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HTSurvive_PhD.indd 1 9/18/09 4:08:32 PM
Copyright © 2009 by Jason R. Karp
Cover and internal design © 2009 by Sourcebooks, Inc.
Cover design by William Riley/Sourcebooks
Sourcebooks and the colophon are registered trademarks of Sourcebooks, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or
mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from its publisher,
Sourcebooks, Inc.
This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to
the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged
in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional service. If legal advice or other expert
assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.—From a
Declaration of Principles Jointly Adopted by a Committee of the American Bar Association and a Committee
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All brand names and product names used in this book are trademarks, registered trademarks, or
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Published by Sourcebooks, Inc.
P.O. Box 4410, Naperville, Illinois 60567-4410
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Karp, Jason.
How to survive your PhD : the insider’s guide to avoiding mistakes, choosing the right
program, working with professors, and just how a person actually writes a 200-page paper / by
Jason Karp.
p. cm.
1. Doctor of philosophy degree. I. Title.
LB2386.K37 2009
378.2’4--dc22
2009030718
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
VP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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Contents
Preface..................................................................................... vii
Acknowledgments. ................................................................... xi
Chapter 1: Choice.s. .................................................................. 1
Choosing the PhD
Ego
Finances
Choosing Your School: Location, Location, Location
Opportunity
Coursework
Reputation of Department
Know Your Research Interests
Choosing Your Academic Advisor
Your Advisor’s Work Ethic
Your Advisor’s Philosophy
Seek Information from Others
Choosing Your Committee
Transferring Schools
Do You Have the Time?
Patience
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Chapter 2: Thinking Like a Doctoral Student .......................... 43
Think Big
Ask Why
Understand the Literature
Be Critical
Reason
Thinking Skills
Chapter 3: Tricks of the Trade ................................................ 61
Know What Is Expected of You
Directing Your Efforts
Being Busy
Helping Other Students
Teaching Classes
Head Start on Research
Managing Yourself
Prioritize
Working with Your Advisor
Being Resourceful
Visibility
Burning Bridges
Communication
Managing Finances
Assistantships
Scholarships
Fellowships
Grants
Establish Residency in the State before Enrolling in School
Chapter 4: Research ................................................................ 97
Publications
Getting Your Research off the Ground
Intellectual Property
Authorship vs. Contributorship
Conferences—The Public Forum for Your Research
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Chapter 5: The Qualifying (Comprehensive) Exam ................113
The Written Exam
The Oral Exam
If You Fail
How to Study
“Paper PhD”
Chapter 6: The Dissertation ....................................................137
Writing the Proposal and Dissertation
Becoming a Writer
Procrastination
Dissertation Format
The Chapters of the Dissertation
Introduction
Purpose
Hypotheses
Literature Review
Methodology
Data Analysis
Limitations
Results
Discussion
Conclusions
More Advice on Writing Your Chapters
Proofread
Preparing Your Dissertation Proposal Presentation
The Dissertation Proposal Defense
The Dissertation Defense
You Get Done When You Get Done
Epilogue .................................................................................207
About the Author ...................................................................211
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Preface
hroughout my work on my PhD, I always told people that I
Twas the least academic doctoral student they’d ever meet. My
academic advisor, of course, wished that wasn’t the case.
I told people that partly because it was true and partly because
I didn’t want people (cute female undergraduates) to think I was
a nerd. Truth be told, most doctoral students are nerds. I should
know—after thirteen years of multiple university educations,
including a year of classes in medical school, I’ve been around many
of them. So I felt like I needed some way to connect with a student
body that was, with each passing year, getting younger than me.
If people saw that I was smart and cool…well, let’s just say that
everyone wants to feel like part of a group. From the very beginning
of graduate school, I saw myself as being different from my peers.
I had different career aspirations and a different way of looking at
things. I didn’t see the point of working hard on papers that only a
professor would ever read. I didn’t believe there was much value in
the rush to publish scientific papers in academic journals so that your
articles could gather dust on university library bookshelves, their
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viii HOW TO SURVIVE YOUR PhD
cobwebs only being blown off when some other stressed graduate
student needs to reference your esoteric paper for his or her own
dissertation. Instead, I wanted a larger audience. If I was going to be
a student living in a college town, I’d rather hang on to the college
lifestyle as long as I could. Believe me, it helps immensely when you
look a decade younger than you really are. In fact, I still get carded
at the door when I go out to a bar or a nightclub.
At the outset of my PhD, my career goal was to be an entrepre-
neur. I wanted to work for myself as a running and fitness coach,
writer, and consultant, but I also wanted flexibility, with the option
to work in academia if I wanted. While I initially thought it would
take four years to complete my degree, it ended up taking seven,
giving a whole new meaning to the term “seven-year itch.”
Obviously, there were many obstacles to overcome and much
waiting to endure while working on my PhD, and naturally, I
often questioned whether I was ever going to finish. At times,
I felt like Estragon and Vladimir in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for
Godot. Many told me (or tried to tell me) that a PhD certainly
wasn’t necessary for my career aspirations. But despite the obstacles
and the stress and the sometimes not-so-subtle signs that maybe I
wasn’t smart enough or worthy enough or savvy enough to earn
a PhD, I continued forward, blindly at times, to find ways that I
could complete my degree. After all, even the great Albert Einstein
attempted multiple times to get a dissertation accepted and eventu-
ally receive his doctorate, so busy he was revolutionizing the field
of physics and all. However, I didn’t have such distractions. “Why
am I doing this to myself?” I asked myself countless times. Looking
back, perhaps the reason was because I put the PhD degree on such
a high pedestal, a pedestal that I wanted to stand on. Although there
may always be a good chance of failing, people take risks because
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PREfacE ix
the chance of failing makes success taste even sweeter. For me, the
truth was that, if I had quit, I would have felt guilty for the rest of
my life. So I pushed ahead with the degree, hoping for the best.
This book is the culmination of years of hard work and much
frustration that could have been avoided if only I had had someone
to give me the advice that I am now trying to give you. That said,
you won’t hear the advice in this book from professors and others
working in academia, nor from any other book on this subject.
Sure, people like me can give you advice and help make your path
a smoother one; however, the fact is that no one can tell you what
your exact experience will be like. That’s the reason that I wrote
this book, after all.
In How to Survive Your PhD, I’ll walk you through the entire
PhD process and give details about exactly what you’ll need to
know, details such as how to choose your school and advisor,
what demands to expect on your time, where delays can occur and
how to deal with them, among many other invaluable tidbits. But
even more than great tips and strong advice, this book tries to give
you a thorough understanding of the human elements of the PhD
process—for example, how to deal with the people to whom you
must prove yourself—and hopefully bestow on you the insight I
lacked during those years.
To give you a clearer picture of the process and the situations in
which you may find yourself, text boxes are included throughout
the book that speak to my personal experiences, most of which
end with a lesson. But until you experience the PhD process for
yourself, it’s all theory, not reality. Acknowledging this limitation,
it is my sincere hope that this book will help you make the right
decisions both before and during your doctoral work, simplifying
and facilitating the PhD process for all you future doctors in your
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