tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post1707745305831961545..comments2024-03-24T21:12:27.165-07:00Comments on 100 Reasons NOT to Go to Graduate School: 80. “When will you finish?”100 Reasonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13655155303350793785noreply@blogger.comBlogger66125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-2531726716643555902016-03-07T12:59:38.875-08:002016-03-07T12:59:38.875-08:00Even those public sector law jobs that used to be ...Even those public sector law jobs that used to be quite plentiful have become scarce as hen's teeth. They used to be the consolation prize of the legal profession, but now that opportunities to practice long-term are becoming increasingly scarce and debt is hard to pay off, they have become the golden goose.<br /><br />Also, it is very true that criminal law changes your outlook on humanity. The prosecutors/defense attorneys I know are some of the most jaded people you could imagine.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-17410920044169129722014-08-21T13:41:07.650-07:002014-08-21T13:41:07.650-07:00You REALLY don't want to be a public defender....You REALLY don't want to be a public defender. Some of those guys are guilty and they don't forgive their representation for not keeping them out of jail.<br /><br />As either a public defender or public prosecutor you will learn things about your "fellow man" that will absolutely turn your stomach. I knew a public prosecutor who had an anecdote about a prison riot. That story still makes me ill every time I think about it. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-89469403790074127112012-09-20T18:42:02.020-07:002012-09-20T18:42:02.020-07:00I went to grad school because i love science and h...I went to grad school because i love science and have questions. I learned i can teach as a side project. I am done F-ing off and will graduate in a few months. Glad i came. won do it again...likely wont use degree. physical chemist. y'all have fun with it as thats what life's about.minkowskihttp://minkowskispace.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-91898119454821117742012-07-17T23:00:13.050-07:002012-07-17T23:00:13.050-07:00@Anonymous 9:58
Because Freddie probably has/is wo...@Anonymous 9:58<br />Because Freddie probably has/is working towards a PhD in Psychology and that makes him believe that the world is his patient, while ignoring the mirror.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-53354356533024891892012-07-11T10:55:16.651-07:002012-07-11T10:55:16.651-07:00Absolutely. Hilarious.Absolutely. Hilarious.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-67761696901728566632012-07-06T10:12:25.112-07:002012-07-06T10:12:25.112-07:00I was warned (and stupidly, stupidly did not liste...I was warned (and stupidly, stupidly did not listen) by a professor before entering grad school that the number of TT positions available for people in our field of academia (Russian literature) was 5 -- across all of North America and Western Europe, which are fought over by the hundreds of new PhDs each year and those from previous years.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-71617001111243044632012-07-06T09:58:50.009-07:002012-07-06T09:58:50.009-07:00Freddie: A pointless ad hominem attack. Why not fo...Freddie: A pointless ad hominem attack. Why not focus on what the poster is actually saying and not try to come up with psychoanalytical reasons to dismiss her argument out of hand?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-87237970002061419572012-04-02T08:51:16.856-07:002012-04-02T08:51:16.856-07:00I hope some light in the tunnel appears for you, b...I hope some light in the tunnel appears for you, but I know it's hard to figure out what to do other than keep the status quo. <br /><br />In my case I either need to be in a different department, or quit and do something else, but either choice is just so hard to make the move toward. Starting in a new department will set me back another 2-3 years (I've already transferred once), and applying for jobs outside academia is baffling and difficult for me. I don't even remotely know what sorts of jobs I'd qualify for or that I can make a convincing argument to employers for. <br /><br />Sadness all around.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-84098570660917783682012-03-28T08:29:16.526-07:002012-03-28T08:29:16.526-07:00As somebody who has been working on a Ph.D. way lo...As somebody who has been working on a Ph.D. way longer than I ever thought I'd be, I've had a lot of time to ponder why it has taken me so long to get done. Here are a few thoughts.<br /><br />1) When you're a grad student with no money, simple things take forever. I have to take the bus or walk to buy groceries, so every trip to the store turns into a 2-hour ordeal. I have to go shopping a couple of times per week, because I can only carry a limited amount of stuff home. Walking to campus and back takes forever, going to the post office takes forever, laundry takes forever... One of my friends took out a student loan just so that he could afford to keep his old car. His TA stipend was only enough to cover his rent and food (true for me, too).