Q's t Ask A Prospective Doctoral Program

In addition to cost, you need to be smart and ask the following:

What is the average length of time it takes people to complete coursework and the entire program?

What is the percentage of those who start who actually finish?

Now, those numbers can be tricky. But you can learn a lot just by seeing how a school answers it. If they give you a lot of vague answers... "too hard to calculate, it is based on a number of things...bla bla bla" RUN! I almost enrolled in the Nebraska "distributed learning" doctoral program until I got vague answers to my questions. For many, it is the first time they've ever been asked questions like this! This is basic stuff they ought to be tracking and be concerned with.

The retention rate for doctoral programs is abysmal. In my experience, the department, for whatever reason, lost interest in me. That can happen. You can wake up one day, go to campus, and find out you've been blackballed.

Now, a low number can indicate a few things: they let in anybody, let them take the courses, and then let them leave in frustration... Now, I high graduation rate could mean they are selective OR it can mean... ta da! they actually care about mentoring the student to completion of the dissertation!

This is going to be more and more a concern for the good schools... You can maintain high academic standards AND take care of the doctoral student through completion of the dissertation. Many just aren't that concerned... and want you in to take the coursework. Face it, it is true.

All I ask is you go in with your eyes WIDE OPEN and ask intelligent questions... if a school balks or gives you double talk, buddy... you are on your own.

 

Another helpful thing is to go to the library and do a proquest dissertation search on each professor in the department. See how many successful masters projects and doctoral dissertations they have successfully chaired in the last year, last 3 years and last 10 years. See what topics they have been successful. These projects perhaps give insight into what the professor has interest enough in to finish.

 

Interesting post; thanks. The more you know about what actually goes on in your grad studies department, the better off you are. The vaguer the answers, the greater your reservations should be.

 

A couple of questions I would add are:

1. Describe your dissertation track. How well defined are the steps? What does it take to get a dissertation approved?

2. What are the primary reasons for non-completion of your program? What percentage of students leave on a non-voluntary basis? What factors lead to being asked to leave?

3. If the school has comprehensive exams - what are the pass rates on the exams? What is the policy on retaking the exam if a students does poorly the first time. What are the pass rates on re-takes?

I suspect that students will find some programs that are designed to encourage completion. My program at NSU was well designed and had clear steps to complete. Yes, NSU had a fair number of folks drop out - but these were almost entirely voluntary. Some more traditional schools are used to dropping a number of students on an involutnary basis.

Regards - Andy

 

You don't have to bolt from a school. I think people forget that the doctorate is theirs. They are paying for it and should have some expectations in return. One of those expectations is reasonable control over certain things inlcuding your progress. I learned this the hard way. I fired an entire committee and started with a new committee right before written comps. I found a full professor interested in my success and he helped negotiate the path. The fired committee members were not happy, but the dean of the school joined my committee to strengthen my chance of success. Look for professors interested in mentoring your success.

 

Reprising bad memories

It's a great post, with excellent suggestions. I tried this tack many years ago. Unfortunately, the humanities-area graduate advisor, a tenured prof, got pretty pissed off at someone daring to ask such reasonable, consumer-esque queries. It was downhill from there in my relationship with him over the next year or two.

But it was my fault, I suppose, for not bolting from that school right away!

Peter

 

Good Posts...

After I started this, I see some additional good posts on the topic. I went ABD in a department only to find the new super star department chair and his wife did not care for my practical-based approach. I bent over backwards with them, but it was apparent there was no way they would allow me to go through the program. So I switched majors... what a waste... and found a man-hating lesbian and a specialist in something called "marxist feminist literature" was something the chair wanted to foist on me whether I liked it or not (small department). I ended up wasting a lot of time and money on that...

The good news is I landed on my feet and am a tenured community college prof with no interest whatsoever in a doctorate. I will complete my third graduate degree this December (ONE MORE MONTH!), an MBA. I add that to a B.A., M.A., and Ed.S.