5 ms·
Criteria for becoming an academic: - Above-average IQ - Intellectual upbringing - PhD, i.e. spending five years of your life in your mid to late 20s getting
by legalcorrection 4y ago
Criteria for becoming an academic:
- Above-average IQ
- Intellectual upbringing
- PhD, i.e. spending five years of your life in your mid to late 20s getting your union card
- During those five years, at least one of: no other mouths to feed, a working spouse, independent wealth, or well-off parents willing to support you
- Willingness to get a PhD for a less than <30% chance of ever getting a tenure-track job (though much higher if you are black or hispanic)
- Left-wing cosmopolitan social and political views
- frognumber 4y agoI think all of that is accurate except for "PhD, i.e. spending five years of your life in your mid to late 20s getting your union card" A lot of this depends on your advisor, but some programs are a lot more than that.
- georgia_peach 4y ago"Intellectual upbringing" is huge: correctly pronouncing the shibboleths, hearing all of the dog-whistles, yet never whistling the wrong one. Saying the right thing, but in the wrong way, has ended many an academic career. Ex-wife is an English professor. Department-wide "purges" were not unheard of. She was spared, though this was probably because she was a lowly adjunct.