<br /><br />2) Doing too much at the same time is bad. I find myself in this situation all the time. I'm working on a paper for a conference, trying to get my TA grading done, trying to write a few paragraphs of my diss (which always gets bumped down the priority list because other things are due next week or whatever), trying to get a hopeless fellowship application in the mail, writing letters of recommendation for students because TA's like me know them slightly better than their profs, and so on and so on... I completely understand that profs have to do a lot of the same stuff, but it seems to me like this would all be a lot easier with a quiet office, a quiet living space, and some wheels to get between them. Maybe I'm dreaming.<br /><br />3) It's hard to do things that you hate doing. I can't tell you how many people promised me that I would get to the point when I hated my dissertation. I didn't believe them, but they were right. Now I'm at the point when even simple things that I have to tweak here and there in the dissertation are not getting done because I just can't bring myself to deal with them. I know exactly what I have to do. I know how to do it. I just can't make myself do it. It's stupid to let this happen, but it's like I have some kind of mental paralysis. <br /><br />4) When everything looks depressing ahead of you, it's hard to move forward. I've been pretty close to finished for a long time now (oxymoronic, I know), so I've been looking at the open job postings for a couple of years. Once you see how specialized most of the postings are, you realize how few jobs there are and the kinds of places where the jobs are. It's not pretty. The thought of finishing after all of these years and then not getting hired is hard to swallow. It seems better to stay a grad student for a while longer, so I dilly-dally. <br /><br />None of these excuses sound very good when somebody asks me when I'm going to graduate.JSnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-13418104837962383492012-03-27T16:32:28.747-07:002012-03-27T16:32:28.747-07:00I was sitting in a coffee shop yesterday when the ...I was sitting in a coffee shop yesterday when the barista asked a customer sitting at a table with his laptop, "So when are you gonna be done with school?" I didn't hear what he answered, but I heard her say (somewhat meanly), "Well it'll probably all be for nothing!" The guy that she was talking to looked too old to be a college student, so I assume that he was in grad school or something.<br /><br />At the table on the other side of me was a woman in her last year of law school, which I heard her explain to someone who recognized her, walked over to talk to her, and immediately asked her when she would finish! <br /><br />I heard both of these conversations in a span of ten minutes.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-71756554120787560412012-03-24T16:01:54.222-07:002012-03-24T16:01:54.222-07:00I think we've all had the experience in a work...I think we've all had the experience in a workplace where the people who do a lot get no recognition, while the people who do little get promoted. <br /><br />In my experience in the army it happened all the time. <br /><br />What I wish this issue would expose - is what the leadership of the universities see as their mission. Clearly, service to students is NOT part of it as Prof. Britt's experience shows. There is a HUGE disconnect between what the public wants from higher ed and what higher ed administration prioritizes.Aaronnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-62061675341617946532012-03-24T12:17:26.326-07:002012-03-24T12:17:26.326-07:00Oh, and btw, this is particularly for those outsid...Oh, and btw, this is particularly for those outsiders who seem to think we have it made, or that it is just like any other job. I think in any other job this sort of performance would have been considered above and beyond the call of duty and rewarded. If this is how jobs are everywhere, then we have a serious problem with how we look at work in this country.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-3638359948170102622012-03-24T12:15:09.504-07:002012-03-24T12:15:09.504-07:00I know this isn't exactly the right post for t...I know this isn't exactly the right post for this, but here is a link to a story about a lawsuit being filed by an Art history professor who was denied tenure at the University of Louisville, Louisville! because she didn't produce enough "creative research." <br /><br />http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2012/03/23/louisville-lawsuit-raises-concerns-familiar-those-tenure-track#.T2x87aT_rOg.facebook<br /><br />Mind you, she was teaching 8-9 classes a year, served on numerous committees, mentored many undergrads and grads, and STILL managed to publish two peer-reviewed articles. And we are talking about a non-top tier university in a relatively low profile location!