{"id":808,"date":"2024-02-15T02:18:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-15T02:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dan.nickgray.net\/?p=808"},"modified":"2026-01-21T19:17:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T19:17:47","slug":"phd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danlerman.com\/phd\/","title":{"rendered":"I Got A PhD in My Spare Time For Less Than $20,000"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I got a PhD in my spare time for less than $20,000 (*caveat = it took appx 10 years, LOL). Here\u2019s how I did it:<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-69f91500a3594\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"ez-toc-cssicon\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-69f91500a3594\"  aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/danlerman.com\/phd\/#Passion\" >Passion<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/danlerman.com\/phd\/#Professional_Development_Budget\" >Professional Development Budget<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/danlerman.com\/phd\/#Scholarships\" >Scholarships<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/danlerman.com\/phd\/#Pictures\" >Pictures<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/danlerman.com\/phd\/#Conclusion\" >Conclusion<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Passion\"><\/span>Passion<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>I chose a subject that I genuinely love \u2013 Cognitive Science (inspired by the book Thinking Fast and Slow). Since I was connecting with a <a href=\"\/becoming-a-confident-learner\/\">love of learning<\/a>, there was was no pressure to finish the degree (or even progress). Made it much easier to chip away!<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Professional_Development_Budget\"><\/span>Professional Development Budget<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>While teaching at Saint Ann\u2019s, they generously offered to pay about $5k per semester for classes. This covered about half of the costs.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Scholarships\"><\/span>Scholarships<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>I got good grades and got an academic scholarship. This covered almost all of the rest of the costs (I had to pay for college fees, and a few classes at the end). I took 1-2 classes per semester, got a Masters in 2017, another Masters in 2020, and then finally defended in December and got the PhD in 2024.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Pictures\"><\/span>Pictures<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-15 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-811\" data-id=\"811\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"800\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" src=\"https:\/\/danlerman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/97\/2024\/11\/PhD-Dan-Lerman.jpeg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/danlerman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/97\/2024\/11\/PhD-Dan-Lerman.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/danlerman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/97\/2024\/11\/PhD-Dan-Lerman-225x300.jpeg 225w\" width=\"600\"\/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-810\" data-id=\"810\" decoding=\"async\" height=\"707\" loading=\"lazy\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 603px) 100vw, 603px\" src=\"http:\/\/danl.friendsnewsnetwork.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2024\/11\/PHD.jpeg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/danlerman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/97\/2024\/11\/PHD.jpeg 603w, https:\/\/danlerman.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/97\/2024\/11\/PHD-256x300.jpeg 256w\" width=\"603\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Conclusion\"><\/span>Conclusion<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In true Dan Lerman fashion, I had a strict deadline to finish before getting kicked out of the program (was taking too long), and I handed in my dissertation 1 hour before that deadline. The dissertation is 111 pages and it\u2019s called \u201cTo LERM or Not To LERM?\u201d If you could get a PhD in anything, what would it be?!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I got a PhD in my spare time for less than $20,000 (*caveat = it took appx 10 years, LOL)&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":82,"featured_media":812,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"meta_description":"","og_description":"","_seo_meta_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tutoring"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danlerman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danlerman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danlerman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danlerman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/82"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danlerman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=808"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/danlerman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1339,"href":"https:\/\/danlerman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808\/revisions\/1339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danlerman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danlerman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danlerman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danlerman.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}