Help for Ph.D Doctoral Students is Here!

Welcome to DoctoralStudents.org! My name is Dr Randy Parker and my goal is to help doctoral students succeed. I created this site because I want to help students that are struggling. I'm currently focused on publishing helpful articles on the site, but my long term vision is for this site to become a community of like-minded individuals who share ideas, discuss topics, and encourage one another. Contact me if you need help or want to contribute to the website.

Latest Articles

My New Website is PHDHELP.ORG
By Admin - 12/4/2013 I have a new website at www.phdhelp.org and I will be posting all of my new articles and eBooks on that site from now on. I will not post new articles to this site (doctoralstudents.org) anymore so please be sure to visit phdhelp.org and add it to your favorites!
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Do People Say You Are In Denial? Good!
By Admin - 8/20/2013 The attractive twenty something nurse was driving on a beautiful spring day. She placed the glass beverage container between her knees to reach over and adjust the radio station. She never saw the drunk who ran the stop sign and hit her car at high speed. As she recovered they explained that over 90 percent of her inner leg muscle on each leg had been severed by the glass container and could not be repaired. Despite her desperate pleas she was to be trained to use a wheelchair since no one could walk with that little muscle on both legs. The insurance company and her doctors agreed that a wheelchair was her only option.
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Problem: "There is so much I do not know!"
By Admin - 1/4/2013 So many students have talked about being overwhelmed by all of the small things that they did not know about the day to day doctoral tasks. Little of this information was covered with the advisors or committee. Social networking helped but it looked rather weak to be asking so many questions and who knows where the electronic copies of the communications will end up? Verbal venting takes place for many students and even worse are written venting comments made that are sent to a professor or a committee. So another approach is needed.
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All You Zombies Come Back to Us!
By Admin - 10/10/2012 A zombie student is any student that deep in his or her heart does not believe that they can finish the doctoral degree. I am not talking about occasional doubt or anxiety. I mean down deep the student suddenly is unable to see him or herself being able to finish. They can be a freshly made zombie who is just slightly behind the quickly running live doctoral students. Or they can be a much older zombie who seldom goes to the library, works with his data or writes part of his/her dissertation. The older zombie is starting to fall apart and is tottering along far behind the quickly running live doctoral students. While the newly made zombie can still say things like “analysis of variance, nonparametric methods or multiple regression analysis” the older zombie says things like “gurrrr, argggg, and I will do it tomorrow”.
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Visitor Question: How to Stay Motivated
By Admin - 8/27/2012 Response to an E-mailed question of how to stay motivated while taking classes, taking care of the family and completing the doctoral work?
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Can I Reduce the Number of Times a Chapter is Reviewed?
By Admin - 8/14/2012 A simple technique was passed down to reduce the number of times a chapter is turned into your committee. It was so simple that many of us ignored it and other doctoral students I have talked with were unaware of it.
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We are still active at phdhelp.org

Doctoral Students,

This web site provider was nice enough to keep this site active. But I am operating out of PhDhelp.org and on Facebook with the same name. The Facebook account gets most of the postings but some do not come through from the website. 

The site is for the doctoral student and has a focus to keep you going. There are many fine books on how to write and how to do research. My area is keeping going as the world weighs down on you and the years go by and the degree sometimes seems farther away then when you started. Many bright folks start a doctoral degree but many less finish. I just want a few more to make it. 

So visit us over at the new site. This site could disappear at any time. My best to you all. 



You are not alone!

"My professor responded back to me less and less often and after a while I stopped calling. I had completed all my classes and was exhausted. I was working full time and the dissertation just got away from me. I was afraid to anger the professor.  I could have paid off my mortgage on what I paid to the college for a degree I never got”.

-Former doctoral student

 

Dissertation GPS: Navigating the disseration process, by Dr Randy Parker