Shortening the Road to the PhD
October 10th, 2007Princeton’s work on shortening the amount of time it takes to earn a PhD merited an article in the New York Times recently. Readers, what do you think of this? While I don’t think it’s useful for people to languish in graduate school, one drawback of this plan (and similar ones at other universities) is that it can produce university professors without much teaching experience. I also don’t see any reference here to one often happy delay in a graduate career: starting a family. Now, if Princeton and other universities could continue to find ways to support their graduate students in their professional (writing groups; more frequent meetings with advisers) and personal lives (health benefits; parental leaves), then I’d stand up and cheer.
October 24th, 2007 at 1:24 am
The biggest factor in my choosing not to pursue an academic career and in my difficulty in finishing graduate school (other than the at times unsupportive faculty in my department) was my desire to spend time with my children. I had two children during my doctorate program in psychology - and a third a couple years later. There were very few female professors and even fewer with children on campus - and no mothers in my department (social psychology - where I studied gender discrimination of all things!). I might have stayed in academia had I seen a smoother route.