# Posting from the end of my rope: I don't think I'm ever going to get a PhD. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 21, 2010, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-from-the-end-of-my-rope-i-dont-think-im-ever-going-to-get-a-phd/544054 "2010-06-21T22:03:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-from-the-end-of-my-rope-i-dont-think-im-ever-going-to-get-a-phd/544054/81 "2010-12-15T00:25:59Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > Is the function of a dissertation to prove something or demonstrate the technical skill and knowledge of the process? I would think understanding the problems involved is as good or better than the actual product. > > Congrats! As much as scientists talk about process, you’d think that, wouldn’t you? The fact is, though, that it is very, VERY much results oriented. Especially when you’re trying to earn a degree. Thank you all so much! I’m going on a date with my wife now. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-from-the-end-of-my-rope-i-dont-think-im-ever-going-to-get-a-phd/544054/82 "2010-12-15T01:03:20Z")
Woot! Congratulations. Have a nice date, you deserve it. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/73ab20/32.png) [@The\_Tao\_s\_Revenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tao_s_Revenge)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-from-the-end-of-my-rope-i-dont-think-im-ever-going-to-get-a-phd/544054/83 "2010-12-15T01:03:28Z")
Congratulations! ---
**Author:** ![Sarabellum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sarabellum/32/3492_2.png) [@Sarabellum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarabellum)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-from-the-end-of-my-rope-i-dont-think-im-ever-going-to-get-a-phd/544054/84 "2010-12-15T01:21:56Z")
Congrats, Ogre! ---
**Author:** ![gardentraveler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gardentraveler/32/3576_2.png) [@gardentraveler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gardentraveler)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-from-the-end-of-my-rope-i-dont-think-im-ever-going-to-get-a-phd/544054/85 "2010-12-15T02:29:52Z")
Yay! Congratulations! ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-from-the-end-of-my-rope-i-dont-think-im-ever-going-to-get-a-phd/544054/86 "2010-12-15T02:50:19Z")
Yee Dang Ha, Ogre!!! I knew ya’d get there, and glad you passed that step. We need more passionate ecologically minded folks in the world. Yer congratsy gift is on the way, good Bro.🆒 ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-from-the-end-of-my-rope-i-dont-think-im-ever-going-to-get-a-phd/544054/87 "2010-12-15T05:11:56Z")
And there was much rejoicing! (Yayyyyy!) Congratulations, **Ogre**! I’m so happy for you! ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-from-the-end-of-my-rope-i-dont-think-im-ever-going-to-get-a-phd/544054/88 "2010-12-15T05:17:59Z")
W00t!! Congrats!! ---
**Author:** ![Nocturne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9fc348/32.png) [@Nocturne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nocturne)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-from-the-end-of-my-rope-i-dont-think-im-ever-going-to-get-a-phd/544054/89 "2010-12-15T05:23:52Z")
Congratulations! ---
**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-from-the-end-of-my-rope-i-dont-think-im-ever-going-to-get-a-phd/544054/90 "2010-12-15T09:47:06Z")
I’m happy for you, **Ogre**! ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-from-the-end-of-my-rope-i-dont-think-im-ever-going-to-get-a-phd/544054/91 "2010-12-15T11:28:19Z")
Woooooooo! Party! ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-from-the-end-of-my-rope-i-dont-think-im-ever-going-to-get-a-phd/544054/92 "2010-12-15T17:35:29Z")
> [@Autolycus](#): > > Woooooooo! Party! The party consisted of going out to dinner, and then gratefully sinking into bed very early. 😃 I’m an animal, I know. **ellele** : Thank you very much, sugar. One of these days, I’m going to pay you back for all your kindness. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-from-the-end-of-my-rope-i-dont-think-im-ever-going-to-get-a-phd/544054/93 "2010-12-15T17:39:42Z")
> [@Ogre](#): > > As much as scientists talk about process, you’d think that, wouldn’t you? The fact is, though, that it is very, VERY much results oriented. Especially when you’re trying to earn a degree. > > Thank you all so much! I’m going on a date with my wife now. 😃 Congrats! A friend of mine, doing a Physics PhD at MIT, discovered that a widely accepted result he was depending on was wrong. You’d think that would be enough for a dissertation, but no such luck. Not to scare you or anything - and he did get one, in only an extra year. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-from-the-end-of-my-rope-i-dont-think-im-ever-going-to-get-a-phd/544054/94 "2010-12-16T15:37:27Z")
