Good observations on doctoral programs

This article, which seems to be written for people outside the US or UK contemplating graduate study in the US or UK, has some good points:

http://www.infozee.com/channels/ms/articles/doctoral.htm.

The overall http://www.infozee.com website also appears to be quite good. This is useful, especially for a topic which generates so much useless noise and huckstering.

The doctoral degree (also referred to as a Ph.D.) is the highest degree awarded by the universities, and is done so after an extensive program of study and research in a specialized subject. The degree signifies a capability to assimilate the most advanced and recondite level of knowledge in the subject. The degree is crowned with a doctoral thesis, which is expected to be a thorough and intensive contribution to a specialized subject based on original research and inquiry.

As is obvious from the above, a prerequisite for pursuing a doctoral degree is an active interest in, and the inclination to do, intensive research work. It requires putting in long and laborious hours of study at a microcosmic level on a specific subject. In this way, a doctoral degree is quite an antithesis of the master's degree, which covers a broad range of subjects in a particular field of study.

Eligibility : A common misconception is that a master's degree is a prerequisite for the doctoral degree. It is an advantage but is not necessary. For 3-year degree holders, it is not possible to enroll directly for a Ph.D program. Some universities do consider admission into a Ph.D directly after a Bachelors degree, if pre-requisite scores, academics and experience are sound. You must demonstrate an inclination towards research and exhibit a good academic record.

Experience of atleast two to three years in the relevant field is considered important for admission into a Doctoral program, by most universities.

How the Doctoral Application Process works :

The application process has to be initiated atleast one year to eighteen months in advance before the proposed date of reporting at the university. This is necessary since identification of professors, interaction with them and finalizing the program of research with necessary financial assistance can take a long time.

For any graduate programme, more so for a doctoral, the applicant has to contend with two sets of requirements - those set by the graduate school and those set by the graduate department. You have to meet up with the eligibility requirements of the university and also find a match between your area of specialisation and the research interests of the department you will be studying in.

Choose your subject : The first step towards applying is deciding on a subject for your doctorate. The essential aspect here is to focus on as specific a field of study as you possibly can; thus saying that you wish to do a doctorate in Electrical Engineering is not good enough, you have to be more specific than that (say, doctorate in Power Transmission and transmission losses, which is a specific field within the broad ambit of Electrical Engineering). Spend time on deciding this - the critical factor here is a very high level of interest in the specific field you choose. In fact, some experts recommend that you should have a rough idea of what your research topic in the doctoral program is going to be even before you apply for admission.

Prepare for the standardised tests : The GRE is required for most doctoral programs in the engineering and other non-management related fields. In the top graduate schools, securing a doctoral berth is a tough proposition because they are very choosy about admitting research candidates. In fact, most schools have a strict ceiling of the number of doctoral candidates they admit, which can be as low as five students in a calendar year. Most universities require the general GRE test as well as the Subject GRE test, with excellent scores. Check this with the university you intend to apply to. You will also be required to take the TOEFL and the TSE.

Choose Universities : Along with your test preparation for GRE, Subject GRE, TOEFL and TSE, you must start identifying universities that are good in the area that you want to specialise in. You must check the research interests of the department under which your research area falls.

Contact the departments and Professors : After identifying a suitable list of universities and their departments, you should identify Professors who could be interested to work with you in your research area. You could do so by visiting the university web sites and getting the names and contact email IDs of the professors.

Start corresponding with the professors by indicating your interest to work under them. Indicate as clearly as possible the subject of your research and what qualifies you to be successful at it.

You must initiate this process with as many universities as you can. There will be some Professors who will not be interested in your research area. Identify those that are, and go ahead and complete the application procedure of those universities.

Follow the Application process of the university : Submit your application to the university, follow their time deadlines, and comply with all requirements.

Project yourself well : An essential part of the application is the statement of purpose (SOP) which all graduate schools require you to write. This statement should clearly bring out your interest in the field in which you wish to do a Ph.D. Any previous research experience in that field will work to your advantage.

Financing your Doctoral Study : Getting financial aid for a doctoral programme is fairly easy. Most universities will give you a full financial aid, which will cover your tuition fees and living expenses. The aid is given either semester wise or on yearly basis. You have to apply for financial aid by indicating your interest in your admission application form.


The content of the Doctoral Programme

The doctoral programme is divided into two parts, pre-dissertation study and the doctoral thesis. Once admitted, you are required to spend the first year or so in acquiring a solid foundation in the advanced knowledge of your chosen field. This entails regular course work - you might have to attend lectures and seminars with the master's degree students of your stream. This course work culminates in a "qualifying examination", on clearing which you are formally admitted to candidacy for a doctoral degree.