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-56073090921980206902012-03-23T20:15:56.631-07:002012-03-23T20:15:56.631-07:00I wonder if the author of this blog will discuss t...I wonder if the author of this blog will discuss the law school scam.<br /><br />Google "shitlaw" and you'll see how bad the job market for lawyers is. $200K in student loans is slavery.PhD Accountingnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-71249871138661553512012-03-22T18:54:47.059-07:002012-03-22T18:54:47.059-07:00Gotcha. I had a similar response from a guy who ru...Gotcha. I had a similar response from a guy who runs an HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) construction firm. He said that a new guy with an HVAC degree from a community college is not too useful; it takes five years working with an experienced man to learn enough to be worth hiring. So he hires new guys and eats the cost of training as a part of doing business.<br /><br />Can you get work as a public defender or a prosecutor? Or are they saturated as well? I know the work is unpleasant on either side, but still. It beats nothing.Socratesinthemarketplacehttp://www.yahoo.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-45942306295310066572012-03-20T12:50:10.335-07:002012-03-20T12:50:10.335-07:00"Aaron, you are crazy if you think tenured pr..."Aaron, you are crazy if you think tenured professors or adjuncts put in "less time" than any other profession."<br /><br />Depends how you handle it, but unless you're doing an insane overload, you should be able to get the work done in 40-50 hours a week tops. With the unstructured nature of academic work, though, it can stretch out. <br /><br />As a freeway flier adjunct at 2 colleges, I make about the same wage as I did as a salaried retail manager. Total compensation is probably a few grand less when you factor in health insurance, which I have to buy on my own. I often had to put in 12 hour days, 5-6 days a week doing that.<br /><br />You can parse the differences between those two ways of making a living, but I feel the unstructured time is worth the 5-7K less total compensation. I'm probably "working" on average 45 hours a week, especially during grading times, but this is what I like doing; it doesn't feel like work. Whereas when I clocked in at Mr. Big-box, I hated my life.<br /><br />"We are being trained to do something that a very small number of people really ought to be doing."<br /><br />I don't think so. In my discipline (history), there are fewer phd's produced per year than there were in the 1970s & early 80s. <br /><br />The financial problem is corruption and mismanagement within the system. There is more demand for college and there are more students than ever before. If you just look at the sheer number of students in college in the U.S. each year - there is literally no reason that there is no employment for instructors of foundational, required subjects like English, Math, History, Government, etc... <br /><br />At the tuition rates where I teach - if an adjunct's class fills up the college grosses 400% profit (a 3 credit class costs about $425 * 36 students - $15,000+, adjunct stipend $3000). Even at the full time rate there is still considerable gross profit from tuition alone - around 120%, - this isn't counting property taxes and state & federal funding the college collects. <br /><br />The colleges are mismanaging their finances grossly. They spend money on administrators, luxurious grounds & facilities, technology etc... - it's the same problem that makes our health care so expensive.Aaronnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-31547394313387171162012-03-19T08:25:22.440-07:002012-03-19T08:25:22.440-07:00Outsider here.
There are a fair number of jobs fo...Outsider here.<br /><br />There are a fair number of jobs for new law graduates even now but most opportunities for new non-Yale/Harvard/Stanford types are located in "flyover country". Worse, these jobs pay in the mid- to lower mid-five figures. Not enough to justify relocating when the new J.D. owes $150,000 to Sallie Mae.<br /><br />Question for 8:17...what is an "assembly line" Ph.D.? I thought that one big criticism of the Ph.D. process is that it ISN'T an assembly line with clear goals and deadlines?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-3296225885348800112012-03-19T06:40:39.706-07:002012-03-19T06:40:39.706-07:00It's half-false. In theory, you can open your...It's half-false. In theory, you can open your own practice. However, it is going to be extremely difficult to actually earn money this way. For one thing, the market is saturated, and paying clients are very hard to come by. For another, fresh graduates don't actually know how to practice law in a way helpful to clients. Fresh graduates know a lot of background and foundational material, but they need on the job training to learn how to apply those in real situations for real people. In other words, lawyers need mentors and those mentors come in the form of employers. Without a mentor, you're at a serious disadvantage.Law gradnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-82632251158070548652012-03-18T22:41:49.799-07:002012-03-18T22:41:49.799-07:00I'm astounded you were even hired ABD. I didn&...I'm astounded you were even hired ABD. I didn't think any universities did this any more. Even twenty-five years ago, more and more universities were insisting that their new tenure-track hires have degree in hand, precisely in order to avoid what you went through. Too many people failed to finish, and then got kicked out of their jobs because they didn't have their doctorate by the time someone thought they ought to. And as you've learned, no expectations are unreasonable as long as they're being applied to someone other than the hiring/review committee.