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> You ... are mostly removed from the politics and stress of securing funding. This is definitely not normal in the humanities. Want to continue working next y
by BugsJustFindMe 8y ago
> You ... are mostly removed from the politics and stress of securing funding.
This is definitely not normal in the humanities. Want to continue working next year? Win this annual contest for your subfield that 800 other people are also applying for. It will cover your costs for 5 months if you win, after you spend an entire month preparing your submission for it. Didn't win this time? I guess you'll have to spend 20 hours per week every week on course prep readings and grading essays for the next six months. Good luck getting your research done at the same time.
Humanities PhDs also on average take significantly longer than STEM PhDs. 7 years post BA is normal in the humanities. 5 years post BS is normal in STEM. Guess where all that extra time goes.
It's because DARPA and Dow Chemical don't drop $30 million on your advisor for Enlightenment history.
- fastaguy88 8y agoIf you are thinking about getting a PhD (in any field), you should be looking at an institution that guarantee's N (typically 4 or 5) years of funding. The best (and even the better) graduate schools do this, even in the humanities. It is much harder to get a job appropriate for a Ph.D. if you do not get into one of those schools that guarantees funding.
- BugsJustFindMe 8y agoDefine "best and better", though, because I can say with certainty that, for instance, Harvard's definition of "guarantee" doesn't align well with mine. See for instance the recent fight to unionize Harvard grad TAs because even (or perhaps especially) the "best" schools very regularly treat their students poorly, guarantees and all.