PhD = Playa Hater Degree! Yeaaaaa Boiiiiii!!!!!
Is this a bad thing????
Well, I intended to get a PhD in History, but wound up with an MBA instead.
"Piled hip Deep"
Piled higher and Deeper...with colleges run by the type of people who work there, what attraction could there be to competing with those type of people for a limited number of tenure track positions?
Having escaped once from academe, I know I won't go back...
Everyone should read what William James wrote over a century ago: The Ph.D. Octopus
The U.S. Department of Education reported that there were 6,967 degrees awarded for education in 2002,
Well, theres the problem
PhD = Purple-Haired Dykes? Pointy-Headed Dorks?
"Is there really a viable non-academic job market for someone with a doctorate in English? I'm not sure we've done such a wonderful job explaining to students the range of things they can do with a Ph.D..."
Honestly I'm not concerned about the decline in English PhD students. I am more concerned about fields such as Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, Engineering, etc. These are the fields that Chinese and Indians are going into and these are the fields that are critical for us to maintain the technical superiority of our military and national security in general.
Odd how the article treats the decline of doctorates in the humanities as some sort of crisis. Perhaps it will inspire people to invent more new fields like "gender studies" which make only a very doubtful contribution to human wisdom.
We could certainly do without a bunch of PhDs in the liberal arts fields and in other areas, but the drop off in the physical sciences, mathematics, and certain areas of engineering, is something to worry about, especially if you look at corresponding trends in communist China, and several other Asian countries. Professor Rick Smalley of Rice University, a Nobel laureate, noted in a recent briefing that, and I quote: "By 2010, if current trends continue, over 90% of all physical scientists and engineers in the world will be Asians working in Asia." The CHICOMS in particular are putting a big push into forcing more of their military to study the sciences and engineering, and many to pursue PhD degrees. They believe they can eclipse our currently eroding technological lead over them...especially while we're transfixed by the Middle East.
I have been told that there is a real glut of PhD prepared students who can't find teaching jobs, and this has been true for many years. Thus we have fewer PhD students.
But our National Soccer Team did beat Trinidad and Tobago.
Old time aeronautical engineer from Germany once told me that far too many Americans PHDs were frauds.
IN 1998-2000, the job market was very hot...
It takes 4-6 years to get a PhD.
Conclusion, some of the decline may be attributable to students choosing jobs instead of school.
There IS a problem in that 50% of science and engineering PhD s are imported from overseas anyway... but that's another story.
USA needs more PhDs. Stay in school and learn.
My son got a PhD in physics 5 years ago. He hasn't been the same since.
Okay, so it ain't piled higher but it must still be piled deeper.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
I didn't have 4 more years to waste in school. I had a kid
and a house payment to make and needed the lucre.
This is a very significant indicator that the USA is in danger of fast decline. The research to develop and design new things and improve old things is going to be done by the Chinese and the Indians.
Therefore, our economic advances will be eclipsed by other countries who are doing more research, etc.