While I have never entered a program, I constantly toy with the idea of getting some sort of doctorate so that I can teach in Library School. I was very close to applying for an EdD program in Educational Leadership in Bridgeport before I left, and it came up again during my recent job “haitus.” This last time, the geography was not right. You have got me thinking again, and while LSU does not have a PhD in Library Science, they do offer an EdD…..hmmm

Feel free to play that violin… I haven’t done group work assignments as an instructor, because honestly, I know I’d be grading the efforts of one or two disgruntled folks. I’d much rather grade individual effort. They can have the group work “experience” when they go to a library and are put on their first committees (har har).

In any case I’ve struggled with some of the same decisions myself. I’ve been encouraged as long as I’ve been around Urbana-Champaign to enter the PhD program. (Got my masters here and started working for the library on graduation.)

There were a couple of issues, one I just couldn’t afford it, another is I still lack confidence in my ability to do substained research project, and finally I’m still not sure if that would help or hinder what I’d like to do. Of course, I do admit I enjoy the teaching aspects of it and might even be good.

I guess technically I’m still enrolled in the CAS program in digital libraries here at UIUC. I’ll admit I took two courses and I’ve stopped. Most of the coursework that’s part of the “program” I either have taken or quite frankly I already know the material. There’s been a few popping up again lately that look interesting but I don’t know if I want to give up that free time for a degree that might not be an asset and may even hinder me.

And the final straw? Group work. I just had to stop taking course for a while because the group experiences were the worse I’ve had in academia, period. Given my some of the groups I’ve worked to get my undergraduate degree in computer science, this is saying something. I’m not going to say more because I’ll start melting down.

(Besides, this is your blog after all )

I left the graduate linguistics program at Berkeley after falling in love with what was then called “library automation” and serendipitously getting a job in it. MELVYL system 1, linguistics 0!

It’s not uncommon in some departments to defend before your final dissertation draft is done. That’s what I did (I at least had a first full draft by then, but the final draft didn’t get signed off until some months afterwards). I’ve known people who’ve defended but never completed the dissertation, and didn’t get the Ph.D.

As Joe Janes points out above, lots of people start a Ph.D. program and don’t finish it. Some of them realize pretty quickly that it’s not for them. Some go for a while and then find something else they’d rather do. Some drive themselves to continue longer than is good for them.

I’ve been through it from start to finish. It was a long journey for me, for various reasons, and sometimes was rather a slog (though I enjoyed lots of it too). I’m glad I finished, but I also know lots of folks who didn’t, for various reasons (most of which had *nothing* to do with whether they could “cut it”.) I don’t see any dishonor for folks who step off the road to a PhD. Nor do I think they are obligated to pretend that the PhD-seeking phase of their life didn’t exist (whether on a resume or elsewhere).

I’m pretty sure Karen’s seen it already, but Dorothea Salo’s written some useful advice about the problems one can encounter in grad school. Readers considering grad school, or considering leaving it, or feeling guilty for leaving grad school, might find it of interest.

I’ve seen a lot of people leave such programs at all stages, from the second day (really), to post-defense but not finishing the final stages of completion. So much of it, as Karen says, is about fit rather than capability, and if the fit ain’t there, the sooner it’s over the better. Karen was wise enough to recognize it wasn’t there for her, and more power to her.

Happily, our paths have crossed lots of times since then–yay for me!