On the front page of THE GAZETTE, a headline ran Ph.D DROPOUT RATE UNDER SCRUTINY AT UI(5/11/04). The article by Tom Owen outlined some of the problems and opportunities of trying to earn a Ph.D. At Iowa University, 50 % don’t get the degree.

Universities would struggle without Ph. D and Masters Programs. The students in the degree programs become teachers for many of the classes at the school. If you have read or attended a university, there are introductory courses in huge auditoriums where the fulltime professor teaches 2 days a week and the third day a discussion group is run by a person working on Masters Degrees. In some schools, the professor’s shows up at the beginning of the course, introduces the teaching assistants and disappears never to be seen again. These “flesh pits” are big money makers for the school and the value of a class like that is debatable.

Grad students generally work for cheap. They are not organized or unionized and make excellent sweat labor for universities. They are easy to fire and easy to replace.

In my own research “They also ran: those without the Ph.D. How many are there? What did they do wrong? How can they resolve their dilemma? COLLEGE STUDENT JOURNAL, June 1993 (for more details see socialvibes.net) in reviewing almost 60 studies on PhD flunk outs or non-per sisters, I discovered roughly six general observations. They are:
1. Not enough money to finish the degree. 2. Not enough emotional and institutional support. 3. Not enough emotional stamina on the part of the student 4. Lack the ability to take on the graduate student role. 5. Difficult relationship with doctoral dissertation advisor 6. Not sufficient enough math skills and related research.

In other words, you need a lot of money from yourself or your institution, know how to bond with the successful doctoral students, and be able to appear to agree with the professor... Further, one should be able to also agree with another professor who does not like the first professor.

Generally, a PhD takes 4 years of undergrad work, 2-4 years for the masters and 5 to 8 years of Ph.D. work. In my situation, I earned the BA in 4 and ½ years. I took the week end off and headed into a Masters program. Then after one summer, went into a PhD program for 5 years. I do not have a hard luck story. I could not conquer “path analysis” (a multiple regression statistical analysis) and was traveling 550 miles weekly to my degree program. I believe that I was treated very fairly. I even got tenure at the small liberal arts college that I was an instructor. However, when the school lost two-thirds of their students, I was fortunate to get a position with Kirkwood. Although my community college is extremely successful now, we were in a funk for about 6 years. Then Norm Nielsen took over. The waters parted, and Norm led us into the land of milk and honey. I also could see clearly that my role was to teach support courses to students who were moving on into a real job or going on to a 4 year school.

At any rate, the doctorate is a high stakes gamble. You can be dropped quickly from a program or worse, one of your doctoral committee members can refuse to sign your doctoral dissertation after years and years of work. Without the PhD, many are out of the business of education. They need to retrain and go into something else. Thus, about 20 years of work go up in smoke.

My research indicated back in 93’ that nearly two-thirds don’t make it. For MD’s, the failure rate is 15%. However, an MD is much harder than most or all PhDs. Why the difference? MD programs do a more thorough screening and flunk out early some fairly talented individuals. The screen course varies but it is generally biochemistry that unglues some very creative people.

If at Iowa University, the fail rate is 50% that does not mean those that get the PhD will get a job? When a teaching position opens up, hundreds upon hundreds apply even at a school in a very remote place and a faltering reputation.

Nor does getting a PhD mean that you can teach. It is a degree to do research. The very best in academia do research all the time and become “phantoms” on campus. They may teach a seminar where students give papers, but most of their time is spent mentoring PhD students, committee work, administrative duties, and importantly writing grants that attracts millions of dollars to the state of Iowa.

Not completing a doctorate is one of life’s lessons. For me, it was a blessing in disguise. Other people are fighting in Iraq. Many lost their life savings in the stock market scandals. A number of people live in life long physical and/or emotional pain. There are folks in really bad marriages.

However, in the scheme of things, voluntarily choosing to work on a PhD is a troubling venture. So Mama don’t tell your kids to go into graduate work. I know of one individual who was so distraught of not finishing the doctorate that he wrote his school and asked that all of his doctoral work preserved on transcripts be destroyed. He thought that somehow that would block out all those wasted years. He got a letter back from them. They wouldn’t do it. He didn’t own his post graduate record. They did.