Some individuals are pursuing doctoral education with excitement. When they get to the dissertation stage, they receive untold shock. Do not take doctoral dissertation for granted. The traditional universities are stable in the way they organize their doctoral programs. Incidentally, the for-profit universities make changes to their programs at will. Doctoral students in these programs suffer untold hardship, especially if they were ill-informed. When anyone enrolls in a doctoral program, he or she should find an external mentor to stand beside him or or her from the beginning of the journey. Some of them can be found at Eclipse Ventures. Other guides are found at the consulting firm, Dr. Frederick & Associates.
Online universities exist to give respite to professionals who are looking to eat their cake and still have it. These professionals cannot resign their jobs just to go to school. They work, earn their salaries, and receive doctoral education. That is a paradigm shift from the traditional education format. Jumping into doctoral education while working must be calculated to include the cost of personal coach and mentor while on the journey.
Which university are you attending? What program are you enrolled in? How much is your tuiton? Are you paying out of pocket? Are you using student loans? What country are you based in? Does your country trade favorably with or against the U.S. dollar? Are you confident in your ability and resilience to weather the storm? Do you have rapport with the Chair of your dissertation committee? Do you know the difference between your institution's dissertation process and those of similar institutions? Do you truly understand the templates that your university has put in place for the specfic program that you are enrolled in? Do you know the worldviews of your committee members? Did you select them or did the university assign them to you? Are you the owner of your committee or are the committee members the owners of 'you'? Who is on the driver's seat? Every research must pass through the intersection of data collection, analysis and reporting. How comfortable are you with that activity? If you are not comfortable with it at this time, when (or at what point) will you contact coaches and mentors who understand the nuances to begin to shape your proposal even before your committee members delay your process with tough questions that may take you one whole year to answer before you can move forward in your dissertation writing?
Consider these. Call now! "Make the move right now, babe," just like Shalamar sang in their song in the 1970s.
