Unless the Globe has reason to believe that US Security was at issue, this is not news. Take it off the front page and go cover real news. I can read gossip in the Herald and I really don't care about this woman, who she is, what she looks like, what her past mistakes were...unless she has compromised the nation, the economy, or some such matter of news.

Great picture, I thought it show her behind bars.

Lots of people don't finish their PhDs. Young people, old people, full-time students, part-time students, married, single, having affairs, etc. This is a non-story. Shame on Harvard for saying so much. Good for Broadwell to get an MPA, by the way.

Callum, Tracy, and Bryan-- WHO CARES? Was this stupid article your own idea to waste space and readers' time with, or did you recently hire a news editor from PEOPLE magazine? Or maybe it was just a slow news day? This piece isn't newsworthy and doesn't belong in The Globe.

Shameless character assassination based on an anonomous source - an "unnamed Harvard professor". What a pathetic piece of jounalism this is. Is this what the reporters had in mind when they went to jounalism school? Embarrassing.

Agreed with the other commenters that this piece does nothing to move forward our understanding of a potential national security issue. It is a character attack, and a shameful one at that. As a recent Ph.D. recipient myself (from another institution, in an entirel different field), I'm disgusted by the comments by the Harvard professors.

Were you in such a rush to get this story up that you didn't proofread the photo caption?  I'd think everyone would know the first name of Mr. Petraeus.

What's the deal with the constant comments from people who are not authorized to comment? I honestly don't understand this trend. "At one point, Broadwell said she was leaving the doctorate track because she was over­extended and didn’t have time to complete the coursework, recounted the professor, who was not authorized to speak to the press."

I disagree about the importance of this article. It is important. It demonstrates how David Petraeus squandered his power and prestige to annoint Paula Broadwell as worthy of taking a seat as a PhD candidate at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Many  highly qualified students would have given anything to participate in that program. We don't know if a different candidate would have succeeded any more than Ms. Broadwell. However, if other candidates were well-screened for high competency and a variety of illuminating experiences, my bet would have been placed on one of them instead of Ms. Broadwell. 

This is an all-around embarrassing article and unworthy of the Globe; much more like a Fleet Street tabloid hatchet job. As others have said, it provides virtually no truly substantive information. Also, the comments by former professors are indeed distasteful. They should have refrained from commenting, and the Globe should have refrained from printing such comments. Also, unlike what the article very strongly implies, there is no shame in not completing a graduate degree. I know many very successful people who dropped out of PhD programs, and most of them made the right choice, in my opinion. It's an enormous commitment of time and energy, and knowing the right time to keep plugging away and when to cut your losses and walk away is wise. I myself completed my PhD and have no regrets, but I generally advise others in my particular field to not continue beyond the M.S. level unless they have a specific reason to make that kind of investment. I'd be surprised if any of the authors of this article have the least bit of personal familiarity with this situation. Finally, running the paparazzi photo of Broadwell spied through the kitchen window of her brother's house is sordid. It's the kind of thing one would associate with the News of the World, not the Boston Globe.