In the second and final stage of the pre-dissertation study, you are expected to acquire expertise in a specialized field within your chosen discipline. Thus, if your doctoral subject was organisational behaviour, you may have narrowed down your research interest to "leadership", an important element within organisational behaviour. This stage too ends in an examination, including an oral one, upon passing which you are considered ready to begin work on your thesis.

The Doctoral Thesis : This final stage of the doctoral study is usually regarded as the most important, during which you have to complete a dissertation (a detailed study on a topic, which can be as specific as "Employee motivation at the XYZ Corporation", but should contribute to the existing level of knowledge in that field of study. During the research, you will be assigned to an advisor with whom you are required to work in close association. This advisor is usually a faculty member most knowledgeable about the special area of dissertation research.

Thesis research and preparation is a highly cognitive process. The culmination of the process is in the form of the final thesis defense, in which you are presumed to be an expert in your field and are supposed to literally defend your findings and conclusions on the subject in front of a committee. The completed dissertation becomes a public document, placed in the university library and also often published in the university journal or even on its web site in some cases.

How long does it take?

The entire process of getting a doctorate degree usually takes a minimum of three-and-a-half years, nearly two of which are spent exclusively in preparing the thesis. The degree usually leads to employment in the academic world, but in recent years, more and more doctorates are finding employment in the professional world at par with or even ahead of other professionals.

MS in Technology Commercialization

After seeing the Texas program in the Sept Fasttrack and doing some searches, I was stunned: "technology commercialization" as a search term is way hot, especially for life-hack graduate degrees.

Lots of hits, not just in North America. But they ain't cheap. Trying to solve the problem of bang-for-the-buck. I hope there's a lot of bang, because the ones so far all involve a lot of bucks.

Programs:

Univ. of Texas MSTC: http://www.ic2.utexas.edu/mstc/

Unfortunately this is an "elite executive degree" which means it's probably expensive and not very accessible - not factors if you can get an employer to send you and pay for it, but if you're trying to do your own lifehack, not realistic. Candidates learn to identify and evaluate emerging technologies, identify customers and marketing strategies, develop broad, flexible business plans, build a high-functioning management team to drive the new venture, devise approaches for securing funding and manage and protect intellectual property. Also see http://www.uniguru.com/studyabroad/United-States-courses/Master-Science-Technology-Commercialization-course-details/cseid/602082/cid/72181/programs.html for this and other interesting leads.

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Northeastern Univ. MSTC: http://www.cps.neu.edu/mstc/

Online (good) - $514 per quarter hour. A MSTC degree is 40 quarter hours (? - courses are 3 hours each), so the whole thing ends up costing over $20000. Does anyone else think that's a lot of money? Wonder if you ever make it back. Still, looks interesting and the individual course tuition could be worse.

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Penn Master of Technology Management: http://www.emtm.upenn.edu/companies/industries/technology_commercialization.html
Probably $expensive$ but Penn is an Ivy League school, so prestigious. Prestige might be worth paying for.

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Maryland MS in Telecommunications: http://www.telecom.umd.edu/current/OTC.html -- comes out of their Office of Technology Commercialization.
Also see their UMUC Doctor of Management: http://www.umuc.edu/programs/grad/dm/
Requires 48 hours of classes plus research. Fall 2009 tuition is $1087 a credit - the 48 credits will run a cool $52176, assuming the tuition doesn't increase (it will).

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NIH/FAES: http://www.faes.org/graduate_school.htm
Interesting program if you're in the Washington DC area and can get to NIH (not online), but doesn't lead to a degree; none of FAES's courses do. You can get a 15-credit "certificate" (5 courses) in Technology Transfer. Courses are $345 a credit so that works out to $5175 outlay plus books plus getting there.

If you try to transfer these credits, no guarantees. Most graduate programs won't transfer more than 6 hours (2 courses). Something to consider.

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Also see http://www.slideshare.net/infoDevSlides/technology-commercialization-handbook .

Career Switching Articles

Going back to the broader theme of career switching: a lot of people want to (or are forced to) do it, but resources and opportunities are limited.

Interesting observation in this Seattle Post-Intelligencer article http://www.seattlepi.com/business/401235_jobs25.html:

"That's the frustration for Sheri Jacobson, 58, who is weighing the cost of a career transition against her remaining earning years. She was laid off from her job in educational publishing management in December, and her industry is in flux.

