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A doctorate is the highest and most difficult level of education that a person can achieve. An article on ‘What If I Am Not Accepted Into a PhD Program’ by Astrobites.org wrote that Ph.D. programs tend to have over 200 applicants when there are only 20 to 30 spots available per year. While few people even get let into their program, close to only 50% of doctorate students finish their degree. 

Amy Schumann is a Spanish professor here at Grand View University and recently graduated with her Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction in bilingual education from New Mexico State University. This program at NMSU is online and only takes place every couple of years. While she was completing the degree, Schumann was teaching part-time at both Grand View and Drake University while also raising her three kids. 

Schumann said the reason she chose the curriculum and instruction program was, “because I was able to incorporate my love of teaching as well as my love of language by choosing an emphasis on bilingual education for my research.”  

To apply for the program, the process required that Schumann send in her portfolio, which included professional recommendations from her coworkers and proof that she had three years of previous teaching experience. Schumann said, “I also needed to include my thesis that I had written for my master’s program, as well as all my transcripts from my undergrad and my grad work.” After she had all of these requirements gathered in her portfolio, it totaled around 120 pages. Out of hundreds of people, Schumann was accepted for the program along with another 16-20 people. 

Once she began the program, Schumann had to take two classes every semester online and three classes during the summers for three years total. Once all of her courses were complete, she had to begin her composition process, which leads to a dissertation. A dissertation is a thesis every doctorate student needs to complete before graduation. Schumann had to present her comps to a committee to receive feedback before beginning the dissertation process. 

After completing her comps, Amy Schumann spent eight months writing her proposal before getting it approved and moving to her study for the dissertation. This point in the doctoral process is when around 50% of students stop doing their work and do not get their degree, they are labeled as ABD (or all but dissertation). However, Schumann completed the full process including conducting a study about mobile language learning through students who were studying abroad in Spain. She found that students do enjoy and improve in their language learning and cultural awareness when talking to native speakers, and uses this information in her classes to help students grow their fluency and comprehension in Spanish. 

“My words of wisdom are just making a schedule and having time set aside to write,”

Amy Schumann

“My words of wisdom are just making a schedule and having time set aside to write,” Schumann said. “Getting through my coursework was not a problem, but having time to write was a much bigger challenge for me based on my schedule.” Because Schumann was working two jobs and raising three children, the time that she would spend writing would be early before her kids woke up or late at night once everyone was in bed for at least an hour or two each day. 

“When looking at a doctorate program I would check out a few factors,” Schumann said. “I would check out the type of thing you want to study, the location and also the price point. There are many programs that are offered all over the place and you don’t want to get yourself in a situation where you’ve invested more into your program than you are actually going to get out of it.” 

Although the statistics for getting accepted into a doctorate program and finishing it seems to be against the student, someone is still more likely to get accepted into a program if they apply rather than not applying. The main challenge when going into and finishing doctorate school is completing the writing and dissertation, but Schumann’s time management of just one-two hours a day helped her finish the 250 page dissertation that most students do not end up completing.