Author: John
Houle (---.proxy.aol.com)
Date: 04-14-03
23:17
Colleagues:
Richelieu Valley High has been in
operation from 1969 - 2003.
Over the course of its 34 year
tenure, our high school must
have produced somewhere on the
order of 7000 - 10000
high school graduates. Within this
estimated population there
will be a subpopulation who went on
to obtain doctorates
in either medicine (medical doctor (MD)) or
in research (doctor
of philosophy (PhD)).
In the case of
my own Richelieu Valley High graduating class
of 1972, I am
aware of two other cograduates from my year
who successfully
obtained PhDs. Upon graduating from
Richelieu Valley High my
originial objective was to obtain a MD.
However, after spending
years studying biochemistry in an
unsuccessful attempt to gain
admission into medical school,
I eventually abandoned this
field, switched disciplines and
went into computer science.
Currently, I am still working on
obtaining a doctorate in
computer science at Carleton University.
The reason for
posting this thread is that I am curious to know
several
things:
a. Given the estimated Richelieu Valley High
population of 7000 -
10000 graduates, how many of us went on to
pursue academic
careers which culminated in successfully earning
either an MD or
a PhD?
b. In addition to those candidates
who were successful, how
many other Richelieu Valley graduates
initiated but for whatever
reasons later had to abandon their
doctorates?
c. What were the overall experiences of other
doctoral candidates
from Richelieu Valley High?
In
summary, earning a doctorate has been the hardest experience
that
I have ever been through. In posting this survey it would be
interesting to hear how everyone else is making out. (I refer to
such stories as: "The Diary of a Graduate School
Grunt".)
Thanks in advance,
John Houle
(Richelieu
Valley, 1972)
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