'cosjobs said:
'guru_007 said:
As a parent, my primary goal in life is to provide the best I can for my child(ren) so that they will be able to live productive, and hopefully happy lives when they become adults. To achieve this goal, there are certain things I must bring to the table/sacrifice, what have you, and that includes giving them my time to teach them, assist them, as well as being a successful in my career as possible to earn as much money as possible to provide for them adequate shelter, food, clothing, and hopefully extras in life such as a college education or transportation or a gift to help assist with their first home purchase or wedding, etc..
It's a very delicate balance, and there is no real right or wrong way to go about this.
In my view, my time is much more valuable than a nominal monetary bump in pay or promotion. However, this would change depending on how large the bump in pay would be as it would more than likely afford me the opportunity to spend more time with them down the line, as well as assist them more with money, and let's face it when your kids become teenagers and above, they could give a #### about the time you spend with them, but if you can pay for their college or buy them their first set of wheels, well that would help them out tremendously.
In short, I have no great answer for you, DP. But, as my children grow older and my youngest is now 6, I wish, wish, wish I could have more time with them while they are young because they get away from us too quickly. :(
g'luck with your choice, whatever you decide.
Don't the kids of tenure-tracked profs get a free tuition ride? Would they get one in your current position? If the former is true, but not the latter, that give a lot of weight to getting your doc.
Also, once you get the doc, would you then have more family time/quality of life/ stability than you do now?
Yes on free tuition. And if I end up in a state school (probable) it's to any campus in the system.Yes. This program is uniquely suited for me in that it allows me to do a creative dissertation. So I can write a novel or collection of short stories instead of literary analysis. If that novel got published, and I had the PhD, I would be a very good app for a tenure-track position that would be both secure and make my family's quality of life very comfortable.
Two other added factors -
Pro
- a followup email from my mentor said I need to get my app in by early next week. Technically, the deadline already passed on the 15th, but she's working things for me. Also, I'm fairly certain she said the funding is practically mine, without actually saying its mine (I'm interpreting what she said as
I've scanned the other apps and I think you have a great shot at the funding, plus I'm already pushing for you to get it). So a "semi-serious" offer just got a whole lot more serious.
- this is not a normal scenario. In the early aughts, every PhD student in this program was fully funded. Now? Only 1 or 2 per year get a free ride, and even my mentor said it's insanely competitive. So this may be my one true shot.
Con
- I have a commitment to students for next semester, and I
really like these kids. If you recall I lost a couple classes this semester over immigration issues (eh). However, I kept in contact with a lot of those students and many of them have registered for my classes next semester. Some even braved one section's early morning time slot just to be with me. If I ditched on them
again I'd feel pretty awful. I might be able to keep one class (financially this would be great), but I'm not sure.
This morning when I first read that email, I was 80% against applying. Now I'm really on the fence.
Always loved that.
ours40:
I wanted an old school rotory phone in my house and called the phone company. They said it would work 
