Reply to Pursuing PhD @ 50+

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Completely different take here.

I’m 66. Ten years ago I earned a doctorate (not PhD, more on this below) and it was a great decision.

I’m a historian. I’ve presented papers at many conferences, been a consultant, been a guest speaker on cruise ships, and thoroughly enjoyed it all. Hopefully I’ll have an essay in a published volume in a year or so, and a book out in a few years.

Riffing off of many of the comments here, let me make some full disclosures.

First – I didn’t go into debt, and had no expectation of earning any money. This was all about learning and enjoying it.

Secondly – I found the right program: Georgetown’s “Liberal Studies” program. They offer (or did when I went) both MA and doctoral degrees. But the doctoral degree is “doctor in liberal studies” and not PhD. That was because the “real” scholars at Georgetown couldn’t wrap their heads around it. But it hasn’t made any difference to me. I tell people I have “a doctorate,” but every single time I am introduced to an audience, I get described as having “a PhD.” Whatever.

Thirdly – the people I went through the program with were all my age-ish – meaning in their 40s-50s-60s. I’d say that more than half were recovering lawyers or MBAs. They wanted to exercise other muscles. And – this is important – the learning really started when they realized they had to let go of their old “tools” and start learning new ones. When you can do this in adulthood you are onto something.

Bottom line – go for it! And enjoy.
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Recovering lawyers or MBAs? In that club. Earned an MS at 60 and now do things with user experience design and research. Well worth it. Use the degree every day. Education isn't only about ROI. Not everything can be measured.[/quote]

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