Mitch, your opening paragraph and premise just doesn't site right with
me. From my observations of the folks I've seen get PhDs, I have a hard
time accepting that a PhD is "something that the majority of the
population is not capable of achieving" due to any inherent
"intellectual prowess"- that statement absolutely smacks of the elitism
that gives academics a bad name. It comes off as putting yourself on
some pedestal of intelligence due to a piece of paper you received.
A PhD is definitely something that the majority of the population does
not aspire to achieve. PhD programs obviously attract some of the best
and brightest since they are the capstone degrees in most fields- but
plenty of average folks receive PhDs too. I have seen very few cases
where a PhD is denied to a candidate due to intellectual inferiority. I
would suggest that the most important ingredient in achieving a PhD is
determination, not inherent intelligence.
Andrew Bailey
Mitch Cruzan wrote:
There is a deeper issue here- A PhD is not just something you get, or
that anybody can just get. The ability to earn a PhD in any discipline
is something that the majority of the population is not capable of
achieving. It's not just about hard work- A PhD is earned through the
demonstration of intellectual prowess, or more specifically the ability
to assimilate and explicate information from the breadth of a field of
study.
