RiotNrrd:I tend to agree that an advanced degree in Esperanto would be quite silly.

That may be true of the language itself, but looking a bit more widely, there is one question in Esperantology which is still up for grabs, is regularly brought up among Esperantists and could make the possessor employable as the subject of a PhD research project: how many Esperantists are there in the world? This is a very interesting problem in social statistics. Sidney Culbert never published his findings, and a PhD in this area could develop the candidate's expertise in survey methods, which look both useful and employable. So that might be worth considering. I believe Culbert's research papers are kept at the University of Washington at Seattle.

erinja:The national language forums are mainly intended for discussion of Esperanto

I edited the thread so that it contains the word Esperanto.

I wanted to address people from my own culture rather than getting worldwide feedback.

I am asking the Esperanto community because they seem to be more educated than other internet users.

Thanks to everyone for their tips.