S. Worthen | Weblog

Not only is it years of no income and no status increase, but it's years of actively losing income which we'd have otherwise accrued. Grad school comes at a major cost, and that cost isn't just tuition and living expenses.

It's been a real relief to have a number of people comment on this post that they really did enjoy their MA degrees; notably, no one has been so positive about their PhDs. Discontent, weariness, confusion, and self-doubt are the most frequent traits of graduate students weblog posts, leavened by the moments of intellectual thrill, satisfying student feedback, and research revelations which make the rest worth working through.

in the 'studying for large exam' and 'preparing giant document' phases, having no actual day-to-day goals and accomplishments
While this is unsatisfying and challenging after years of structured coursework, at the same time, I think it's one of the most important things that a PhD requires. It forces us each to grapple with time management and learn to be independent scholars. I'm still not good at it, but I'm a whole lot better than I was a few years ago.