Dropping out of PhD program at the three year point typically means that your thesis research has failed and you are flunking out of the program.
Not at all.
It most often means that you have moved on with life, often married with children and have a job and responsibilities, thus it is no longer a priority. I have several doctorates in my immediate family. They really sacrificed to get them, including delaying marriage and having children.
My situation was that my business was so successful and I was making so much money that I just didn’t have the time. I was a CPA with my own large firm and many employees, handling Federal Tax Court cases, large corporate tax practice and auditing governmental organizations, all while I was a full time professor, full time parent for two children, and just couldn’t find the time to prioritize classes. Besides that, the degree was bullcrap. At that level, much of the work is done in groups and not individually. Often, I would research and draft the research paper and someone else got the same grade for typing it.
I was getting paid to do work that my professors wanted to do. I had to do a marketing research project for a graduate class with full statistical analysis. I charged the bank holding company (a client) $8,000 for my coursework report and they were happy to hire me for more work. The professor for the course was pissed as he wanted to do the work I was doing. I was already teaching classes at the University that were a higher level than the courses I was taking. My graduate statistics professor asked me to teach several of our graduate statistics classes. I never showed up for any of her classes and got an “A.” (I was the university’s go to person for the statistical package on the mainframe)
As a CPA, I was already auditing governmental organizations and hospitals, issuing their financial statements, and they required me to take a class in Fund Accounting, to learn the basics of what I was already doing professionally. It was bullcrap. Same thing in law school. I could have taught the class in estate law, as I was already teaching it at another university. It was a total waste of time, so I quit. No regrets as my ego doesn’t need another credential.
That’s why I switched to neuroscience and medical research as it is not nearly as boring. Why get a degree to learn what you already know and to do what you are already doing? (I do have several degrees)