The right reasons for getting a doctorate
Doing a PhD is hard work. It is not easy spending hours and hours thinking about a single topic. It is not easy devoting days, months and even years to the study of a subject and trying to find answers to difficult questions. It is often not financially rewarding. It can also be a lonely job. The researcher might find himself studying when others his age are out there in the world earning money. It is not easy to withstand the temptations of partying and having a good time that is invariably a part of social life in a college and spend all that time trying to comprehend the intricacies of big data. There are many students who are not able to withstand the rigours of doing a doctorate and often quit in the middle. Only the single minded and the strong willed are able to see the job through and get to a stage where they can proudly call themselves a doctor. That is why before enrolling in such a course, it is essential that the student look inward and examine the reasons why he wants to be a doctor of philosophy. It is only these reasons that would subsequently seem him through the hard days of completing a PhD.
There are many students who enrol in such courses under the misconception that if they were to get a PhD they would be able to earn fame and fortune. There are others who enrol in these programs under pressure from family and society. Then there are others who think that the only natural thing to do after a Masters is a PhD. All these students are heading down the wrong path. If they were to enrol for these reasons, the chances of them failing are a lot higher than the chances of them succeeding.
One of the best and purest reasons for doing a PhD is for the intense love of a subject. There are students who love a subject so much that they want to examine every aspect of it. Their quest for knowledge is what drives them to put in all the hard work for collecting large volumes of data and then analysing it. If students are intensely passionate about a particular topic or have a deep desire to make a difference to society then they should ideally try their hand at writing a dissertation and becoming a doctor of philosophy.