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[The following answer is mostly relevant to becoming a professor in literature, though some of the information is also applicable to the sciences. You can read the comments at the end for differing opinions.]Be warned: this is a long, detailed answer. Take a stiff drink before reading….Step #1 High School Degree: You get good grades in high school.You apply to a good school for the BA program.Step #2 Bachelor’s Degree: You get good grades in the BA program during those four years and start networking to find a mentor, and try to learn all you can. If you are in the humanities, you will also probably have to demonstrate proficiency in at least one foreign language—though that might not be the case in other fields. You do that by successfully passing the equivalent of 12 credit-hours of coursework, at least 6 of which must be sophomore-level, but you can also gain equivalency by taking tests to demonstrate to your knowledge.Step #3 Admittance into Graduate School: During the senior year of the BA, you start looking for a two-year master’s program at another (preferably slightly more prestigious) school, and you apply to several with letters of recommendation from your teachers.If you don’t get it, you either give up and take a new profession, or you sit out for a year and try again.If you do get in, you only pursue it if the school offers you financial support in the form of a graduate teaching fellowship (GTF), teaching assistantship (TA), or otherwise pays for your tuition with waivers. This means, you will not pay tuition, and in exchange you will work helping established professors teach large lecture classes, assist them in research projects, or else teach low-level courses for Gen Ed students—sometimes after some very brief pedagogical training, but often with little to no preparation at all.If the school lets you into a master’s program, but doesn’t provide any financial support except student loans, you politely decline. It’s way, way too risky to accumulate college debt when academic jobs are so rare and competitive. You either wait a year and start the process over, or you pick another job.Step #4 Finish Your Master’s: In the master’s program, you will take two years of more advanced graduate classes. In the humanities, if you are at one of the better schools, you will probably have to demonstrate proficiency in a second foreign language—not the same one you used for the bachelor’s degree. Traditionally, if you used a Romance language for your bachelor’s, you will need a Germanic language at the master’s level, and vice-versa, though that is becoming more flexible. You show proficiency the same way as mentioned in the bachelor’s section—by passing four classes in that language or taking a proficiency test.Step #5-A: Thesis Research: The last year of the master’s program, you will typically write a master’s thesis. In the humanities, that might be a long study on a topic, perhaps 80–100 pages long, in which you provide some original insight or new information on the field that has never been argued before. The sciences, it will be some sort of lab research project with a shorter write-up afterward. You will have at least one advisor to guide your research, and usually two faculty readers, and you will sit with them at the end of the project for a thesis defense, in which there will be an oral examination and you will argue for the plausibility of your project’s results.Step #5-B: Ph.D. programsSome schools will combine the master’s program with the Ph.D. (doctoral program), and during the second year of graduate studies, you will undergo a qualifying examination. Students who score the highest may move on to the Ph.D., while the others take the master’s degree and then must apply to separate Ph.D. programs. In the sciences, some rare students go directly from the bachelor’s degree to the Ph.D., with no master’s degree in the middle. However, in the humanities, it is more common to earn a master’s at one school, then apply to a Ph.D. program separately.It’s considered bad form to gain all three degrees at the same institution. Normally, you seek to move up to more prestigious schools with each degree, if you can. That may involve moving across the country at least once, and possibly twice.Most master’s degrees are 30–36 credit-hour programs, and they typically take two years because you are enrolled in fewer hours and teaching at the same time, compared to the bachelor’s degree. Most Ph.D. programs take 3–6 years to complete, part of that variation depending on how much teaching or lab work you are doing while you are working on the degree.Note that in the humanities, if you are at one of the better schools, or if you are in a field like medieval studies, classical studies, or history, you will again need to show proficiency in a third foreign language as part of your coursework. Typically, they want you to choose a language relevant to your research in some way or a language in which significant scholarship is done in your field. (If you don’t like foreign languages, becoming a professor may be a very bad idea—however, the sciences usually don’t require so much background in other languages.)Step #6 Dissertation Research: The last year or two of the Ph.D. is spent doing your doctoral dissertation, a long, book-length study of a subject you will write in a process similar to the master’s thesis. Then you get the title of doctor—but you are still not a professor! The title doctor refers to the degree of Ph.D., while the title professor refers to an academic rank in the hierarchy of a university. People can be a doctor without being a professor or — more rarely — they can be a professor without being a doctor.At this point, you usually try to get the doctoral dissertation published through some scholarly publisher, and you go on the job market. To become a professor in the USA, you need to get a “tenure-track” job, as opposed to a lower-ranking, less-well paying job like a “lecturer” or “instructor,” or part-time work as “adjunct.”The job market is terrible and competitive. The majority of Ph.D. graduates will not get tenure jobs their first year. Many, many of them may not even get lecturer or instructor jobs, and some must settle for doing a “post doc” (a one-year post-doctorate appointment during laboratory scutwork). Some may wind up doing 3–6 years of such post-docs, and then