frustratedGS

I didn't even know that you could transfer Ph.D programs... can you tell me how you went about doing this? I am miserable in my current program.

Good afternoon, I'm in a Ph.D program that I've been doing part time for several years. I already have my master's through a separate program, and unfortunately, I am not a good fit for this department. I hate the material, I have not learned anything new since my master's level, and the only professors supportive of my research are now retired or taking sabbatical next year. I have been a "black sheep" since day one although I'm working on an important research project for a national cause. I think part of the issue is that I have a master's in a "sister field" and it's not really respected. Additionally, I am practically the only student in the program working in the private sector. (another black mark against me). I have completed all but one in-person course at this stage. I have a preliminary lecture, qualifying exams, and the dissertation process remaining after that. Here are my concerns 1) I'm paying for this venture myself. Since it's a part time program, and my employer doesn't reimburse, this has been very costly to me. My department seems in no hurry to help me graduate, so it looks like at least another 2 years of the program and tuition. I am not sure this is worth it for the student loan debt. 2) I already have a full time job and a successful part time business where I make as much as my FT job. Having had some educational experience teaching already, I am not interested in a full time tenure track position (liberal arts or community college would be a better fit for me). A teaching position would be a big step back financially, and I'm not sure it's worth it. I genuinely enjoy investing time in building my business instead of class. 3) My advisor is completely useless. I won't get into specifics, but he is very in his own world and fails to even show up for meetings. He's also no help with my research. I've been relying on former professors at the master's level to help move my research along. As a result, I have very little on-campus support for my research or for me in general. In fact, after getting a conference paper accepted, one of my professors said "Oh, you actually are smart" and that's really just a drop in an overflowing bucket of my frustration with this program. 4) Given the challenges I have faced fitting into this program, I expect that the process of qualifying exams will be brutal since I cannot stand this material and reading list. I expect they will fail me. I don't know that I have the in-house support for a dissertation committee either. Since my project is already IRB approved, I plan to conduct it and publish it regardless (and have already had interest in developing it into a book). 5) Part of my problem is that I had such a wonderful experience at the master's level. I enjoyed my teaching fellowship, I was fully funded, I had a fantastic advisor and thesis committee, and I received ratings of "excellent" from the students in all 5 of the classes where I taught recitations. My experience at the Ph.D level is incredibly different. I dread going to class and have to force myself to show up while the professors pontificate abstractly about leadership, etc, ad naseum. I even thought about dropping out my first semester because the red flags were there, but I pushed on. I'm torn. I don't want to look back in ten years and "wonder if", but at the same time, feel that my time and money is being squandered and that I'm a bit too rogue for the academic world anyways. I clearly am facing an uphill battle in this department, and do not want to invest another $20,000 in this venture if I continue to be this happy with so little payoff. I'd really appreciate any insight.