"Every place you read recommends the same 10 jobs," she said, ticking off dental hygienists, nurses and software specialists.

"Nursing is always listed as one of the best jobs to consider due to high demand and good wages, as if nursing can be done by anyone who decides to get into it," said Jacobson, who lives in Sammamish. "I don't know about you, but I dread having blood drawn by someone who's qualified but not good at it. Same for IT jobs, always recommended as if we're all cut out to be technical gurus." "

But the article winds up on a more encouraging note, talking of learning to view and repackage your existing skills.

Maybe. The Labor Department has an online tool for matching skills to occupations:
http://online.onetcenter.org/, which also links to other tools.

Tuition discounts, No. 1

This will be an ongoing brainstorm. One big speedbump in the course of getting more education or a new credential is $$$ cost. Sometimes employers will pay for part-time tuition or books, usually within certain limits.

This is a nice benefit. Employers often like it too. It attracts good employees but in my experience, employees seldom actually use it. Graded courses often seem high-threat to people who have been out of school for a while. It's the exception-that-proves-the-rule for anyone to actually take a graded course or get a degree doing that, so it's cheaper than paying employees more. (There could be and may have been studies on incentives like that - in other spheres, the 401-K fund matches and purchase rebates seem to work that way.)

Sometimes there are restrictions. It also may not be the way to go for a drastic career redirection, especially if your boss needs to sign off on each course and perhaps even justify it up the chain, a setup which can also lead to complications even when the "training" relates directly to what the employer needs.

(On the other hand, noting earlier post, if your employer offers a centrally funded degree program on-site which doesn't require a lot of boss involvement other than kudos when you finish it, you should seriously consider jumping on that. It

But sometimes it's better if your credential project is invisible to your employer. Anyway, you need to think about cost in your credential project and to figure that you may need to may for at least some of it.

Focusing on tuition, even though it's not the only expense: It's good if it can be discounted -- or even free!

One interesting source of information is here is from the Dummies website, http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/finding-college-tuition-discounts-chaching.html, with my comments noted in bold:

Eligibility-based tuition discounts
Colleges often offer to reduce tuition as part of a benefits package or as part of their general policy. For this sort of tuition discount, you can't negotiate for a better deal, and eligibility tends to be strictly defined. You either qualify or you don't. Here are a few examples:

College employees often get tuition discounts. If you're the spouse, child, or (rarely) grandchild of a faculty or staff member, you're often entitled to a tuition discount or a tuition exemption.

Or if you ARE a faculty or staff member - something to consider, and there could be reciprocal benefits, like if you teach at the community college but are doing a PhD at the local state university. "Staff" can also include custodial, campus police, etc. On the other hand, colleges are contracting more of this out, and contractors probably aren't eligible.

Some colleges also offer discounts to alumni and their dependents. Colleges often do this as a way of keeping a tradition alive or rewarding return business. Stanford University, for example, offers a 20 percent tuition discount to alumni returning for Continuing Education courses.

Never heard of this! However, CE, lifelong learning, etc. may not be a credential-builder.

Eligibility may be based on age. Some colleges offer discounts to seniors. Tulane University, for example, offers a 50 percent discount for students aged 60 years and older.

States do too. You generally have to be a state resident and usually "senior" means 60 or over - I haven't found any younger ones, and some are older. Also, some, like Virginia, are means-tested - you almost have to be an unemployed pauper to get the tuition break, which means you may have more pressing matters on your mind. South Carolina seems to have one of the better deals this way.

Discounts may be offered to students with siblings attending the college. Seton Hall University, for example, offers a 10 percent discount to students whose brother or sister attends SHU.

Tuition discounts are often tied to employment. George Washington University in Virginia operates liaison programs with various corporations, offering a 10 percent tuition reimbursement to employees who complete a course of study with them. Like many similar programs, the reimbursement amount is capped at a set figure. In GWU's case, the maximum that can be claimed is $1,000 per year per student.

Reportedly GWU has been the most expensive school in the US for several years running and they don't have a lot of distance offerings. Not sure $1000 a year is a meaningful discount.

Some employee tuition discount programs also apply to the rest of the family. The State of Tennessee offers employees of the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government a fee waiver for one course per semester, and tuition discounts of 25 percent on all college courses taken by their dependents. Specific restrictions apply — generally the dependant must be under 24 — but they're easy to follow.

Nice! Get a job with the State of Tennessee.


