Dr. Kline,
I have had this message in my drafts for a long time. I have still been bouncing around the idea of getting my PhD a year after I graduate with my MBA. I only have loans to pay for the MBA program, because I was fortunate enough to have a financial based scholarship (ACCESS) cover my whole undergrad, so I really want to pay off my loans and then jump right into a PhD program. I have brought up the subject with a few people and they told me that it would be very difficult for me to work in the industry for 5-7 years and to come back for the PhD because I do not know if I will have a mortgage or family to support, and the money I would get from the PhD candidate stipend would be a lot less than my salary would be working in the industry. So it would be an overall
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I came from a Sociology background which was fun to learn about and I enjoy applying the concepts in the research I have done in the past. I love business as well, in a different sort of way. I think it's just because I like to be well versed in lots of subjects.
I love to conduct research and write reports. I feel a sense of accomplishment when they are finished. However, every time I look back at my old stuff I feel that I could do better if I was to do the same research again.
I think that after several years of teaching and ideally getting tenure there would be an economies of scale effect where the learning curve would diminish overtime with teaching certain courses and I could focus more on different aspects of being a professor (i.e. research, service work). Which could also help with developing more of a work-life-balance.
I WANT to be different from my family lineage. In the history of the Ward's and the Arroniz's there has never been a PhD or even a Master's degree. I want to be that change. Most of the deterrents were due to socioeconomic