Doctoral students MUST read: Grobman's book: Just Don't Do it!

Grobman's Just Don't Do it! is a MUST read for anyone who is interested in PhD culture or is considering to pursue a PhD. Accroding to Grobman, if you are thinking to do a PhD in Social Sciences or Humanities, you better don't do it because you won't have any contributions to the fields you are in; and you do not make a difference for others in the same fields - that's a very interesting theory.

I learn from this book:
(1) The term "PhD" comes from Latin Philosphiae Doctor - means "Teacher of Philosophy".
(2) The first doctorate was granted on September 5, 1692 - it is a honorary doctorate degree. It was conferred upon Haravard's president, Increase Matter.
(3) Every year more than 45,000 doctorate degree was awarded in the US. However the dropout rate of PhD program is staying very high, between 50 to 60%. Female students have a higher dropouts rate than male students.
(4) Founded in 1974, Harvard University Kennedy School of Public Administration MPA program was NOT accredited by the National Association of Schools of Public Administration ubtil 2004!!!! - That's a BIG surprise!
(5) PhD online schools - revenues in 2004 is $2,5 billion; $10 billion in 2006 with 1.7 million students enrolled!! - selling fake degrees is a big business.
(6) Having a PhD doesn't gurantee success in life, sometime it turns out as tragedies - doctoral students cracked under the pressure and "abused" and perpetrated violence against faculty members. Here are some examples:
- 1991 University of Iowa: a PhD student, Gabg Liu killed his faculty's advisor Christopher Goerz, his fellow doctorate student, department head, the associate vice-president.
- 1998 Wayne State University: a doctoral student murdered his doctoral advisor.
- 2000 University of Arkansas: a PhD student in English James Easton Kelly shot his facultu advisor after he was being dropped from the program for lack of academic progress.
- After spending a few years in the PhD program you will find yourself talking "funny" by using "big words."

... sigh:)

The most impressive chapter of this book (for me) is "Tips on surviving in a PhD program." The author also provides a very "useful" link for reader who would like to explore more PhD culture stories:

http://www.phdculture.com/ - in my opinion, it should be considered a "company" link to:
http://www.thegradcafe.com/