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-18230930318046354052012-03-18T19:23:07.715-07:002012-03-18T19:23:07.715-07:00I have a question about law school. Can't you ...I have a question about law school. Can't you open your own practice? That's something that you can't do with a humanities Ph.D.<br /><br />I've always thought a J.D. had it better because he could go private. Is that also a falsehood?Socratesinthemarketplacehttp://www.yahoo.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-1640410430474085392012-03-18T04:00:47.492-07:002012-03-18T04:00:47.492-07:00I'm sure people like me pop up from time to ti...I'm sure people like me pop up from time to time to make this observation, but I think its remarkable how much of the grad school critique applies to law school. You may be aware of the "scam blog" movement, a group of blogs by law school graduates attempting to educate future generations about the realities of both law school and the job market (or lack thereof) that awaits them.<br /><br />Law school is relatively short, and probably a lot more fun, but you end up with a $100K to $200K debt to repay when you graduate. The odds of landing a desirable job are similarly long. The law school equivalent of a tenure track teaching position is a job with a big law firm or government agency, the sort that pays enough to accommodate those $1,000 a month student loan payments. Of course, such jobs are very scarce and the competition is fierce. <br /><br />And its very interesting to read about attempts to make grad schools publish placement results. This is something law schools do, BUT, they use it as an opportunity to lie! They spin the statistics to tell a very misleading story, and there are currently several class action lawsuits against 30 or so law schools for this very thing.<br /><br />We have our own Freddies too, and they are very frustrating. These "personal responsibility" types sincerely believe that it is the student's fault for failing to see through the bullshit stats, failing to appreciate that they were being lied to, failing to "research" the job market, etc. Does it matter to the Freddies that the prospective students (known as 0Ls) are 18-20 year olds with no worldly experience? Not at all. They are "adults" and should know. <br /><br />And, then we get the hostile 0Ls. These are the people who have just decided to enter law school and they are convinced that anybody warning them away is just a loser. Not like them! <br /><br />Anyway, I enjoy this site, it makes me feel a little better about having not gone to grad school. Any of you who think you should have gone to law school, don't worry about that either.Law gradnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-64719231727391652702012-03-17T20:17:17.530-07:002012-03-17T20:17:17.530-07:00I notice how much this blog is bombarded by pro-ac...I notice how much this blog is bombarded by pro-academia people that don't have even the decency to be critical, either they are daughters/son of academia people thinking it is about time to follow a family legacy or just that their depression really shows in those comments. Either keep the good work of this humble blog, it gives me so much comfort while I try to convince myself to finish my assembly line Ph.D. Thanks!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-42173211269550296132012-03-15T11:39:09.593-07:002012-03-15T11:39:09.593-07:00I, for one, don't care if it's the Nationa...I, for one, don't care if it's the National Review or the New Left Review that does it, I'm just glad that *somebody* is bringing some attention to the scandal. <br /><br />Keeping track of PhDs by voluntary surveys or some other means is not complicated. There is no incentive for most departments to do it, because it would reflect badly on their programs. They like to name a few places where past graduates are now working without offering any numbers. <br /><br />Those 15-30% degree overproduction figures sound too rosy to me, but even if they're right, it's MUCH worse than that in any given year, because you're competing with the people who didn't get hired last year (not to mention previous years), plus the people whose contracts end this year, etc. <br /><br />The same people re-enter the market every 2-3 years, because they work on contracts. If you go on the job market for the first time, the other new PhDs are only part of your competition.