Doctoral Student as Tourist or Traveler

The term of journey is often encountered while describing the process of doctoral studies. Then, one may reach the point to compare doctoral students with tourists or travelers. First of all my instinct response to this questions is that doctoral students are travelers rather than tourists because travelers, in a general sense, are more independent to the ritual process that sticks around tourists, who hardly go about without a guide to look around or a prearranged planning. On the other hand, travelers are ready to meet new settings and new people on the road and be more flexible to change their routes on occasions. A plan is in their mind, but doesn't dominate the path absolutely. It is rather loose. Definitely looser than that of the tourists. Moreover, tourists usually spend a very short period of time, but travelers do more, although they may not embark on the traveling that often.

Yeah, now I think that I am very morally comparing doctoral students with travelers. I mean, they should resemble each other. But in reality, how far can they move along in parallel?

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