It means the humanities just finds talented young people, encourages them, develops them, indoctrinates them into their culture, harvests their energy to fill their journals, and then sends these people drifting, wasting their time and abilities. People with “experience” in academia (teaching, tutoring, etc) who never were able to secure a job that actually IS secure. I look around the room and realize we all have that same idea. Would you still be able to get a high-school teaching job after 7+ years off the market? The professor has written 11 scholarly works. This is not to discourage you to do linguistics as such, but to keep your eyes open. But instead he said that I had made the right decision not to do a PhD in the humanities if “my only reason for doing so was to get a job.”. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, in 2014, English majors had an average starting salary of $33,574. She has been to over 15 conferences, almost all of them on her own money. She was going to stay a week. I would be surprised if anyone on the planet, other than herself, has read a single one of her footnotes. Instead, I would write about those other students who stayed much longer in grad school than I did. That’s because he doesn’t really care about scholarship. He sees graduate school as work. His role is as a professor. And for those searchers out there, typing “Ph.D. If this is helpful at all, research wasn't right for me (it didn't fit my personality and it was very stressful being a grad student; it robbed me of my social and family life, my hobbies--all I did was work and felt guilty taking any time for myself or others) and so I quit my PhD after 4 years of coursework (I had finished my coursework but had not yet found a workable dissertation topic after a year or two of false … I wonder what happened to him. I didn’t. Every teacher since kindergarten has told me how delightfully clever I am. Absolutely. The last time I see him we joke about how we will never get jobs. Pay attention as we list the top 10 most useless college degrees. When I was a grad student, people told me to cherish that time as a period of extraordinary intellectual freedom, and I did. After spending two years in Masters and six years in getting a PhD degree, I am lost at what I can do with my life. He will try again next year, keep running. Not every business hires lawyers, but every business needs editors. If you can't get into a school that provides a livable PhD stipend, don't go to grad school. All of the things people say about the shitty economic prospects for humanities PhDs are true (well, not all; mixed in with the very real difficulties, there are a few unduly entitled sob stories). It would be sad to see a rich kid who barely passed the LSAT take on this guy in court. If she would have offered to stay longer, I would have accepted the help. To Real Steven. Obviously, there are many good ways to live. Because if I do I'm sure I'm going to catch a lot of ridicule for it. Every word is a pearl that she has to share. Hardly anyone cares now. She lives 500 years away from her own historical moment. That’s a good thought, thanks for your insight. and Italian during my bachelor’s just because I could), but you’re right, that might be an impediment to stamina in a degree program over the longer stretch of 7+ years. This is not to discourage you to do linguistics as such, but to keep your eyes open. He tells us that he intends to spend his lifetime trying to understand Saint Augustine. But he got into a very prestigious university. Some may argue that there's no such thing as a useless degree - any education is a good education including many degrees from online schools and universities. in English useless destroyed my life” into your MacBook with a wall of books at your back and a pile of debt, all I can say is that you’ve taken the hardest step. We’ll see what opens up in the next few years, I suppose! Thanks for your perspective! And his response, a laugh with nein, nein, Herr Doctor. He was offered money and was miles ahead of any of his peers. Or, maybe land a tenure job, but the odds are against her. It won't be "soul crushing and life-ruining," but there are big opportunity costs. I was right all along in highschool. The dirty little secret that the educational establishment doesn’t tell you is that outside of a few specialized fields with mandatory credentials, once you get past the first job or two, your degree doesn’t matter one bit. Goal-oriented and motivated by some undefined source of willpower, I devoted a portion of my life to earning two graduate degrees. Congratulations on your tenure-track position too! In other words, there is a huge segment of your life in front of you. My entry into grad school coincided with a relationship transitioning into a long-distance one, and what at first was a welcome mode of remaining tethered soon enough became … wow, well written article and hilarious, i read the whole thing, kudos! … What I don't enjoy is a lot of the absurdity of academia, but you don't really get into that unless you're aiming for a job in academia. This post is about the friends and peers I left behind in grad school. It may be defined by the job you ended up with (or ultimately want), the opportunities that your PhD led to, or how you define success. Four principles you’ll find in 90% of personal development books. But he is there. … Anyway, I ended up doing English at a really good uni, and had the best three years of my life. David Beckham studies – Staffordshire University, UK It might sound like a joke, … I’m sure they agreed and flagged down the next accounting diploma. They are what she wants to do. I’ve also looked into a Master’s in Education, though admittedly in addition to (not in place of) the other programs. He is still flourishing and coming of age as a scholar. (I know having a good advisor and not taking on debt are two.) As someone who holds a PhD in English myself and has never taught one day in the classroom, I can tell you that you never learned your discipline and you don’t deserve to be in the classroom. I researched, published, presented, taught, and studied everything I could get my hands on. I did not do well in my PhD. The one who has been trained to think that school is the only place that welcomes her, that grad school is her reward for years of studying and exile. But what if I don’t have debts, I don’t go if I am not offered significant funding, and I expect little-to-no career change from it? Not the pompous kind of studying. She is now an independent scholar. I did my undergrad and masters at Ivy League institutions in humanities and the social sciences with the intention of getting my Ph.D. The biggest mistake I made in my life was that I didn't bother to check his background. Did I learn things that I still apply to my everyday life?