6 most common problems faced by PhD Students

“I can relate to him, my life isn’t so much different”, Rita was pointing towards the TV screen.

On the screen, Tom Hanks was struggling with the waves in the middle of nowhere, in the movie ‘Cast Away’.

“I am not joking, like him, I too am not sure where I am headed”, Rita responded to my bemused look.

My sister Rita is a PhD student who seems to be going through a difficult phase. She is not alone though and this may not be the only time that she is going to feel depressed. The road to graduation can be long and lonely, full of unseen hurdles. There are some common issues that every student faces during his/her PhD life.

1. Plethora of data: Nowadays, with hundreds of papers available at a click, you may not know where to stop. Many students spend too much time reading, which can be counterproductive. Not only does this waste their time it also creates confusion in zeroing down on a topic.

2. Advisor problems: Student-advisor is an asymmetric relation where most of the power is on one side. The independence that any student has depends on how good their advisor is and there are no one universal criteria that can be met. Thus, there may be some students who are very happy, while others may be stressed and depressed.

3. Feeling alienated: Most of your under-grad friends would have got employed and working, while you are still studying. They may be able to comprehend your research and related problems in the beginning as they too are fresh out of school. However, with time you will go deeper into your field while they are moving further away. Also, your friends may be earning six figures while you’re living off a meager stipend, barely managing. The combination of such factors makes PhD students start feeling alienated, pushing them further away from friends.

4.Work-Life imbalance: It is often said that a PhD student is his own boss. There are no fixed work hours. This can be a boon but more often than not, this leads to work-life imbalance. Some people get so engrossed in research that they fail to take a break, every day becoming a working day. Furthermore, in today’s ever-connected world; life might have become simpler but it has its side-effects as well. You are always available for a ‘short’ meeting with your advisor/fellow research mates. It might work for a few months or a year but will cause burnout in the long run.

5.Lack of focus and motivation: As a PhD student, you have to find a hitherto unanswered question in the field of your research. From there on, you move down an untraveled path, having a sketchy idea of your final destination. While your advisor is there to guide you, you alone can decide the pace and direction of your journey. Often, students lose their focus and stray away which may make the goal sketchier. With no clear perception of the final goal, it becomes very difficult to stay motivated.

6.Self-doubt: As a PhD student, you become your own teacher. You have to decide to find an unknown and then work out a method to do it, all on your own. No research is fool-proof, you will face failures, many times. One may need to change their initial assumptions or methodology. Many a times, a PhD student starts having doubts about the feasibility of the research topic. Some start doubting their decision of joining a PhD, particularly if they had left a good job for it.

Yes, your PhD life is going to be quite like the journey of Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) of Cast Away. But just like him, you have to persevere and you will succeed.