Dropping out.

[Antoha-spb]

Hi Dan,

Its your life and responsibility for making choices, but i would support your decision to abandon your studies.

First, wrong education traps you within the wrong job afterwards. One who dislikes his job will never reach the hights. If psychology is not yours, the sooner you switch - the better.

Then, there's no need for a degree to have a success. One just need to be passionate about his job. I've got some examples in my family and among the best friends.

And finally - i got a feeling that higher education is kinda mass product that is just sold without much concerns how its used in the real life.

BR,
A.

[phaedrus]

Hey Dan, things have a habit of happening all at once and seeming insurmountable.. in a few years it'll all seem a distant memory but it's very real at the time isn't it?!

FWIW I gave up on my Masters, many reasons but one of them was most certainly that I didn't think I'd be contributing anything really useful in the field. Sure it would have meant [another] bit of paper for me but it didn't really seem right somehow. I went back to a variation of something I did before Uni (I was in my twenties when I started U) and was reasonably successful at it. My Uni work didn't provide a vocational qualification and in fact what I eventually did was quite different to what I was studying but it taught me a number of other things (research, writing and social/authoritative skills), thus indirectly helping me do what I did. Latterly I've entertained thoughts of completing the Masters or PhD but that's now more of a personal satisfaction thing (I don't like leaving things unfinished) rather than a need and who knows if I'll ever do it. I mention this solely as another example of someone who's had a somewhat erratic life and managed ok(ish). Equally I could have finished the Masters, moved on to a PhD and be a successful academic or scientist by now. Or I could have dropped out and turned into a bum, but I don't really think I'd have been successful at that and neither do I think you would be!

Thing is you'll do what you're going to do and from what I read and see I'm sure you'll be a success at it - with or without a degree or three. I'd say finish the thing, as (Rob?) said even if what you're doing fails it's still publishable and it's a pity to waste all the time you've already spent, it doesn't seem to me you've all that long to go (I have the luxury of being an old bastard so I can say that whilst still recognising the impetuousity of youth . But if you don't then don't look back, forge on with your choice and make the most of it. Many of us have false starts, thing is to try another direction, or back off and have another go, or just grit teeth drop to a lower gear and keep on going; if I may paraphrase something another fellow said "such choices as you make are neither good nor bad, only thinking makes them so"...

Cheers, P.

[benjamin]

getting his PhD was like being an SS agent... you've got to show that bitch whose boss.

It's actually not anything like that; and the comparison is profoundly offensive. My grandmother was forced to flee to this country when the Vichy took power in France- much like my grandfather's family came here to escape the pogroms, and like my father, a refugee of the Hungarian revolution. When your friend trivializes those experiences, it helps shape a world in which they can be repeated.

Dan- FWIW I'd talk to some folks who make hiring decisions for the kinds of gigs you'd like to have moving forward. In law at least, informational interview are pretty common.

Also, school administrators frequently have more latitude in how they structure programs that they let on. Perhaps you can make inroads to re-contextualize your work in a cross-disciplinary study that incorporates what you've done while positioning you more towards where to go? Every department is a weird little island, and opportunities can open up if you're willing to build bridges between them... In your position I might touch base with educators in your broader academic community who might be interested in (or at least, curious about) sponsoring an innovative inter-departmental degree... even if they're not core decision-makers. In my limited experience the keys to success in those situations are a) getting buy-in from advocates within multiple departments in the institution; and b) documenting your proposal kind of like a grant app, but the core points are why it'll make the school look good and why it won't require any additional effort from anyone other than the diploma calligrapher. I will also say that I definitely get job interviews on occasion based largely on interviewers who want to know more about my individualized degree.

[StevePoling]

getting his PhD was like being an SS agent... you've got to show that bitch whose boss.

It's actually not anything like that; and the comparison is profoundly offensive. My grandmother was forced to flee to this country when the Vichy took power in France- much like my grandfather's family came here to escape the pogroms, and like my father, a refugee of the Hungarian revolution. When your friend trivializes those experiences, it helps shape a world in which they can be repeated.

I certainly did not intend to offend anyone. The metaphor was my friend's and he was describing the relentlessness that he had had to summon to get his PhD. Perhaps a different metaphor might be less offensive and yet convey the inhuman relentlessness of the successful PhD candidate: Anton Chigurh in the movie "No Country for Old Men."

If your mileage varies, that's good.