SAHM/grandmothers getting a PhD over 45?

[Anonymous]

I work with a few women who were SAHMs/ grandmothers who earned a doctorate over the age of 40/45.

I was 34 when I finished my doctorate. I am also a woman. I received stipends and graduate research positions and had published articles and presentations. I had a full time job as a defense contractor. My employer paid for my tuition. I was able to complete my dissertation research as part of my job.

I would never have paid so much money for an online degree as a doctorate, which I see mostly women paying, for a job that pays around $32 an hour. Why would a 50-year-old put themselves in debt like that? Why not invest that money in something more lucrative like a small business?

[Anonymous]

Maybe a docotorate is their dream and a small business is not?

[Anonymous]

Why don’t you mind your own business & stop judging? You make all women look BAD!!
Just enjoy people for what they are and try to have some pleasant, maybe even intellectual conversations instead of getting all judgy about people choices ok?

[Anonymous]

Maybe they didn’t pay for it.
Maybe if they did, they could afford it.
Maybe they had an intellectual goal.
Not sure of your point ... and you’d be hard pressed to find a 45 year old grandmother anywhere around here.

[Anonymous]

I'm curious why you care and why you are so threatened by this? You do you.

[Anonymous]

They're pressured to compete by getting more education. That education is an online degree, more costly than my degree from a bricks and mortar. It's not because getting a doctorate was a dream of theirs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work with a few women who were SAHMs/ grandmothers who earned a doctorate over the age of 40/45.

I was 34 when I finished my doctorate. I am also a woman. I received stipends and graduate research positions and had published articles and presentations. I had a full time job as a defense contractor. My employer paid for my tuition. I was able to complete my dissertation research as part of my job.

I would never have paid so much money for an online degree as a doctorate, which I see mostly women paying, for a job that pays around $32 an hour. Why would a 50-year-old put themselves in debt like that? Why not invest that money in something more lucrative like a small business?


[/quote

So is your issue that they got an online degree or that they got a PhD?

[Anonymous]

I had to drop out of my PhD program a year before getting my diploma because my newborn had special needs and my PI wasn't on board with an extended schedule.

In my field, this essentially terminated my career even before it started.

I have long considered going back to get a PhD after my son becomes more independent.

Money and career are not the issues for most people when it comes to a PhD, it's a matter of academic interest and personal fulfillment.

I'm surprised that you can't understand that, OP.

[Anonymous]

9:32 again.

Why are you equating a PhD with an online degree?

The immense majority of PhDs cannot be achieved online, and necessitate an arduous selection process, interviews, as well as years of on-site research and the writing of hundreds of pages of dissertation. The graduate courses could be done online, but those represent the smallest portion of the work involved.

[Anonymous]

Wow, you are insecure. Your whole first paragraph is bragging about your doctorate which has nothing to do with these women.

Also, I don't follow your reasoning...they're probably not "pressured to compete" for job reasons if they could afford to SAHM in this area during their 30s and early 40s. And a doctorate isn't what you do in 90 plus percent of fields if you feel pressured to compete financially. I'm sure they have some intellectual interest, along with a financial cushion that allows them to do this. The online doctorate is probably a good path for them, too, due to being able to spend more time with kids and because they may have to move for a DH's higher-earning job.

Also, please show me these 45 year old highly-educated grandmothers in the DMV.

Stop comparing yourself to others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I work with a few women who were SAHMs/ grandmothers who earned a doctorate over the age of 40/45.

I was 34 when I finished my doctorate. I am also a woman. I received stipends and graduate research positions and had published articles and presentations. I had a full time job as a defense contractor. My employer paid for my tuition. I was able to complete my dissertation research as part of my job.

I would never have paid so much money for an online degree as a doctorate, which I see mostly women paying, for a job that pays around $32 an hour. Why would a 50-year-old put themselves in debt like that? Why not invest that money in something more lucrative like a small business?

If you have a PhD why do you write so poorly?

[Anonymous]

OP, are you one of those insecure PhDs who insist everyone calls her "Doctor" and is jealous of SAHMs?

[Anonymous]

A 100% online doctorate is unlikely to be the equivalent of your research university PhD, in any case.

Employers know the difference between Harvard and U. of Phoenix.

A lot of online doctorates are not PhDs. They are Ed.D., DPscy, etc..

So if your point is that their degree "cheapens" yours, don't sweat it. If you have a job, though, where all that matters are the letters and not what they represent, then your degree doesn't much matter, either.

-- PhD from a major research university now mommy-tracked in a job a bright grad student could do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work with a few women who were SAHMs/ grandmothers who earned a doctorate over the age of 40/45.

I was 34 when I finished my doctorate. I am also a woman. I received stipends and graduate research positions and had published articles and presentations. I had a full time job as a defense contractor. My employer paid for my tuition. I was able to complete my dissertation research as part of my job.

I would never have paid so much money for an online degree as a doctorate, which I see mostly women paying, for a job that pays around $32 an hour. Why would a 50-year-old put themselves in debt like that? Why not invest that money in something more lucrative like a small business?

If you have a PhD why do you write so poorly?

Because she's blinded by her own insecurity?

Also, for a PhD, she sure lacks reasoning skills...

[Anonymous]

34 is pretty late for getting a PhD if you are in for research and not for a degree, so your situation is no different.