100 Reasons

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Monday, July 16, 2012

85. It is not a ticket to the upper middle class.

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Even among the college-educated, there is a tendency to envision the life of a professor as one that includes tweed jackets with leather e...
179 comments:
Monday, June 11, 2012

84. The politics are vicious.

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 “Academic politics are so vicious because the stakes are so low.” Endlessly repeated, the ironic expression has become a dictum on college...
127 comments:
Monday, May 14, 2012

83. It narrows your options.

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We have become so comfortable with the idea that more education leads to more opportunity that it can be hard to accept the fact that there ...
145 comments:
Monday, April 16, 2012

82. Teaching is moving online.

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No matter what ambitions people may have when they enter graduate school, they are likely to find themselves looking for academic teaching p...
66 comments:
Monday, April 2, 2012

81. Comprehensive exams.

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American doctoral programs are divided into three major components: courses, comprehensive or general exams ("comps" or "gene...
102 comments:
Monday, March 12, 2012

80. “When will you finish?”

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Of all of the awkward questions that you are asked in graduate school, this one is the cruelest. It is also the one that you are asked more...
66 comments:
Monday, February 27, 2012

79. The tyranny of procrastination.

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The problem of procrastination in graduate school is, in part, a problem of perception. When you could be working anytime and all the time (...
56 comments:
Monday, February 13, 2012

78. It takes a toll on your health.

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Graduate school is hard on your mental health (see Reason 68 ), but it is also hard on your physical health. As a grad student, you spend a ...
83 comments: