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Who needs a Doctorate Degree?

I'm currently writing my dissertation. Well, yeah, I'm finishing this dissertation so I could get a doctoral degree. But at the back of my mind, I still ask myself, "Who needs a doctoral degree?"

Honestly, I'm trying to finish this doctoral degree just because I think it's long overdue. It's just like an unfinished business that has to be done so as to "clean the slate" for me.

Personally, I don't think this is the best thing I need. If I need this doctoral degree, I could have finished years back.

For a time, I thought getting the doctoral degree is the best way to have salary increase. That was exactly the reason I enrolled in Ph. D. program here in AUF in the year 2005. Back then, I needed some increase in my salary and the only solution I saw was to finish a doctoral degree.

Along the way, however, I found side jobs, e.g. writing online and teaching ESL to Korean students, that could make me earn more than double, or even triple, the salary increase a doctoral degree can promise.

At Essaywriters, I get paid for every page I write. Plus, I get to access libraries from different schools / universities from the US, Australia, or even from the UK. Then I get to do what I love doing: writing. As a writer, I get to choose the topic to write about. I can just select any writing task at hand. And I can freely choose to write a paper with deadline I can beat.

Who can blame me for earning money for what I love doing? I can write, and the customers have money to burn for their papers, so I was attracted to the idea of writing more to earn more. I started writing in March 2008, and still an active senior writer now.

As of April 5, this year, I already have written 54 papers and earned $2,501.48 in a span of my two-year freelance writing at EssayWriters. And that's tax free. :-)

Aside from writing at EssayWriters, I also found a part-time ESL teaching job which I started in 2007 at ILI. In doing this, I get paid per hour. The rates per hour when I started was P300. Now, of course, rates are almost double that amount.

My potential income in writing and teaching ESL part-time, both tax-free, is more promising financially, compared with finishing a doctoral degree. Add the fact that my professors in graduate schools are not really teaching. Honestly, if I learn from my graduate studies, I would never stop enrolling, and for sure, I've finished by this time.

But the thing is, I felt like I was wasting my time enrolling then not learning. Well, yes, i learned a great deal from my Philosophy classes. In my major subjects, the professors simply told us to submit something, as in something, any paper, no detailed instructions on what to do. So, how can I see value in finishing a doctoral degree if there's no learning that take place?

I can only count the professors from whom I learned: Sir Archie (Philo classes), Ma'am XXX (I forgot her name -- she taught in AUF for only one trimester), and Sir Galang (I learned about his practical experiences in the field).

THE REAL DEAL

Now, I am thinking about the need to finish this degree. After my dissertation proposal, it seems like I was lost. My proposed case research was junked (lol). The method suggested is really so elementary (yeah, I guess so).

What?

What now?

What will I get from getting a doctoral degree?

A title of Dr. attached to my name? Never mind. promise myself, even if I finish this doctoral degree, I would not have a title of Dr. in my name. I would love to have that title if I finish a doctoral degree in Comm. Research. :-)

Now, where do I get the motivation to finish?

Ahm, I know. It's already written in my BOOK OF GOALS for this year. I have to get this degree, whatever comes along.

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