I bet the reason why there are so many international students are pursuing a Ph.D. in the United States is not so much devoting themselves to lifelong scientific research works as gaining some oversea experiences of training and living. Some people may hold the opposite opinion with me by claiming I overemphasized the latter reason which is no more than the side-effect of attending the Ph.D. program. Well, facts speak louder than words. Statistics by China government shows nearly one half of the Ph.D. graduates in China don't pursue tenure-track positions or research-related jobs in academic institutions and industry research labs, but rather they choose to be government officials. Although it sounds weird that so many Ph.D students work in government institutions, it is at least demonstating the variance of the motivations of pursuring a Ph.D degree. Obviously, this phenomenon goes against our long perceived idea that a Ph.D. degree would necessarily mean an academic career.
If I don't intend to be a scholar in the future, people may question where my passion of attending a Ph.D. program is. I need an intensive Ph.D. training in United States because I think I have not been equipped with solid expertise and knowledge base in my area, because I want to know more about the world personally, and because I want to learn some practical things from a different culture beyond the textbook. Knowledge is of course important, but not as much as the way of gaining knowledge. There is no doubt that the Ph.D. programs in United States are generally much more demanding and challenging than those in China. I will for sure have a great sense of achievement when I pull off the program.
So why choosing IST? It has to do something with my academic background and interests. My undergraduate program is information management and information system. Literally, it was an interdisciplinary program, covering management, economics, information theory, computer engineering, and operations research. The second diploma is Master of Science in system science. Though sounds a little bit weird, the system science is a program in information school. I dealt with social and economic problems by using computational modeling and simulation. Basically, I can say that before I came here, I was closely bounded up with information-related stuff in terms of what I learnt. Such a background cultivates me broad interests and great zest toward knowledge and issues in the field of information sciences and technology. The more I study in this area, the more I feel that it is amazing to explain or solve problems using an integrative perspective. I do believe it is the charm of IST, and other interdisciplinary programs.
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