The Transition to Independent Research: Who Makes It, Who Doesn't, and Why.

GRADUATE education; DOCTORAL programs; ACADEMIC dissertations; ACADEMIC achievement; GRADUATE students; EDUCATIONAL attainment; UNIVERSITY faculty; ACADEMIC degrees; EDUCATION

The article offers information on doctoral training. It is posed that the main objective of doctoral training is to gear up a student for a lifetime of intellectual inquiry that shows itself in creative research and scholarship. Relative to this, successful completion of a dissertation identifies the transition of a student from being a regular student to independent scholar. Moreover, graduate faculty identify that the transition from course-taker to independent scholar is difficult for many students and they cannot foretell who will make the transition and complete the doctorate based on students' undergraduate files and records.