either drift out of academia or get stuck doing adjunct work. (Edit: in this thread, some commentators in the sciences suggest post-docs have more prestige in their field than they do in the humanities, so this may vary.)Adjuncts are the worst position in terms of pay, recognition, and benefits. These are part-time teaching positions given as scraps or leftovers to non-tenured, non-full-time faculty. They pay so poorly, adjuncts may work at 2 (or 3, or 4!) different schools doing one class there, then commuting somewhere else to a different job there, all for terrible pay. They can try to compete for full-time jobs by publishing research, but that very rarely works. My advice is, if you try to be a professor, and you find yourself doing adjunct work, you might want to set aside an academic career and do something else with your talents and skills. The knowledge you gain in a Ph.D. will make you enticing to a variety of occupations, not just academia, which at least in the humanities suffers from a glut of labor right now.Step #7: Seeking TenureIf you’ve made it this far, a small percentage (less than a third in my field of literature) of those Ph.D. doctors will be hired on tenure-track jobs, which is the first step to becoming a full professor. Typically, when you are hired on tenure track, it is a 5–7 year contract. Once you are hired, you gain the rank of “Assistant Professor.”During that time, you will teach classes at the hiring university, and you’ll have a 3-year or 5-year review when you sit down with your department head or the provost and discuss your progress and how you are doing. At a research institute, their main concerns will be how your research is going. During that 5–7 year period, they’d like to see you publish 3–5 scholarly articles or publish a book-length monograph, be active in national scholarly organizations, and present 3–5 papers at academic conferences.In the sciences, where there is a lot of group collaboration, the administrators de-emphasize book-length monographs, but want to see you as “P.I.” or “Primary Investigator” on 3–5 experiments that get published as papers in scholarly journals and maybe as a secondary investigator on another 7–12. They’ll also want to see you apply for and land some large financial grants to run and operate laboratories (which are spendy!).At smaller teaching schools rather than R1 research universities, what will get you tenure is more your teaching, your classroom performance, and doing committee work for the university. They will tend to de-emphasize research and want to see good teaching evaluations and a list of successful students you mentored who went on to successful careers with your guidance.Your sixth or seventh year of the position, you apply for promotion and tenure. Sometimes, that is bundled into one application, but other schools treat them as two separate applications. If you get tenure/promotion, you gain the rank of “associate professor” and a pay-raise. (Typically, academics only get promotion and accompanying pay-raises maybe three-times over the course of their career, which is a contrast with most other professions.)If you are tenured, this means you and the school have a commitment to each other. People mistakenly think this means you cannot be fired any more, but that’s not quite the case. Tenure typically means you cannot be fired for researching or teaching academically controversial material unless a vote from the faculty senate agrees to terminate you, which means it is a lot of hassle and trouble to get rid of you in that regard if you have the full support of your research colleagues or teaching colleagues.However, just like any worker outside academia, you can still be fired or disciplined by your Department Chair or higher-ups for (a) unprofessional conduct, (b) illegal activity, (c) financial distress for the college, or (d) neglecting your duties of teaching and research. Tenure is not a job for life!Step #8: Working up to Associate ProfessorAfter becoming an associate professor, you are now eligible to apply for a sabbatical once every seven years. A sabbatical means that, for either one full year or one full semester, you are freed from teaching duties and can instead focus full time on your research. Typically, at the end of the sabbatical, you are expected to reveal a new book you have written or some other substantive academic project. (If you don’t produce that, you might never have another sabbatical approved again!)Step #9: Becoming a Full ProfessorAs an associate professor, you will not be eligible for status as a “full professor” for another 7–10 years, depending on school policies. You continue teaching, publishing, and doing committee work, and after that you can apply to become a full professor, so it takes maybe 14 -17 years to earn that rank. To be granted it, you often have to demonstrate some sort of leadership in the college—such as serving as a Department Chair, heading a difficult committee, or participating in the Faculty Senate.The only rank higher than “Full professor” is “Professor Emeritus.” This honor is typically only given to professors the year before they retire. It comes with no additional duties or responsibilities because it is primarily honorific. Achieving that rank may be accompanied by a festschrift, i.e., a collection of research essays written by your former graduate students who publish it with a dedication to you and a letter of thanks for all you have contributed to the field.Conclusion:I love being a professor, but I encourage interested students to think long and hard about how much time, work, and money is involved. The odds are stacked against you, especially in my field of literature. In the late 1980s, for a single job opening as a literature professor, there might be 200–400 applicants apply for it. Even at small liberal arts colleges like the one where I teach, we might get 40–60 applicants for a single job. There’s no guarantee after doing all the work that you’ll ever be hired.So, if you love learning and love your topic, keep this challenge in mind. Graduate school isn’t for people who just love a topic. It’s for people who are obsessed with a topic and willing to work for years to achieve their goals. If that’s not you, don’t wander into it by default. Keep your eyes open about the odds, or at least keep in mind that you can do a lot of things with a Ph.D. besides becoming a professor.

