A PhD is not for you if one or more of the following applies to you ⏎
→ Your career does not need one.
↳ A PhD trains you to be an independent researcher.
Many excellent careers in public health, policy, management, and practice don't require it, and some reward experience far more.
Before you apply, look at the jobs you want in ten years.
Ask the people in them whether the PhD made the difference.
If the honest answer is no, a few years of work may take you further than a doctorate would.
→ You are using it to postpone a decision.
↳ A PhD is a poor waiting room.
It is a long commitment, and it rarely answers the question you were avoiding.
Usually it delays it by five years.
→ You expect a quick financial return.
↳ The opportunity cost is real.
Years of lower earnings, and in many fields, the PhD doesn't pay off financially for a long time, if ever.
Go in for what it builds, not what it pays.
→ The people who will share the cost have not agreed to it.
↳ Partners, children, parents.
They pay in time, patience, and money.
A degree they did not choose becomes a weight on the relationship rather than a project you share.
——
None of this is a verdict on ability.
Every item above is about fit and timing, not intelligence.
Some apply today and not in two years.
If several of these describe you, that is useful information before you spend half a decade.
If none of them do, but the career you want requires it, and the questions still keep you up at night, apply.
Which of these would you add?
In 2016, a dog slipped into a steep concrete channel in Kazakhstan and couldn’t get back out.
A young man climbed down to save it and got stuck too.
Strangers along the bank linked arms, made a human chain down the wall, and pulled them both out.
Ten years later, Kazakhstan put the whole thing in bronze.
But look at the last hand.
It reaches past the railing so anyone walking by can grab it and become the next person in the chain.
What a great idea for a monument.
We finally made it. Wow 🤩
Yesterday, I defended my PhD and passed with no corrections required.
1 hour of public presentation & Q &A …
2 hours of a closed-door oral exam with 4 exam committee members across different departments. School of medicine, epidemiology, environmental health, biostatistics.
I am still processing what this moment meant.
What a journey this has been…
2 master's degrees and now a PhD, all from a school I only read about in medical textbooks… Johns Hopkins University.
It meant so much to hear all the positive feedback from the dissertation readers.
Special thanks to my advisors & the exam committee for the thoughtful questions and guidance throughout this journey.
Thank you to the best epidemiology department in the world for the opportunity to learn from this truly remarkable place. @JohnsHopkinsEPI
To my collaborators across Africa & the USA, this dissertation exists because of your support.
My family, Formal and informal mentors who shaped the years behind today. Thank you.
It's been a few days short of 4 years.
Glad I can finally close this chapter.
And no, don't call me Dr. Dr.