Dean tells grad students that commitment and perseverance are key components to earning a PhD

Aug. 25, 2009 -  As graduate students gathered to start out on their journey to earn a PhD, Indiana University School of Social Work Dean Michael Patchner offered them encouragement and a few tips to keep in mind as they pursue their goal.

After the students introduced themselves at an orientation session, Patchner set out to erase any doubts they had their capabilities to do the work that lies ahead. “Every one of you has been carefully selected,” the dean said. “Every one of you has the potential of being successful in the PhD program or you wouldn’t be here.”

He noted the school has outstanding faculty who are not only nationally known for their work in research and scholarship that they do, but they are good teachers and good people who want to see them succeed.

“All of those ingredients are here to make your life successful. The things we can’t offer you is what you bring to the school: Your hard work, your commitment, your dedication and your willingness to make this a priority in your life.”

Being able to earn a PhD degree is 10 percent intelligence and 90 percent is perseverance, the dean explained. “If you didn’t have the intellectual capability, believe me you wouldn’t be sitting here today.”

“Where people fall down, is they lack perseverance. Other things get in the way. Life becomes overwhelming and they just don’t persevere. I see it time and time again, good people, bright people don’t finish. Our goal is to make every one of you a graduate of this school.”

Simply put, students have to make it a priority in their lives, Patchner said. “I know that many of us have kids, spouses, jobs, families, people who depend upon us and we get pulled and tugged in a million different directions. That’s just the way life is.”

Somehow you will have to tell them not to bother you for the next three to four years, the dean advised. “You are going to have to make it a priority and get all those people who depend upon you to support you in this endeavor.”

Patchner, who directed PhD programs at the University of Illinois and the University of Pittsburgh, also looked ahead to the dissertation phase of the PhD program. “Many people will get through the coursework and they will do fine. And then they become ABD – all but dissertation.” Some people even put ABD on their resumes, but all it means is “I didn’t finish,” Patchner noted.

When they get to that part of the program, the dean urged them to commit to spending 15 minutes a day working on their dissertation. Where people go wrong is they think they can set aside a day once a week to work on it, but other obligations come up and they have to spend time remembering what they were thinking about from the week before. If you make a commitment to work on it daily, whether its 15 minutes or a couple of hours, it will get done, he told the students.

The dean also advised the students to try and decide upon a topic for their dissertation as soon as possible so they can be doing research in the general topic area early on. That way, by the time they start on their dissertation they will already know the state of knowledge in that particular field.

“We want every one of you to get everything you can out of this program. The piece we need is for you to provide the commitment and dedication and we’ll do the rest.”

PhD students take part in a fun excercise in the Commons to get them to work together and think about the jounrey that lies ahead