Overview of the Challenges to Completion I anticipate to Encounter in My Doctoral Program

 Doctoral work is defined by various challenges, including cultural barriers, insufficient faculty support, inability to balance work and family life, financial problems, and family struggles.  Other challenges include a lack of effective relationships between students and faculty mentors because of distance and lack of expertise in modern technologies (Deshpande, 2016; Litalien & Guay, 2015). Therefore, as a doctorate student, I expect to experience the following challenges:

Environmental and Personal Challenges

 I expect to encounter environmental and personal challenges in my doctoral program because managing family, work, and academics can be challenging and overwhelming. Additionally, I anticipate lacking adequate funds to complete my doctorate program. According to Marshall, Klocko, & Davidson (2017), many dissertating doctoral students are often concerned with money and work in the last phase of their program. In this case, fellowships and financial aid are vital resources to enhance the successful completion of the doctorate program.  

Writing anxiety

Writing anxiety characterizes doctoral-level work. The anxiety will be attributable to guidelines for writing for publications and thesis. I am not familiar with writing for publications because I am not yet exposed to academic writing.  Thus, I expect to be overwhelmed by my supervisors’ revisions and feedback to ensure my work is perfect and my arguments are strengthened.

Productivity Challenges

Productivity may be a challenge in completing my doctoral program because it will be undermined by the need to balance career, civic community, friends, and family involvement in my life. As a result, it will be very challenging to dedicate most of my time to completing my dissertation