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The Mainstays of Ph.D.

This entry was posted in Category Dissertation , on August 17 , 2016.

  • Ph.D. is always an emotional roller coaster, and quite often puts the researcher in a state of depression. There are a few essential components of Ph.D., as we may call them, that stay with all the scholars, irrespective of the subject, university or other standard factors. The four key components are, despair, remorse, splendour and motivation. All these are the mainstays in the life of a scholar, and they come and go, in a cyclic nature. With the ones who face them in extreme, often decide to just plain quit because they can’t handle it any further.
  • Despair: There is a lot of despair and depression in the Ph.D. journey as the path is lonely. It is a journey that one has to take up alone, and rarely do people bother about what you are doing. A lot of energy and effort goes from the end of the researcher, and there do come stages when the work doesn’t get approved and one has to face rejection despite all the effort. This brings in bouts of depression and feeling of anxiety. This further slows down the work and progress speed of Ph.D., causing for a vicious circle to creep up.
  • Remorse: Another shoot that comes out in the personality of a person during the Ph.D. progression is remorse.  So much of the effort, money and resources go into the Ph.D. programme that even a small failure in the journey, or a brief setback makes you feel that you have wasted everything, and this has a direct impact on your productivity, and hence further more guilt. Feeling of a low self-worth is a common trait found in Ph.D. students.
  • Splendour: There are those moments of glory during the programme. As I said earlier, these all phases come in a cyclic nature. The moment when the paper gets accepted, or there is progress in the flow of your work, there is a sense of accomplishment and splendour. One does feel on the seventh heaven. But then, there is another challenge to face. It is never ending, so the short lived ecstasy leads to the next bout of depression.
  • Motivation: The roller coaster ride that a Ph.D. programme is all about, has the journey filled with ups and downs, and so the motivation level also keeps fluctuating with the highs and lows of the journey. During the time that the spirits are high, it is best to exploit your potential, and take the best out of yourself.

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