<br /><br />By the way, if the history department at Ivy League Brown University (home of Gordon Wood) is only getting 25 percent of its new PhDs into tenure-track jobs, what does that tell you?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-66621068081166121442012-03-15T10:50:02.852-07:002012-03-15T10:50:02.852-07:00Aaron, you are crazy if you think tenured professo...Aaron, you are crazy if you think tenured professors or adjuncts put in "less time" than any other profession. Are you only considering face time in the classroom and office hours or something? <br /><br />Really now. So for teaching only faculty I guess all those hours spent writing tests, grading, prepping lectures, researching new teaching methods, time answering incessant emails, and various other administrative and bureaucratic issues are not considered work time?<br /><br />And for tenured faculty the research and the conferences and department service and grant writing, mentoring students in the major etc etc. are also not to be considered part of their work time? <br /><br />I'm pretty sure that it works out to more hours on average than the normal 8hr work day job.<br /><br />I agree that some of what is going on around here is just complaining of the garden variety. But don't you even dare try to say that the job is easy or less strenuous than other jobs around. <br /><br />It really seems to me like the biggest problem with higher ed are the expectations that we should all come out of this as scholars and foremost experts in our field who do cutting edge work. It's just not possible for that to be true with the way that the graduate school experience is set up now. There are just too many of us, and not enough one on one training, and too many other distractions, and all the reasons that are being exposed on this blog and others. <br /><br />We are being trained to do something that a very small number of people really ought to be doing. I think a lot of the pressure would be taken off the system if either a much smaller number of people were admitted to grad programs, OR the grad program goals were structured differently eliminating the stigma of "leaving" the academy, and perhaps even making employment in any capacity the ultimate goal.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4276812992911002375.post-3387593211016920052012-03-15T00:55:50.800-07:002012-03-15T00:55:50.800-07:00Freddie makes a salient point that when you look a...Freddie makes a salient point that when you look at the larger context - the problems of grad students or PhD's are very much "middle class problems." <br /><br />Look at the lifetime earnings, crime (or victim of crimes) statistics, unemployment rate, divorce rate, single parentage, and a whole host of other "misery rate" factors and the data show conclusively that more education is better than less. Post-graduate scholars do better than bachelors only, better than 2 yr degree only, and so forth. The AVERAGE unemployment rate for all PhDs in 2009 was 2.5%. Average monthly unemployment rate overall was 7.9% in 2009.<br /><br />Now there are economics to consider - opportunity costs and law of diminishing returns. But 2.5 is a lot less than 7.9 no matter how you cut it. That's counting ALL PhDs - the subset of humanities may be a different story, we don't have that kind of data. But I wonder how humanities phd unemployment is compared to the overall population? There's a sociology, economics, or education dissertation for you. At any rate, the more education you have, the data show those people are several times more likely to find employment doing something, whether that is a function of the education or those persons' increased ingenuity for solving problems and being persistent, which the degree is only a symbol of, is up for debate.<br /><br />I often think academics need to take good long looks in the mirror, then look at what they do have, then use different points of reference to consider their situation in its entirety. They have it pretty nice depending who you compare to. A major factor to consider would be work hours. A tenured professor puts in fewer hours than almost any other white collar job paying that much. Even an adjunct working 2 gigs is putting in far fewer hours than someone else having to work two pt jobs, even though the total pay may be similar. Probably 50-60% fewer actual work hours. <br /><br />Even for a relatively low rate of pay, academics are doing work they *want* to do - that in itself is a luxury that should be factored in to the total economics of grad school. <br /><br />I'm not saying grad school and higher ed in general is not screwed up. It is. But I think what it suffers from is a different form of the disease that our entire economy suffers from. If you look at the whole economy - the same problems appear - less job security, more pt and temps where permanent positions once were, declining purchasing power, fewer benefits offered, etc...Aaronnoreply@blogger.com