(no subject)
After several years of serious thought, I've pretty much ruled out the idea of getting my PhD. It's been a slow, difficult realization for me. Since about my junior year in college, I've always assumed that I would go to grad school for English. I, probably more than most, have been stubborn about that goal in the face of the mounting evidence against it.
Maybe it's because I've been out of school for a while and lost that wide eyed sense of romance, or maybe it's because I've just recently started to really research the reality of things, but I'm now more sure than ever that my future lies elsewhere. If you're interested, read this article for one professor's forecast on the outlook for PhD students in the Humanities. Granted, it's only one person's opinion, but the job market backs him up. I've also discussed the issue with some very trusted former professors of mine and their message has been similar. Even the most optimistic are conceding that the job market is just plain bad and getting worse.
The major problem is that the decreasing opportunities in academia are not, like the current state of the economy, a temporary trend. Funding has been steadily waning at universities since the 70's and tenure track jobs are drying up. I'm just not willing to spend 5-6 years of my life getting a degree that may not even afford me a steady job upon its completion. Many universities are now leaning heavily on adjunct professors who are paid barely livable salaries without job security or benefits. And the job market is currently so abysmal that PhD students are competing fiercely for these pitiful positions just so that they'll have a job at all. Then, in the event that you do find a tenure track job, you don't have much choice but to go where the offer is, because chances are you may not get another one. 5-6 years is a lot of life to spend to struggle financially afterward, only to move to the middle of nowhere in Kansas because its the only stable job you can find.
Ironically, many PhDs are now moving into teaching secondary school because the jobs are more plentiful and their degree is valued there, but they're obviously overqualified. A master's is really the terminal degree as far as earnings are concerned for secondary school teaching. Outside of my not wanting to deal with high school aged kids, my goals have always been more in line with secondary school. I display a talent for literary criticism, but I get no enjoyment out of actually writing it. It's reading and discussing literature that I enjoy, and I certainly don't want to enter a field where the stability of my job relies on my publishing criticism often. All I really want to do is teach without the pressure to publish. Then again, I also don't want to deal with kids and, even worse, their parents who think they can do no wrong. That's the catch 22.
So, for now I'm still studying to take the GRE, but I'm reassessing my goals. I'm leaning toward a more professional degree that will utilize what I've learned and am good at, but which actually promises a career once I'm finished--one where I can have some choice in where I live. Right now it's between getting a M.Ed, an M.A. in English with a teaching certification and teaching English in secondary school, or going for my MLS (or MIS depending on the school)--archiving, in particular, really interests me. Molly and I always talk about the idea that our generation has been taught throughout our childhood that if we go to college, we can be anything that we want to be, that we'll find the perfect job, that our work won't be like work at all and that we'll all be happy. The reality is that for the majority of people that's just not the case, and it never will be. I think the humanities are the worst at perpetrating this kind of mentality. Because for many liberal arts students, if you have no direction in the real world, but you get good grades and are good at what you do in school, there is always the refuge of more schooling. Grad school is almost the default mode for someone who hasn't been prepared for any one particular career path. Don't get me wrong, liberal arts majors have the skills to excel at a variety of careers (English majors, for instance, are often better in marketing than marketing majors), but people who have been taught entirely to think, learn, and study naturally want to continue to think, learn, and study.
Lest you think that I've become too cynical, let me state that I'm not now, nor will I ever be one of those people who say "a liberal arts degree? what are you going to do with that?" I think that your undergrad degree (unless its in something specific like engineering) matters little toward what career you'll end up in, so study what you love. Just be sure to realize that when all the school ends, the real world is waiting, and no one wants to pay you to read poetry.
That's about it for my quarter life crisis. I think I'll go to sleep now. Goodnight world. Goodnight bat cave. Goodnight mechanical dinosaur. Goodnight giant penny.
Maybe it's because I've been out of school for a while and lost that wide eyed sense of romance, or maybe it's because I've just recently started to really research the reality of things, but I'm now more sure than ever that my future lies elsewhere. If you're interested, read this article for one professor's forecast on the outlook for PhD students in the Humanities. Granted, it's only one person's opinion, but the job market backs him up. I've also discussed the issue with some very trusted former professors of mine and their message has been similar. Even the most optimistic are conceding that the job market is just plain bad and getting worse.
The major problem is that the decreasing opportunities in academia are not, like the current state of the economy, a temporary trend. Funding has been steadily waning at universities since the 70's and tenure track jobs are drying up. I'm just not willing to spend 5-6 years of my life getting a degree that may not even afford me a steady job upon its completion. Many universities are now leaning heavily on adjunct professors who are paid barely livable salaries without job security or benefits. And the job market is currently so abysmal that PhD students are competing fiercely for these pitiful positions just so that they'll have a job at all. Then, in the event that you do find a tenure track job, you don't have much choice but to go where the offer is, because chances are you may not get another one. 5-6 years is a lot of life to spend to struggle financially afterward, only to move to the middle of nowhere in Kansas because its the only stable job you can find.
Ironically, many PhDs are now moving into teaching secondary school because the jobs are more plentiful and their degree is valued there, but they're obviously overqualified. A master's is really the terminal degree as far as earnings are concerned for secondary school teaching. Outside of my not wanting to deal with high school aged kids, my goals have always been more in line with secondary school. I display a talent for literary criticism, but I get no enjoyment out of actually writing it. It's reading and discussing literature that I enjoy, and I certainly don't want to enter a field where the stability of my job relies on my publishing criticism often. All I really want to do is teach without the pressure to publish. Then again, I also don't want to deal with kids and, even worse, their parents who think they can do no wrong. That's the catch 22.
So, for now I'm still studying to take the GRE, but I'm reassessing my goals. I'm leaning toward a more professional degree that will utilize what I've learned and am good at, but which actually promises a career once I'm finished--one where I can have some choice in where I live. Right now it's between getting a M.Ed, an M.A. in English with a teaching certification and teaching English in secondary school, or going for my MLS (or MIS depending on the school)--archiving, in particular, really interests me. Molly and I always talk about the idea that our generation has been taught throughout our childhood that if we go to college, we can be anything that we want to be, that we'll find the perfect job, that our work won't be like work at all and that we'll all be happy. The reality is that for the majority of people that's just not the case, and it never will be. I think the humanities are the worst at perpetrating this kind of mentality. Because for many liberal arts students, if you have no direction in the real world, but you get good grades and are good at what you do in school, there is always the refuge of more schooling. Grad school is almost the default mode for someone who hasn't been prepared for any one particular career path. Don't get me wrong, liberal arts majors have the skills to excel at a variety of careers (English majors, for instance, are often better in marketing than marketing majors), but people who have been taught entirely to think, learn, and study naturally want to continue to think, learn, and study.
Lest you think that I've become too cynical, let me state that I'm not now, nor will I ever be one of those people who say "a liberal arts degree? what are you going to do with that?" I think that your undergrad degree (unless its in something specific like engineering) matters little toward what career you'll end up in, so study what you love. Just be sure to realize that when all the school ends, the real world is waiting, and no one wants to pay you to read poetry.
That's about it for my quarter life crisis. I think I'll go to sleep now. Goodnight world. Goodnight bat cave. Goodnight mechanical dinosaur. Goodnight giant penny.