ANSWERED 4 OCTOBER 2019 - UPDATED 30 OCTOBER 2020—PREFACE: Hello Benjamin. You’ve asked a good question. Bear with me while I share my thoughts.INTRODUCTION: My Dad was a 33 year career Marine, (1933–1966-S/Sgt Maj ret). Until I was 12, we lived in Camp Pendlegon when we moved to North Park, one of the older inner city neighborhoods in San Diego. By then I could shoot every hand held firearm in the Marine Corps arsenal, ride horses, and swim in the cold Pacific ocean. I was a diver not a surfer, and my friends and I would skin dive for abalone with fins, snorkle, and face mask because none of us could afford scuba equipment. As a kid, we all thought that blue skin was a natural condition of swimming in the ocean. It wasn’t until Vietnam that I realized how wonderful warm ocean water felt.In Vietnam, I was a Force Recon Marine doing special assignments in North Vietnam. Please bear with me while I share some thoughts regarding those moments, some of which were intense.BACK STORY: I dropped out of HS at the end of my Junior year and hopped a freight train heading east. I was bored, full of Wanderlust, and not paying attention to the adults in my life. At the end of summer, I was in Northern Georgia, and feeling cold at night, so I hopped a freight heading west. In Denver, a recruiting sign in front of the main Post Office in downtown Denver showed a bloody clenched fist with blood dripping from it. In the background was a Marine in combat gear holding a rifle with fixed bayonet. The caption read, “Are you good enough?”I ran up the stairs 2 steps at a time and said to the Marine Staff Sergeant, “Sir. I’m good enough.” He called home, and my mother assured him I was 17 and that she would sign the papers when I returned to San Diego. Later that night, the United Airlines flight landed at Lindbergh Field and 16 soon to be Recruits walked down the ramp into the San Diego terminal.My mother reasoned that the Marine Corps was the safest place for me, i.e., there was no war and none seemed imminent (Korea was behind us, and Vietnam was ahead of us). Also, she knew that I wouldn’t run away from Boot Camp. Moreover, unlike my High School teachers, most of whom bored me, she knew that I would definitely pay attention to the adults who were going to be in my life at MCRD.DISCUSSION: After my enlistment as a 17 year old, I stayed in the reserve and received permission to work with Recon in Camp Pendleton in lieu of attending reserve meetings. When Vietnam heated up several years later, I volunteered for a tour. (I was draft exempt and they weren’t calling up reserves, but I had to find out if I could do what my Dad had done in WW2 and Korea. (He was in Edson’s Raiders on Guadalcanal, and then Tarawa, Guam, Okinawa, and Chosin in Korea).I was lucky and after 19 mos of special assignments in North Vietnam, I returned without a scratch. Before deploying, I had applied to several PhD grad programs, and all of them held my acceptance. When I returned, I entered graduate school immediately, and definitely felt intense about completing my doctorate degree.In part, I finished my doctorate because of my family background (Irish and Welsh immigrants who were small Indiana farmers on my mother’s side, and small Colorado cattle ranchers on my dad’s side). Also, I was the first in my family to go to college, but I think I felt that it was especially important that I finish because I had something to prove, i.e., I was a high school dropout!Yet another reason I stayed the course for my PhD is because of my Marine Corps training which, in short, says to every Marine, “Don’t Quit Anything You Begin.”Regarding PhD programs, on average, regardless of the major field of study, and regardless of the PhD degree granting US institution, roughly 85% of students who begin a PhD program in the U.S. fail to receive their PhD degree. The reasons for failure vary, of course, but in general, not completing one’s Dissertation is, by far, the biggest reason for not getting one’s PhD.The Dissertation is a written document describing a candidate’s original research on their Doctoral Committee’s approved Dissertation topic. In final form, the Dissertation is a document that ranges from a hundred typed pages to several hundred.A person who fails to complete their Dissertation is known forever as ABD—All But Dissertation. If they go into Academia in a four year college or university, ABD means they will forever be a temporary professor, never able to achieve permanency by being awarded tenure, and one who can never advance to full professor. Worse, without tenure, they have no protection and remain forever at risk of losing their Academic position.Summary: A PhD student who has left graduate school as ABD means that they completed all their course work, and passed all their exams including their final oral exams. Furthermore, it means they formed a committee typically of 3 or 4 professors, one of whom was their Dissertation Chairman, and most of all, it means that they were Advanced To Candidacy by their Committee for award of their PhD, and approved as such, by the University.What remained was for them to complete their Dissertation, and then defend it, first in a closed room before their Committee, and then in a public forum where anyone can attend and ask questions. For some, the public defense is challenging, and even daunting. For others, it’s a welcoming experience, and a chance to show the world what they have done for their academic area, and for the human race. I was one of the latter.But the really sad part is that those who have not completed their Dissertation never experience the elation of a Public Defense