just a total Yay all around. Congrats on one of those life-path-defining moments, soon-to-be **Dr. Ogre** … Hope you get to crank your guitar a bit in celebration… ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-from-the-end-of-my-rope-i-dont-think-im-ever-going-to-get-a-phd/544054/95 "2011-06-07T20:47:16Z")
Well, life’s a bunch of ups and downs, innit? When last I updated this, I had just passed my quals, and life was good, at least for the time being. Since then, I’ve had major failures and a few minor successes. The upshot is that while I was waiting for the growing season this year, I tried everything I could think of to continue to try to get DNA out of the freeze-dried samples. Absolutely nothing worked. It was just one failure after another. The funny thing is that you try to tell yourself that it’s just science. Science is hard. You have to go back to the well time after time after time, and still you have no guarantee that it’s all going to work out. So you work, and you work, and you work, trying not to think about the implications of each failure as it crops up. You just go through the process, with some faith that maybe someday, you’ll break through and get something good and useful and informative. What really happened this winter was that I became so incredibly stressed out by my continual failures (and eventually just running out of things to do while I waited), by my teaching load, by my overall dim prospects for earning my PhD, and by the fact that, at least theoretically, I’m running out of department funding soon, that it started affecting my health. I began having horrible panic attacks, along with all the physical symptoms associated with them. It was a real low point in my life. I’m still fighting the despair every day in one form or another. This is really important stuff to me, in case you haven’t gathered. 🙂 Anyway, when the growing season finally got here, I rushed out and gathered fresh samples, and processed them in very different ways, with a variety of treatments, temperature gradients, magnesium gradients, storage temperatures, etc. I extracted them, amplified my genes of interest, and finally have had them sequenced. I got the sequences back today, and after a long, long meeting with one of my advisors, I’m happy to report that all of them are for the correct genes, are about the right length, and even appear that they may be informative after all. They are still going to require SOOOOOOO much work that it’s daunting. I’m basically at the point that I should have been 2-2.5 years ago now. But I’m not getting a bullshit PhD, folks. I’m doing it right, because if I don’t, why the hell did I come back to school in the first place? I just have to work like crazy. At least there’s light at the end of the tunnel (I hope). ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-from-the-end-of-my-rope-i-dont-think-im-ever-going-to-get-a-phd/544054/96 "2011-06-07T21:16:03Z")
Good news indeed. Best of luck to you. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-from-the-end-of-my-rope-i-dont-think-im-ever-going-to-get-a-phd/544054/97 "2011-06-07T21:22:21Z")
It always good to see some light. Good luck! ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-from-the-end-of-my-rope-i-dont-think-im-ever-going-to-get-a-phd/544054/98 "2011-06-07T21:25:40Z")
Roll Tide! ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-from-the-end-of-my-rope-i-dont-think-im-ever-going-to-get-a-phd/544054/99 "2011-06-07T21:46:44Z")
Good for you! I know very little about your field, but I can tell you that I had my first successful experiment (in the sense that it generated usable data, not that the material “worked” for its intended purpose) in my fifth year of my PhD. My thesis was based on five samples, which were numbered 71, 72, 73, 75, and 76 - in the _third_ series of experimental numbers (each time I completely abandoned a design and started from scratch I also started numbering again from scratch). I graduated a bit less than two years later (despite a loss of funding that had me TA’ing, then working in someone else’s lab, then paying tuition out of pocket while living on contract programming). You are in the home stretch, and you can do this. Good luck! ---
**Author:** ![gardentraveler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gardentraveler/32/3576_2.png) [@gardentraveler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gardentraveler)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2011, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-from-the-end-of-my-rope-i-dont-think-im-ever-going-to-get-a-phd/544054/100 "2011-06-07T22:08:28Z")
So glad to hear some good news! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-from-the-end-of-my-rope-i-dont-think-im-ever-going-to-get-a-phd/544054.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/posting-from-the-end-of-my-rope-i-dont-think-im-ever-going-to-get-a-phd/544054.md?page=6)