Programs for state employees and their dependents exist in most states (!!!), so definitely investigate this possibility if your parent, or even your grandparent, works for (or used to work for) the state. While you're at it, don't forget to check on discounts available if your parent works for the city in which a college is located.

NEVER HEARD OF THIS! Something to check out.


Some programs are tied to religious institutions or organizations. At Rosedale Bible College, active ministers and their dependents are offered a 75 percent tuition discount if they're members of the Conservative Mennonite Conference. Ministers outside the Conference receive only a 25 percent discount, and the rate for their dependents falls to 15 percent. Also, several other religious institutions offer discounts to groups.

Some tuition discount programs may not be for college tuition. Instead, discounts for a private school, a daycare, or other similar institution may be offered to the children of those attending or working at a particular college. For example, Children's World Learning Centers offers Johns Hopkins University employees a 10 percent tuition discount on published tuition rates at any of the Children's World Centers.

Some discounts are offered for non-peak school times. Pennsylvania College of Technology has initiated an Early Start program, offering students a 25 percent tuition discount on specific courses if they take them in the summer term, which typically has lower enrollment than the rest of the year.

The Big Obstacles - Cost, Time, and Distance

The "Big Obstacles" to a midcareer graduate school credential project seem to fall into these three buckets:
1. Time
2. Distance (related to time, but not quite the same thing)
3. Cost

Any others?

If your employer offers a fully paid onsite degree program for employees which doesn't require a boss signoff on every course, you should jump on that unless there's a really compelling reason not to. It's the best setup you'll ever get with respect to time, distance, and cost with that employer. Plus usually some bigwig at the employer has invested some credibility in advocating that plan and they'll appreciate you making them look good.

(Note: one doesn't see these so much any more, because they have a notoriously high dropout rate. Usually they start with a lot of people and end up with no completions or just a couple. )

More from National Academies

The Summer 2008 issue of the NAS/NAE Issues in Science and Technology's cover theme is adult education, "The Path Not Studied". I haven't read it yet but plan to.

Back issues of this magazine can be obtained from http://www.issues.org/backissues.html.

There is also a podcast of this at
http://media.nap.edu/podcasts/nax73pathnotstu.mp3.

National Academies: Professional Science Master's Degree Programs Should be Expanded

http://www.nationalacademies.org/morenews/20080711.html.
REPORT RELEASE: The Board on Higher Education and Workforce announces the release of “Science Professionals: Master’s Education for a Competitive World.”

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Well, when the National Academies talk, you've gotta listen, I guess. But I'm a little suspicious of this. Higher academia has been getting it wrong for years about what skills and credentials are actually associated with the whole picture of technology happening, and they like having second-class citizens to be lab assistants, working in the machine shop, etc. when people with the same credentials could be valued first-class citizens in industry, developing new materials, computers, ships, aircraft, etc. or in technology policy or regulation.

There are a lot of disincentives to go for a long-term graduate degree in the natural sciences - in terms of financial and lifestyle choices. This looks like the academic departments are, in a more kind interpretation, trying to become relevant, or in a less kind one, trying to start a new racket in the booming part-time master's degree market - all those physics and chemistry majors getting master's degrees in engineering and all that mid-career business going to engineering departments, maybe.

This looks like a new kind of bogus second-class-citizen credential to keep more of the academics employed. Some of this academic wampum may be interesting but a lot of it may be difficult for potential employers to decode.

I think it's better to be a first-class citizen in business or industry than a second-class citizen in academia. One should watch this carefully to see how the credential community evolves before investing any tuition in it. If you're a science major, check out engineering, law, or business before going with one of these.

Peter Drucker, self-knowledge, and career switching

The late Peter Drucker (d. 2005) is a resource who will get mentioned more than once in this blog. He's not just for MBA or management-science students; he's for anyone trying to stack Wednesday on top of Tuesday, or trying to develop one's career, whether by adding graduate credentials or other means. Lots of profound yet practical wisdom.

Two of many links:
http://www.epiphanyresources.com/9to5/articles/DruckerByPearson.pdf

No great surprise that a Drucker link is "epiphany resources." An important point that Drucker makes over and over again is that a manager must know her/his strengths -- and he claimed that most people don't know their own strengths.

I think this is a profound truth with practical implications. I've seen this demonstrated over and over again - people who are hung up about being something they have little or no aptitude for, while ignoring a talent that they could really do something with.

I wonder if this isn't even a worse problem with vicarious parental expectations. If we have trouble knowing what we ourselves are good at, it could be even worse with parental agendas.

