Do I regret dropping out of Ph.D. program?
If you’re in a situation like mine a year ago, this article is for you
My father was a physicist, working at the university in my city, on which grounds I lived for 22 years.
That district was located between two groups of university buildings, with I believe the highest ratio of university staff per square meter. Every neighboring house had at least one member of the academia living in it.
As the years passed, I was the only 2nd generation without a Ph.D. It was easier for others as they had other siblings to keep that record, but still.
I was working full-time since the 2nd year of my Bachelor’s degree. In Poland, you can easily study and work, especially if you’re not studying a very demanding course, as was the case for my Informatics and Econometrics degree. But for the Master’s degree, I decided to study on the weekends, as I was sick of juggling different tasks at strange hours.
When I finished writing my Master’s thesis, the main professor in my course suggested a Ph.D. program for me. My thesis was comparing sarcasm detection methods, and I would broaden it to sentiment analysis in Polish. The topic doesn’t seem revolutionary, but I agreed with it, as if the money educators get in Poland wasn’t so low, I’d still be…
