprehensive business plan for a used bookstore, which was my final project for the MBA in Entrepreneurship, never addressed online bookselling.

 

I knew from I was a kid that I wanted to earn a doctorate. Recently I was looking on some files on a thumb drive I had in high school. There was a plan on there which stated I was going to earn a BBA, MBA, and DBA. The only "BA" I earned was the MBA. Instead, I fell in love with criminal justice (B.S., M.S., and future Ph.D.).

 

Actually, it wasn't until my senior year of college that I figured out that I'd need a doctorate rather than just a master's for college teaching.

 

I've so far made five failed attempts at a master's in history.

1984-1985 Western State College of Colorado
1985-1986 University of Colorado at Boulder
1997-2003 California State University at Dominguez Hills
2000-2003 American Military University
2009 Western New Mexico University

 

So it's not like I haven't tried, it's just that I haven't succeeded yet.

 

You knew since when you were a kid that you wanted a doctorate? Amazing!

 

How does a kid know about doctorates?

 

Some day I might contact Western New Mexico University about re-joining their MAIS in History and Political Science.

 

interesting