Taking On the Ph.D. Later in Life – NYTimes.com

As doctoral programs become more flexible and students seek to enhance or change their careers, enrollment of older adults grows.

Source: Taking On the Ph.D. Later in Life – NYTimes.com

Thanks to Craig Cardimon for posting this on LinkedIn.

I hope this trend of flexible PhDs continues. Just a couple days ago, both my husband and I were commenting that if money were no object, and we were retired or hit the lottery, we’d both want to go back to school, and I would love to get my PhD. Right now, it wouldn’t be for professional reasons, as a Masters degree seems to be fine for now. But to get a PhD in Technical Communications would be cool. I also wouldn’t mind getting an advanced degree in linguistics or history either.

I’m willing to bet that as more PhD programs take on an online presence (there’s only one PhD in tech comm online, namely at Texas Tech, as far as I know), and hopefully become more affordable, more folks will not only sign up for the programs, but also people over 40 (like me and many others I know) might be more willing to go for it. There are several great online degrees on a Master’s level or graduate certificate level in tech comm and instructional design. Check out my Educational Resources pages for some leads if you are interested, or let me know if I’m missing a program that I can add to the list (or update)!

Would you consider going back for a PhD in a discipline? If so, what would it be? Let us know in the comments below.

–TechCommGeekMom

Author: TechCommGeekMom

Danielle M. Villegas is a technical communicator who currently employed at Cox Automotive, Inc., and freelances as her own technical communications consultancy, Dair Communications. She has worked at the International Refugee Committee, MetLife, Novo Nordisk, BASF North America, Merck, and Deloitte, with a background in content strategy, web content management, social media, project management, e-learning, and client services. Danielle is best known in the technical communications world for her blog, TechCommGeekMom.com, which has continued to flourish since it was launched during her graduate studies at NJIT in 2012. She has presented webinars and seminars for Adobe, the Society for Technical Communication (STC), the IEEE ProComm, TCUK (ISTC) and at Drexel University’s eLearning Conference. She has written articles for the STC Intercom, STC Notebook, the Content Rules blog, and The Content Wrangler as well. She is very active in the STC, as a former chapter president for the STC-Philadelphia Metro Chapter, and is currently serving on three STC Board committees. You can learn more about Danielle on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/daniellemvillegas, on Twitter @techcommgeekmom, or through her blog. All content is the owner's opinions, and does not reflect those of her employers past or present. View All Posts

One thought on “Taking On the Ph.D. Later in Life – NYTimes.com”

Good post. Mulling this over myself. I kind of always wanted to be an English professor at a small, ivy-covered college. As you said, an MA is sufficient for now. A doctorate would be overkill for what I’m doing. But later on, sure. If I did it, I would be doing it just for me, to scratch an itch. And I would go for English, or something closely related.

Craig (@ccardimon) says:

September 7, 2016 at 8:11 AM

Good post. Mulling this over myself. I kind of always wanted to be an English professor at a small, ivy-covered college. As you said, an MA is sufficient for now. A doctorate would be overkill for what I’m doing. But later on, sure. If I did it, I would be doing it just for me, to scratch an itch. And I would go for English, or something closely related.

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