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They Called My University a PhD Factory – Now I Understand Why
- nwhatt 9y agoI'm extremely grateful for having quality advisors and mentors as an undergrad. I went to SLAC I feel like the lack of grad programs meant that professors could be more honest with me, without any pressure to get master's enrollment numbers up, for example.
- ataturk 9y agoMaybe it's the anti-intellectual climate, but that's a side issue. I finished a doctorate in 2003, went on a few academic interviews which include a very long cycle for you to actually get hired someplace, up to a year in some circumstances. 2003 was a pretty bad year economically, especially in tech. I ended up in various university IT roles and was adjunct teaching part-time. By 2005, I fled academia and immediately doubled my pay in the process. Looking back, even though it was possible for me to become a professor in my field, there was no way to justify it when I could do better for myself and my family by working in the private sector. I would be pretty far behind the proverbial 8-Ball had I stayed in higher ed. Also, in my experience, most universities reserve non-faculty roles for spouses of faculty, but I was lucky that I had contacts in the IT department who helped me get hired full time. My take on higher education is that the really comfy professors are independently wealthy and thus academia is a haven for the "gentleman professor." That is probably true in a lot of fields even though you can't tell that from the outside. If you have reliable side income from publishers, or better yet, inherited your wealth, being a professor makes sense. Despite my tribulations, I enjoyed my time in higher ed as a student and beyond. It was a positive chapter in my life journey and I learned much about myself, people, and life in general along the way. Just don't let anyone tell that it all translates easily into a workable career.