Originally Posted by
John the Theologian
This was many years ago, but from what I've heard the situation today is no different.
Actually, it's considerably worse because of the increase in graduate departments that recruit -- and then award degrees to -- people who can't get those jobs. Still, there are professional associations (the American Philosophical Association is one) who have for almost 50 years been sending letters warning their graduate school applicants of the truly REMOTE chance of getting the sort of job they want. And yet they still apply, still attend, still (many of them) get their degrees, and then end up in situations they never intended. I personally know someone who (over 25 years ago) graduated with a Ph.D. from Brown University under the direction of one of the top people in the world, couldn't find a tenure track job for several years, and went back to school to become a (depressed and disgruntled) software engineer. I also know someone who graduated within the past 10 years with a degree in Philosophy and Linguistics from MIT and is teaching at what is essentially a private middle school. These are only a couple of examples. Imagine how the graduates of the less than tier 1 schools are doing. Makes you wonder where all the money is coming from for this expensive education -- and why. Someone has to be benefiting from all that money, and it surely isn't the people who are getting those degrees.
It must also be pointed out that certain "affirmative action" issues play a role in academic hiring to a much larger measure than in some other fields.
I'm not sure about this. On the basis of my experience in both academia and industry, I'd say that it plays a somewhat heightened role in academia (particularly in some disciplines), but not a "much" greater role.
finding a fulltime academic position in the humanities especially is in no way guaranteed.
Not just the humanities or the arts either. In fact, if you picked an arbitrary student receiving a Ph.D. today (and especially in the arts and humanities), you would be a fool to bet that they'd have a full-time job in the field five years later. In fact, it would be foolish to bet that they'd have a full-time job in the field at any time in their lives.
If you really want to go to graduate school for the purpose of having a financially comfortable life and a job commensurate with your education and educational effort, I'd recommend either statistics or some area of financial modelling.
Gary Merrill
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