As a pastor to graduate and professional students, I recognize that I have a vested interested in people staying graduate students. Yet, sometimes staying isn’t what’s best for someone, and I am thankful that I have been invited into conversations with students about that.

To give you an idea of some of the challenges and why people might quit, CBC recently published an article/video about graduate students who have left. The following are a few quotes from the article (and the follow-up article where more people tell their stories).

“When I look back … to me it was just one big, stressful guilt trip,” says Fowlow. “There was always another article I should have read, another book I should have gotten, more notes I should have written.”

Cowie: “I saw so many of my colleagues … go through years of post-docs,” he says, “making very little money, with very few benefits, moving around. “I didn’t really see that as a viable future for me.”

Elsie Thorburn: “As an academic, a lot of your identity is wrapped up in your work and the successes you obtain. Realizing that despite a lengthy CV of academic success there just might not be a place for you, can really shatter your whole sense of who you are and your self-worth. No wonder so many students and graduates have mental health issues.

Andrew Alter: ” Stories of “PhD U-turns” bring so much insight about the meanings of passion, fulfilment and happiness.”