When I came to study MPhil, this was the ever first question I had met. It turned out that this was the toughest one among the all, because the judge for this question was the super-outsider with respect to the research community, my love.
Now, wishing a part time PhD is almost impossible, and I decide on taking a full time job and quiting the PhD. At this moment, I talk to myself that I will keep doing research, writing papers and behaving as a PhD student. Ironically, I come back to the same question after two years. But what make a big difference is now the judge is myself. I could use my soul to fight with my love two years ago, but my soul is now obviously not as unmovable as what my mouth seems to be.
"I will work for a research lab like at&t."
Believe it or not, this joke stood me up silently in every low of mine. As all research students do, I believe I am smart and talented. So I am suitable to carry this joke around. I cried just some months before my MPhil graduation, because I found that I was in fact unproductive and badly performed. But at&t lab had never yet reject me, so I stood up and believed in my smartness an talent, again.
Thanks to the two years MPhil, I now can see how to keep up my research attitude in the future. I need a position called "adjunct research student!" And I need a new joke,
"I will have a PhD."
I have to expose myself to the school, in real term. I need
- presenting research works in seminars,
- discussion with other PhD students and academia, and
- to be treated as I were really a PhD student.
For the item 3., it means that my supervisor, my friends, and my love will all pretend to see me as a "real" PhD student. They will think I am necessary to behave as a "real" PhD student, without questions! This seems really sick! but I am here to give you another joke. This joke is not for me, but is for you to keep up the pretence.
"I will apply a part-time PhD again when I already have few journal papers on hands to proof my productiveness."
In a life, nothing is really necessary if the whole thing is just to get a job and live. Thanks to the MPhil and the jokes, I now can tell for what I am here in this world. I have a job, it is "to dream at nights and to make them true in the days."
"I will have a PhD, and I will work for a research lab like at&t." This is necessary, and this is worth!
Thanks to Caroline Gatrell for the article. I was tired to hear how impossible is a part-time PhD. What I need is how to make it work!
