When Ph.D.s realize they won’t be professors

Maclean's ^ | May 22, 2014 | Josh Dehaas

[Hulka]

I am retired and was looking into a PhD program to get a union card to teach at university, you know, to do something and I lectured at a few service schools over my career. Anyway, in the DFW area are many universities, too include Texas Women’s University.

They have a Women’s Studies PhD, real ‘ball-buster to get in’:

For TWU admission into the Ph.D. degree program in Women’s Studies:
A completed master’s degree
A grade point average of 3.5 or above on prior graduate-level course work
Two letters of recommendation from referees who can address the applicant’s past academic performance and future academic potential
A statement of purpose: a short essay (approximately 1000 words) discussing the applicant’s personal and professional goals and how TWU’s Ph.D. program in Women’s Studies can assist the applicant in meeting these goals
A writing sample: an academic paper not to exceed twenty-five pages, including notes and references
A current curriculum vitae or resumé

Real tough place. . .

[samtheman]

Humanities Professorship = Suckling on the Govtit

[DuncanWaring]

I heard recently that starting salary for a petroleum engineer is $100K, so the blue bar is probably “starting salary”. The other would then likely be “average after x years”.

[righttackle44]

The lack of on-campus assistance for those who pursue graduate studies is amazing.

Years ago, I was the executive director of an organization that employed persons with academic achievements ranging from high school graduates to Ph.Ds, with the occasional MD thrown in.

Many of our positions were part-time, research-oriented, and time-sensitive, for these doctoral-level staff and consultant positions.

The graduates were wonderful to work with, most of them striving to achieve, for professional reasons. There was the occasional grumpy-joe and -jill who believed that their talents and academic achievements were being wasted--clearly, they believed, they should be in teaching positions, charging straight toward tenure.

Many of them were amazingly well-prepared in their, fields, bringing cutting edge, state-of-the-art knowledge and skills to our poor little $18-an-hour, 20-hours-per-week positions. And it was because no one had told them, during about 32 or more periods of course enrollment and financial aid struggles and lines, of filling out new questionnaires, information updates, and constant vita revisions, that there were no jobs waiting on the other side of their diplomas.

I remember one young woman, extremely efficient and bright, begging me to retain her in the secretarial support position she then occupied, because it was the only full- time work she had been able to find. Alas, the funding for her position was scheduled to run out at the end of the fiscal year because the project was essentially over with when I hired her, a fact I had explained to her.

At the time, there were few professional positions for doctor of audiology degree holders.

I remember that, on her very last day of employment with us, she faced a bleak future. She would be living on unemployment assistance for 13 weeks, then nothing. She was clearly distressed, and she was crying as she walked out the door.

I hope things have improved in audiology. It's tough to watch someone who has worked hard in, and brought a high level of commitment and achievement to, a particular academic field, being destroyed by the lack of employment in that field.

And all because no one has said them, "Your chances for employment in your area of expertise are not very good."

[Jacquerie]

Yeah, as expected, that got zero coverage by the rat media.

[SC_Pete]

Government subsidies keep unneeded professors employed turning cranking out degrees for which their is no economic rationale. It is welfare for college professors because they indoctrinate and spout leftist propaganda. Meanwhile, young lives are ruined.

[SC_Pete]

Government subsidies keep unneeded professors employed turning cranking out degrees for which their is no economic rationale. It is welfare for college professors because they indoctrinate and spout leftist propaganda. Meanwhile, young lives are ruined.

[Lurker]

I couldn’t get past that line. I really couldn’t.

[latina4dubya]

While large numbers agreed they wanted training in things like grant or proposal writing and project management,

omgosh! all they need to do is get on a team that writes proposals for grants... it is not that difficult... i have done it, and the only skills i needed were writing skills and taking direction... and the willingness to work around the clock until that proposal is out the door--even if it meant no bathroom break just yet! i didn't even choose that job... i literally got pulled into it the first time... "hey you! come here--we need you!"

[RetiredTexasVet]

Probably should have gotten a PHD in Modern Expressive Dancing and moved to North Dakota and got a job as a pole dancer/stripper at $2,500 a night .... providing you’re not excessively obese or two coyote ugly ... tattoos OK.

[nothingnew]

PHD...?...Professor of Hair Design?

I have my PHD. I studied and wrote about Black Diamond Strings. Never did quite finish. The Black Diamond Strings kept breaking whenever I tried to tune them.

(Some of you older guitar players may be able to identify with me...)

FMCDH(BITS)

[KevinB]

The question is, is she black?

Charmaine Grant

I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed, but I'd say the chances are quite high. :-)

[af_vet_1981]

...her scholarship on black women’s hair. Just keep reading that over and over.

Nothing wrong with being a hairdresser if that is her interest, and a student for a hobby; unfortunately she appears to have squandered someone's money and her years

[Osage Orange]

The better study grant....would be WHY and HOW does belly button lint get there????

[boycott]

The colleges and universities had no problems taking the taxpayer’s loan and grant money over the years.

Sooner or later, there has to be an education bubble to burst. This is truly the fleecing of America.

[Osage Orange]

I preach where I work..at least weekly...you better have a B,C and D plan.

And I'm a professional working in a Hospital!!

[Sapwolf]

Where can you get a PHD in...Militia Studies? LOL!

[publius911]

She was thinking less about whether she would become a professor and more about how exciting it would be to continue her scholarship on black women’s hair.

Say what?

How many real losers delude themselves by getting a "PHD" on a trash subject and expecting eventually to "win" a professorship on the subject?
Other that a well disguised welfare life tenure, what use is it?
How many millions more are there with totally useless college educations and degrees?

[Political Junkie Too]

But what about the woman who was giving John McCain middle east war advice? She didn't even finish her doctorate and she landed a fine job.

-PJ

[Delta Dawn]

Because it wants to?