Hi,
This is my first post.
I'm currently doing my PhD (linguistics), which I've been doing since 2009, and as of this year have begun a full time MA (Speech Pathology coursework) at another university. The idea behind taking on the Masters was to provide a practical pathway to employment in my chosen field. My doctoral work, like most PhDs is somewhat obscure, incredibly demanding, though I absolutely love it.

That said, I still have a way to go with my PhD, and my candidature runs to August this year (including extensions, which I've already used up). My PhD fieldwork is all done, and I'm well on the way to preparing my final draft, but there is soooo much still left to do... My PhD supervisor doesn't know I'm doing an MA simultaneously, and I've been avoiding meeting with him for the last two months while I try and get things on track in both courses.

Since starting my MA I haven't been able to work on my PhD hardly at all, have had massive difficulty with the MA, and even failed my first anatomy exam, which shocked me, as I've never failed anything before.

While I do feel that I have taken on too much, in the ideal world, I would like to achieve both my set goals. Nevertheless, I feel I'm losing grip on both, and am also having serious problems in my personal life which are draining me of energy. I'm trying to adapt to the workload I've set myself, but find myself racked with worry every morning and night. I've been persevering but feel now I'm spiralling downwards in all my works. On the other hand I want to be positive and tell myself that its a matter of time management.

I feel very distressed about all this, as the very last thing I want to happen is to lose my way with the PhD, which is where my heart really lies, whereas the MA is purely a pragmatic undertaking. But I also don't want to abandon my MA, not only because it is an incredibly interesting course, but because I don't want to be a 'quitter'. All of this looked do-able late last year when I applied for the MA, but now I feel trapped in a nightmare of my own making. A counsellor I spoke to about it more or less advised me to pull out of the MA and cut my losses, but a voice inside me is saying 'you can do it, you just need to try harder and to find the right rhythm and time-plan'.

I would very much appreciate any advice from others on my situation.
thanks,
Damian.

I did Masters years ago and not too long ago, PhD. Both were extremly tough and required a lot of work. No doubt there are complete geniuses out there who can put us all to shame and do both. There's no way I'd ever attempt this and do what you're doing. Why couldn't you have waited until the PhD was done before doing the MA?

I don't recommend you continue to do both as the workload you will be dealing with is beyond most people. As you're finding out, you've no time to finish your PhD. Both Masters and especially the latter stages of a PhD make massive demands on your time as I well know.

If you hadn't used up all your extensions, then I might have suggested this path if you're as determined as you seem. Suspend PhD, get the MA done, then come back to complete the PhD. You might try the ill health option to buy you time.

My advice is similar to your counsellor's. You need to drop one to be able to do the other. However, I'm not going to tell you which one to drop as there are arguments both ways. If the MA could lead more immediately to a job then you need to consider whether continuing the PhD is the right path, knowing in certain fields that jobs are like gold dust. However, you're on final draft of your thesis and close to the finish. Is suspending and probably restarting the MA once the PhD is over a possibility? The fact you've failed your first anatomy exam suggests to me the PhD is the more rescueable from your situation and perhaps restarting the MA after your PhD is the best choice.

You can't have your cake and eat it and you need to make a choice now if only for the sake of your own health. You could well walk away with nothing.

Ian (Mackem_Beefy)

I have to say I agree with Mackem_Beefy. It seems like madness to deliberately put yourself under so much pressure, and I really think you're going to have drop one otherwise you could end up with neither. As Mackem_Beefy rightly pointed out, the fact you are so close to the end of your PhD and are already failing at your Masters makes the PhD the more obvious choice to continue with, but you really have to think about which is going to help most in terms of career progression. I think you would have to work day and night to be able to achieve both, at the expense of your mental health. You also mentioned personal problems; all this is adding up to a recipe for disaster.
I know what you mean about not wanting to quit - I think most PhD candidates are perfectionists and would all feel the same way. However, I think that once you've made the decision everything will seem a lot more manageable and you will be able to get a firm grip on one project and do it well, rather than struggle through and risk failing both, which would be infinitely worse than quitting one project now.

Frankly speaking, one could consider to publish five papers before starting MA. Have you published numerous papers?
Better still, go for volunteering work in the third world countries simultaneously after some papers are published...

Another question is do we need to 'acquire knowledge' through MA?
Isn't PhD better when one is capable of generating knowledge?

Hi,
I just was reading through my thesis , looking something up and I re-read the authors declaration page... I had to sign and declare that 'At no time during the registration for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy has the author been registered for any other University Award without prior agreement of the Graduate Committee' ... I think you need to be really careful here.. especially if you have PhD funding and your supervisors are not aware of your registration for another degree programme. I would suspend or defer the MA for a year and put all your energies and time into your PhD write up. Good luck!

Thanks all, for those words of common sense. I saw my MA program coordinator and explained the situation, and have pulled out of the MA program... the last few days have been an AMAZING flow of energy back into the PhD... and better still, I pulled out before registering any fail for the sake of my record. After explaining my personal stuff to the MA head I also feel welcome to give it ago next year, AFTER my PhD... Also properly engaging with my PhD supe again.. I was crazy to try and do both at once.. thanks all, much saner here :)