Who wants to be a Ph.D.?
If you're considering getting a Ph.D. and becoming a professor or researcher, you may have a burning desire to know more about Mayan art or to determine protein structures.  You have even possibly done some research already. You may feel you'd love a job like the one your professors have. Also lots of people discover the prestige associated with the Ph.D. attractive, though a Ph.D. program takes a long time.
The median number of years new Ph.D.s are registered as graduate students is 8.9 for arts and humanities Ph.D.s, 7.5 for social science Ph.D.s, 7.0 for Ph.D.s in the life sciences, and 6.8 for Ph.D.s in the physical sciences. That is a long time. So should you take a financial loss by going to graduate school or is a Ph.D. program right for you?
Getting a Ph.D. for the right type of person is a great idea. Despite what the field of study, there are some characteristics common to successful Ph.D. students:
• Enjoy learning for learning's sake
• Be willing to work very hard for many years with only a possible payoff later
• Be persistent (never give up)
• Like intellectual challenges
• Enjoy an academic environment
• Enjoy scholarly discussions
• Have excellent command of undergraduate coursework
• Be willing to give up some parties and other pastimes to do research
• Be willing to live on a tight budget for many years or have outside income
Being a Ph.D. student sounds like a monk-like existence, that’s because in some ways, it is.
Straight Talk about Atmosphere
Most students, with a good goal of creating new knowledge, are idealistic when they start their Ph.D. programs. But, graduate school may not be the intellectual haven they had imagined. An observation is that fame and friendliness of professors tend to be inversely related. Faculty members can be irritable and too busy to talk with graduate students. Some graduate students even feel abused.
The first graduate school year is intense, actually, extremely intense. As the Ph.D. is a research degree, first year grad students usually concentrate on courses, not research.
Usually there are three graduate courses. Graduate courses work much more than undergraduate courses and three graduate courses is an extremely heavy workload. Given that many Ph.D. students teach during their first year, too, the first year of graduate school can consist of almost nonstop work.
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