More on this is at http://www.leadertoleader.org/knowledgecenter/journal.aspx?ArticleID=26


Abundance of Choices

. . .

Knowledge gives choice. It also explains why we suddenly have women in the same jobs as men. Historically, men and women have always had equal participation in the labor force -- the idea of the idle housewife is a 19th-century delusion. Men and women simply did different jobs. There's no civilization in which the two genders did the same work. However, knowledge work knows no gender; men and women do the same jobs. This, too, is a major change in the human condition.

To succeed in this new world, we will have to learn, first, who we are. Few people, even highly successful people, can answer the questions, Do you know what you're good at? Do you know what you need to learn so that you get the full benefit of your strengths? Few have even asked themselves these questions.

. . .

Test Drives

Some graduate school programs seem to have the helpful feature that you can take a couple of courses as a non-degree student to dip your toe in the water before committing to the involved process of putting an application for a degree program together.

Here are links to some examples:

http://www.uncg.edu/grs/programs/visions.html

http://gradschool.binghamton.edu/ps/nondegree.asp

http://learnmore.duke.edu/academicstudies/graduate.htm

http://www.grads.vt.edu/academics/programs/non_degree.html

http://www.montclair.edu/graduate/prospective/non-deg.shtml

http://www.ccids.umaine.edu/interedu/gradei/starting/howtoapply.htm

More examples?

A link to an article on the subject:
http://www.back2college.com/gradschooltest.htm

It's nice to be able to test the waters without making a big deal out of it, especially since your new pursuit may still require a lot of negotiation and coordination with family and work. All that and it costs money, too! Even if your employer provides tuition support for your courses (more on that in another post), you will still have some out-of-pocket expense.

Warning: Most schools I've seen place limits on how many of these courses you can usefully take as a non-degree student. Many schools will only let you apply 6 semester hours (2 courses) taken while in a non-degree status to a degree. They may also require you to apply for a degree after two courses or leave. Some also have absolute limits on the courses you can take as a non-degree student.

Next steps in midcareer grad school guerrilla theatre - gathering transcripts and taking inventory

I used to think that getting copies of college transcripts for your own use was close to worthless, because they aren't "official" copies which can be sent anywhere as part of an application. But they are useful for some purposes.

Specifically, working deals out. Unless you're headed for some nice canned after-hours program (which is generally limited to masters' degrees), you'll need to negotiate.

And you'll need to find someone on a university faculty to negotiate with. Some professor somewhere will need to decide that you can be an asset to her or his program. You'll need to agree on a "Program of Study", which is a contract between you and the school - representatives of the school and department actually sign off on the POS and there is an actual signed document which you will need to keep a copy of in your important papers.

Chances are, if you're contemplating a midcareer graduate school move, you've had a few stabs at after-hours graduate school already, maybe even gotten a graduate degree of some sort already. It's best if the Program of Study for your newly contemplated program is a shorter path, taking work you've already done into account, than a longer one. You don't want to start all over again if you can help it. The "unofficial transcript" (photocopy of the one you ordered from your school) can be a way for you to inform this kind of negotiation.

How do you find someone to negotiate with? That's the tricky part.

More observations on pathways

Lots of opportunities to do midcareer master's degrees. Far fewer opportunities to do mid-career doctorates.

Why?

Too difficult?

Not profitable enough for schools to support?

Mid-career graduate school pathways

This is meant to be a constructive discussion, brainstorm, and source of ideas, observations, and lessons-learned about pursuing and successfully obtaining graduate school credentials, particularly earned doctorates from accredited institutions, whilst full-time employed.

First observation with some questions: Lots of part-time and distance master's degree programs of many types, often terminal degrees which lead no further. Also nondegree and partial degree ("certificate") variants, which may be a package of 4-5 graduate courses which could count towards a degree but are packaged as a "certificate" of accomplishment in some field - they could also be a head-start towards a traditional degree at that school.


Questions:

- If you want to get a master's-degree-type credential, there are usually a lot of choices, depending on your field of interest. Why so many programs - supply meeting demand? Are they profitable in some sense for universities to offer?

- What generates the demand - need for credentials by workers, or need for skills by employers? Personal fulfillment? Career change? Re-inventing oneself?

- Degrees appear to run to types
- education/counseling
- business - MBAs and variants
- engineering and related fields (IT, applied science)
- other?

- Who does these and why?

- Who pays for them?

- What are the "high leverage" types of degrees, if any? Are any part-time master's degrees truly life-changing or career-changing? What occupational improvements do they lead to, if any?