<p>I am currently a first year student in a Ph.D. program. However, I'm finding that this path may not be for me. I love this subject, but am not liking the area that I go to school and am also starting to learn that a job in academia may not be for me (which is what my PhD prepares me for). I am thinking about possibly trying to transfer programs or leaving after getting my Masters degree. Any advice? I want to commit to the Masters but will truly be unhappy with anything past that. Who and when do I talk to someone about this?</p>
<p>If it’s your first year, I’m guessing that you’re less than a month into classes? I would give it more time before making such a decision. Pretty much everyone I know in grad school had an adjustment period at the beginning of feeling completely out of their depth or out of place.</p>
<p>Being a 6th year PhD student, I think that there are three different kinds of drop out reasons, and you cite evidence of feelings of at least 2 and maybe 3.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The normal “OMG THIS SUCKS i wanna leave” feelings every PhD student has. Although they never completely go away, for students who decide to stay they do lessen a lot.</p></li>
<li><p>When you still love your field and/or your program, and you love research, but you aren’t sure that an academic career is for you; and</p></li>
<li><p>When you dislike your field or this program, and/or you dislike research altogether, and you’ve realized that you don’t want to do any of this anymore.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>It takes a few months (and sometimes, longer) to sort out whether you are feeling the normal “drop out” feelings because of the grueling nature of the PhD, or whether you really need to contemplate dropping out. I say take your feelings seriously and consider them now. People will tell you to wait - and I agree that you should definitely wait before you drop out altogether. However, I also caution people against waiting TOO long to think about those feelings, because it’s harder to drop out in years 3, 4, 5+ than it is to leave after 1 year. The investment of time and emotion has been greater.</p>
<p>Here are some suggestions/thoughts:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Talk to more advanced grad students in your program. They will probably reassure you that the feelings are normal, but some of them may be willing to talk you through them a bit.</p></li>
<li><p>Think about what else you would do if you were to leave with a master’s. Don’t believe the hype that you will never find a job with just an MA/without a PhD; it’s almost never true. There are thousands of PhD dropouts running around with jobs right now.</p></li>
<li><p>Think about what it is about the program you hate. Is it coursework? That will be over soon and you will never have to do it again. Is it research? Then yes, you probably do need to bail, because a PhD prepares you for a research career. Are you disillusioned with your project, but when you work on other research-y things you’re happy? You may need to find a new lab or even transfer programs. Do you hate the petty politics of academia? So does everyone else, but that in and of itself may not be a reason to leave, especially since every field has politics.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>You may need to literally sit down and make a list of the pros and cons. What do you love about studying for a PhD? What do you hate? Can the things you hate be changed (i.e., “I have no social life” - you CAN have a social life as a PhD student, you just have to make time), or will they go away after year 2 anyway? Or are they persistent things that hint that a career in research and academia isn’t necessarily for you?</p>
<ol>
<li>Even if you don’t want to go into academia, do you want to go into a career that requires a PhD - or one in which a PhD would be very handy? For a time I didn’t want to do academia either, but I wanted to do research for a think tank or a government agency, and those jobs required a PhD too. SO I pressed on.</li>
</ol>
<p>You can make an appointment with the counseling center and talk to a counselor (preferably one that has a PhD, but most of them usually do) about your decision. That’s what I did in year 3 when I was on the brink. They can help you think through your decision-making process and suggest things that can help. For example, I was having crazy insomnia and my counselor was a tremendous help in thinking through strategies to solve that problem. Getting rid of my insomnia was a HUGE factor in helping me decide to stay, since it was the root of a lot of the other problems I had, too.</p>
<p>If you really don’t like the topic youre currently learning, definitenly switch and don’t drop out. So many of my teachers-actually all of them, are still in school getting their PhDs and it would be really overwhelming to go to school and work at the same time. If you prefer to go to school and work and its easier for you, then obviously do that. Just don’t do anything you’ll regret.</p>