of their work.CONCLUSION: To the question, “Why are Marines So Often Intense?”In my case, I couldn’t have been any other way, and no Marine I’ve ever met could have, either.Why?As a Marine, we are trained to honor four core principles:First, Semper Fidelis—translated, of course, this means Always Faithful, but what it means in practical terms is it’s not about you! It’s about your Brothers and Sisters! Accordingly, you must never, ever let your Brothers and Sisters Down! You must absolutely be there for them, always, whatever their needs. whatever it takes! We’re a Brotherhood and a Sisterhood—what happens to one of us, happens to all of us!Second, Be the Marine that can Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome any situation, any where. This means that you must use your brain, and stay in physical condition 24/7!Third, Never Quit something you begin, whether in or out of combat!Fourth, And most important—Smell the roses along the way! Always!Upholding these four core principles is why Marines are Intense.This is why I finished my Dissertation.This is how I try to live my life.Semper Fi,JE-PhD—Political Science (Political Theory, Economics, History, Mathematics)Old Corps, New Corps, Same Corps

The worthwhile question being raised here under the rubric of Quora’s Graduate Advisors and Advising section is, “[H]ow do I work through a PhD candidacy proposal with an advisor?”I would at the very outset strongly suggest your immediately purchasing, reading and seriously absorbing the book titled, How To Complete And Survive A Doctoral Dissertation authored by Dr. David Sternberg.I became familiar with Dr. Sternberg’s book back in the 1970s but had the opportunity to put his methodology, strategy, and tactics to the test during the course of my doctoral studies undertaken at the Institut Universitaire de Hautes Etudes Internationales, The Graduate Institute of International Studies, during the late 1980s at The University of Geneva, Switzerland. In fact, I generally attribute much of my success achieved there to the many lessons taught in Dr. Sternberg’s book which, at every turn, powerfully go about demonstrating that the doctoral student must remain proactive throughout in driving the dissertation process through to its successful completion. I highly recommend this book to you without reservation, and strongly encourage your taking Dr. Sternberg’s lessons onboard as you commence on your exciting journey toward earning the Ph.D. degree.2. Relevant questions, which you the Ph.D. student, need to be addressing:Subject Matter Identification?: Did you have the particular subject matter identified for a Ph.D. dissertation topic in mind prior to commencing your Ph.D. studies? Is it a topic that you are sufficiently passionate about, seriously?Possible topics?: Do you currently have one now, or have you identified several possible candidate topics at present which you can then go about vetting when meeting with your advisor?Review of the Literature: Does a sufficient literature exist in the subject matter field which is the object of your study and, if so, have you prepared a select bibliography in that regard?Objectives: Have you given any thought to what the singular or several objectives of your dissertation study would be, and have you memorialized them in writing?Methodological Approach(es): What thought have you given to the methodology(ies) which you would be adhering to during the course of the research study you are undertaking?The Niche to be filled: Have you demonstrated how the work which you are aiming to produce will fill a gap or gaps in the existing literature within your subject matter field of choice?Why does it matter?: Moreover, can you identify what your dissertation sets out to demonstrate, and the implications thereof, and to precisely too, identify what it is not intending to accomplish?3. Ideally, I would propose that by all means if you have successfully addressed the questions rained in para. 2 above, that you go about constructing a typed draft proposal consisting of no more than five pages (for starters) which you can present to your professor during an initial working meeting. It may, understandably, take your professor some weeks in getting back to you with comments on the draft for revision and finalizing to go forward with making the formal submission.4. This is, of course, presupposing that you have identified a preferred topic and are at the point of wanting the proposed draft to serve as the basis for discussion between you and your advisor. Such a draft forms the basis for what essentially becomes a prospectus, in other words a contract if you will, between oneself and the university once of course it has been vetted and approved upon by the necessary university authorities. The essential buy in necessary from the beginning of the process is driven by the concurrence of your advisor and co-advisor for the dissertation.5. Once finalized and approved, the document in essence states that in exchange for the satisfactory delivery of the dissertation promised, that the university will upon the student having met all the set terms and conditions prescribed, award the student the Ph.D. degree.6. Speaking from my own personal experience, when my advisor was confident that my dissertation was indeed ready for formal submission for defense purposes, he alerted me during the course of one of our final meetings held. By doing so, he then triggered the procedure necessary for the Institut scheduling the public defense before a Jury of the University consisting of the Advisor, Co-Advisor, and Independent Reviewer of the dissertation committee.