Goodbye, Academia!
I've not made much of a secret of the fact that I haven't been terribly happy with the MSU philosophy department. Around the time I arrived two years ago, the department started focusing more exclusively on continental philosophy, in part because of the departure of some key faculty and in part because of deliberate actions by the department chair. Since my attitude towards continental philosophy is generally tepid or worse, and since the philosophy department didn't offer me any funding, I invested myself heavily in the Cognitive Science Program. I've received a CogSci assistantship for the last two years (part of which is to maintain that website) and have learned ten times as much from my CogSci coursework as I have from philosophy.
This fall, I began to suspect that my impatience with philosophy might not be confined to this department, so I decided to apply to some research PhD programs in psychology and cognitive science. Some very significant aspects of my studies were not finished by the time I sent out my applications--the bulk of my CogSci coursework and a publishable research project I'm hoping to do this summer--so I wasn't entirely surprised when the last rejection letter arrived last week.
After this semester, all I need to do is finish a couple of deferred papers (both of which are about 80% done) and defend a paper (in lieu of a thesis; I am a "plan B" master's student) and my MA in philosophy will be finished. Technically, I could probably keep studying here towards a PhD in philosophy, but given the MSU philosophy department's hostility towards empirical study and tendency to not fund its students, I would be better off just leaving now.
I also went back and forth for a while about whether I would want to stay at MSU and start working on a PhD at the psychology department here. On the plus side, I know a lot of the people here and seem to have good relations with most of them. Some of them even study things in which I'm interested. But I've already been here for more than two years, and the thought of staying in one place for 8-9 years isn't the only thing that makes me restless with that scenario; I originally came to MSU to be with my Ex, and it would be an epic understatement to say that that turned out poorly, so this town has a lot of bad memories now that I could stand to do without.
I could apply to PhD programs again this fall, and I think I'd have better luck, but that still leaves me with 16 months between the end of this semester and fall 2009. At the last minute, I got hired to teach logic and critical thinking again this summer, which gives me a job through June. After my experience with the class last year, I feel much more comfortable with the material and the type of students that enroll in the course. I can pay the bills through the rest of the summer, but I need a more long-term job.
Working with computers seems to be the natural avenue of employment to pursue; that's what I was originally planning on doing 7 years ago before my jaunt into psychology and philosophy, and working with Linux on a daily basis has dusted off a lot of cobwebs. Plus, if I do that, I could always come back to academic cognitive science someday through the AI/computer science route. I've been meaning to brush up on my web design skills, and I hear that philosophy majors with computer skills are employable as software project managers. If I stay in Lansing, I have one or two solid job options; I'd rather not stay in Lansing for the aforementioned reasons, but I have those to fall back on if nothing else develops. A big part of me wants to take this opportunity to move halfway across the country, live in a new place, and meet some new people for a couple years. But I'm not entirely sure how to go about that. Any suggestions or leads are very welcome.
This fall, I began to suspect that my impatience with philosophy might not be confined to this department, so I decided to apply to some research PhD programs in psychology and cognitive science. Some very significant aspects of my studies were not finished by the time I sent out my applications--the bulk of my CogSci coursework and a publishable research project I'm hoping to do this summer--so I wasn't entirely surprised when the last rejection letter arrived last week.
After this semester, all I need to do is finish a couple of deferred papers (both of which are about 80% done) and defend a paper (in lieu of a thesis; I am a "plan B" master's student) and my MA in philosophy will be finished. Technically, I could probably keep studying here towards a PhD in philosophy, but given the MSU philosophy department's hostility towards empirical study and tendency to not fund its students, I would be better off just leaving now.
I also went back and forth for a while about whether I would want to stay at MSU and start working on a PhD at the psychology department here. On the plus side, I know a lot of the people here and seem to have good relations with most of them. Some of them even study things in which I'm interested. But I've already been here for more than two years, and the thought of staying in one place for 8-9 years isn't the only thing that makes me restless with that scenario; I originally came to MSU to be with my Ex, and it would be an epic understatement to say that that turned out poorly, so this town has a lot of bad memories now that I could stand to do without.
I could apply to PhD programs again this fall, and I think I'd have better luck, but that still leaves me with 16 months between the end of this semester and fall 2009. At the last minute, I got hired to teach logic and critical thinking again this summer, which gives me a job through June. After my experience with the class last year, I feel much more comfortable with the material and the type of students that enroll in the course. I can pay the bills through the rest of the summer, but I need a more long-term job.
Working with computers seems to be the natural avenue of employment to pursue; that's what I was originally planning on doing 7 years ago before my jaunt into psychology and philosophy, and working with Linux on a daily basis has dusted off a lot of cobwebs. Plus, if I do that, I could always come back to academic cognitive science someday through the AI/computer science route. I've been meaning to brush up on my web design skills, and I hear that philosophy majors with computer skills are employable as software project managers. If I stay in Lansing, I have one or two solid job options; I'd rather not stay in Lansing for the aforementioned reasons, but I have those to fall back on if nothing else develops. A big part of me wants to take this opportunity to move halfway across the country, live in a new place, and meet some new people for a couple years. But I'm not entirely sure how to go about that. Any suggestions or leads are very welcome.