Donald Katz

I have made the decision to pursue a Ph.D here at Georgia Tech. This decision has come after several months of tossing the idea around in my head, conversations with professors and fellow students, and discussing it with my family. My advisor does not think it too ambitious to complete an MS in Civil Engineering and my Ph.D within three and a half years, and that is my goal.

I came to Georgia Tech with the intent to earn a dual Masters in Civil Engineering and City &  Regional Planning. Slowly, I began to feel strongly about not pursuing the City & Regional Planning portion of that, and became more enamored with the idea of a stronger education in Civil Engineering. As I began to define what my research topic would be here at Georgia Tech, I realized how I really was going to enjoy delving into the topic, and would not mind a deeper study. I listed out several reasons why it would be good to pursue the Ph.D, and talked them over with my advisor and family.

The List

1. I would be earning the highest degree attainable, reaching the pinnacle of education in my field.
2. I didn’t want to do the dual degree anymore, but still wanted to spend time at the university exploring my field (a single Masters degree would not suffice)
3. Opening up of certain job opportunities.
4. Chance to have more opportunities internationally.
5. I enjoy going to conferences and learning about the frontiers of my field.
6. I get excited about transportation, and enjoy learning and sharing about it.
7. I saw my friends pursuing it elsewhere and I was feeling envy…so clearly I needed to do something about it.

For the past two months, the way I was approaching life at Tech was as if I had already decided to do a Ph.D (e.g. intending to stay with the rowing team for two years…even though a Masters wouldn’t even last that long). I even referred to myself as a Ph.D student once or twice. When I brought it up with my folks weeks after we had first discussed it, my father told me had already thought I’d decided to do it, and even told some of his friends! I just needed to come to terms with it myself, and accept that I’d made this tough decision.

I have. I want to pursue a Ph.D and the idea of it excites me. I’m looking forward to this (longer) journey in graduate school. I’m glad to be at Tech, and feel that this is the place to do it. I feel supported by the staff here, enjoy my interactions with my fellow students, and feel welcomed by the Yellowjacket community. Additionally, as it turns out, I’m not the only one feeling this way. I was told recently that the current group of transportation Ph.D students here is the largest group seen in a long time. It’ll be nice to have the company.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 6:15 pm and is filed under Career, School. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.