Mixtape Mailbag #10: Letters from and to a Reader Contemplating Dropping Out of Their PhD Program

Depression Among PhD Students and Human Capital Investments

The Mixtape Mailbag is a weekly series where readers write in with questions and I write back with my thoughts, opinions and sometimes my advice.

Today’s entry is different than the others in that it is several emails I had with a reader who is also a PhD student. When it concluded, I asked them that if I changed the identifying information, would they feel comfortable with me sharing the exchange, and they enthusiastically said yes. I think we both felt that the content of it were worth sharing to give people the opportunity to read about it and perhaps have differing opinions as well.

Keep in mind — this is only my thoughts. I hesitated to share them precisely because I tend to think people know their own situations best, but at the same time, I also think PhD programs are quite difficult, and that students can have mental health struggles, like depression, related to disappointment which can become noisy signals about whether they should proceed or not. If bad enough, we may find ourselves extracting more noise than signal. I know that’s been true for me. So that’s my reasoning for sharing this. If you have a different opinion than mine, please share it. I think there is no right or wrong opinion. Not everyone should stay in a program. But at the same time, not everyone should quit either. Ultimately every decision is our own. It’s our life and no one else’s. No one walks this path for us.

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Hi Scott,

I am writing this email to you as a last resort. I was pursuing my PhD in Macroeconomics from [BLANK]. However, during my PhD journey, I was frequently suffering from severe bouts of depression. Finally, I have decided to drop out of the program after 6 years. I think the core reason was my high ambitions for the quality of my thesis in comparison to my training and the expertise of my professors. I am not denigrating my professors, it’s just that I chose a topic that was not in their research interests. I was confident initially that I would be able to write the thesis but after some failed results I internally shut down and stopped corresponding with my professors. It was mostly my own mistakes that brought me to this juncture.

But now I want help. I don't know who to contact. I have been trying to get some jobs, to support my parents, without success. Now I am reaching out to you if you can help me find some way out. I am quantitatively strong and have basic knowledge of causal inference. I know I can speed up my expertise in causality from so many available online resources. For example, I have been reading Matheus Facure's book on causal inference for practitioners. I am still very much interested in economics and may even complete my PhD in future. But in the short run, I need some earning resources. Are there any such opportunities available where I can apply? I don't have a working paper to show, but I can work on a project and showcase my potential. I know Python, R and Stata. While I have been mainly working on doing numerical analysis, I can easily do data analysis work.

I know you are so bogged down with your responsibilities and I don't want to add anything to it. But I am not looking for a handout. Just some advice, if you have time.

Yours sincerely,

Student

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Dear Student,

Thank you for reaching out.  I'm sorry to hear about this rough patch in your life journey.  It sounds as though you got stuck in the cracks that are common in many if not all departments.  I am confident you will move forward, but I know from experience in my own life journey it's sometimes hard to believe that or to know what steps to take to make that happen.  The most ideal scenario is to find a way to complete the PhD given that the marginal cost for you at this point is all that's left, but I understand if you're saying it just isn't possible.  

Did you say you finished with the masters? What is your highest schooling level of completion? 

sincerely,

scott

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Dear Scott

Thank you Scott for replying. Yes, I have a master's degree in economics. My highest degree is M.Sc. in Economics. In my PhD, I did successfully pass the comprehensive examination after 2 years of coursework and also successfully defended my thesis proposal. In my PhD coursework, I scored A grades in subjects like Econometrics and Microeconomics.

Student