Repost: Should You Get a Ph.D.? A Brutally Honest Perspective
This is a slightly revised version of a social media post written by the author in 2016
Spoiler alert: Most likely, no, and here’s what people are too embarrassed or unreflective to tell you.
I see lots of folks in my timeline posting about wanting to pursue Ph.D. work. Rule #1: You WILL go into debt that you may never see a return on. Rule #2: Even if you're "fully funded", Rule #1 still applies. I generally advocate AGAINST going into Ph.D. programs unless you're first and foremost interested in devoting the rest of your career to conducting research (independently or as part of someone else's research lab) AND are willing and prepared to take a job outside of academe. So, here's the rundown. I'm trying to be exhaustive in light of the bazillion explanations I've gotten of why people think Ph.D. work is a good path for them.
Preliminary Note: things are different if you’re already signed up for Ph.D. work and have already gone into the hole enough financially to justify finishing; my main thing is that LOTS of people walk into taking this a huge level of economic risk without sufficient information about how real it can get. If you have research experience, are super into research, can handle basically being told you’re a piece of crap on the regular (I know few Ph.D. students who don’t report being verbally abused by faculty), and (most importantly) are FULLY funded (either through fellowships, TAships, or independent and most likely intergenerational wealth), the following may not apply to you. I obviously completed a Ph.D. despite being a first-generation college student and having a working-class background, so it's not a complete lost cause, but I also have consistently had to be willing to do the work of preparing myself for the non-academic job market, as well. See my other post for details about ways I ended up getting that preparation.
Full disclosure: While I DO have a tenure-track faculty position, I also acquired over 10k of consumer debt in order to make that happen, despite having received an atypically large 5-years of “full funding”, which included an atypically large stipend (Thanks, Rutgers AAUP-AFT!), lived exclusively with 2 or more roommates until I got married (and I had zero dollars of wedding costs out-of-pocket), and full health insurance coverage in a high-quality state health benefits plan. This 10k of debt excludes all of the major money dumps that I managed to pay off DURING graduate school and all of my undergraduate loan debt (which, thankfully, is quite low since I went mostly on need-based grants). Here goes the list! Reasons you think you should get a Ph.D. and answers from a recent Ph.D.
1. Just bored?
Find a hobby. Ph.D. work isn't fun if you have no genuine interest in research.
2. Want to feel smart?
Don't go. You'll be mostly told how you don't know enough yet, rarely praised, and your peers will be just as smart as, if not smarter, than you.
3. Just "love learning"?
Don't go. Research and loving learning are not at all the same thing. If you don't at bare minimum enjoy doing skilled technical labor to support someone else's research program, you will not enjoy a Ph.D. program. Take a summer course or something as a non-degree seeker. Being a Ph.D. student is less of a school experience and more of a very poorly paid job. Kind of like a minor upgrade on unpaid internships you were encouraged to take as an undergrad. (It was bullshit then, it’s still bullshit now. Labor should never come for free. Only bourgeois nonsense will lead you to think otherwise).
4. Trying to avoid the job market and paying back student loans?
Don’t go...unless you have some bizarre luck and will have a ton of money awaiting you at the end of the doctoral education time frame.
5. Enjoyed writing term papers?
That's not the same thing as doctoral research. Be forewarned that you may become severely mentally ill behind trying to do doctoral research.
6. Just want to teach at the college level? Don't go. There are master's degree jobs for that. They're called "community college" and "junior college". These aren't "less good" positions, either, so that's not a valid excuse for a Ph.D.
7. Still can’t shake the desire to be called doctor? Get an M.D., Pharm.D., or Psy.D., but only if you want to be in debt for a while. Besides, if you get a Ph.D., people won’t respect your “doctor” title anyway because you’ll still be broke as hell.
8. Think I’m just cynical because “look at all these rich profs” teaching at your university? The tide is changing in higher ed policy toward worsened working conditions. Also, the diversification of the professoriate brings with it the big reveal of just how much of old school prof comforts were only possible due to class-linked privileges and the lack of student loan debt that today’s generation, especially the working class, is saddled with. You will not get rich by becoming a professor; at best, you may on a crazy stroke of luck stay rich, have tenure, and still evade working at Goldman Sachs et al.
9. Think you’ll just pick up a side gig to offset any debt risk? Be forewarned that working outside of your peasy 20k a year stipend will more than likely reduce your odds of nabbing the kind of job you thought you’d get once you graduate. Also, your program is likely to have a clause where your funding can be yanked if you’re caught working another job. Your health insurance will also most likely be shitty in the process.
10. Didn't listen to me, but applied anyway and got an acceptance letter but no stipend AND tuition remission? Don't even think about it. You will be underpaid/unpaid labor for 5+ years and you will accumulate debt to supposedly improve your job search odds. If they won’t invest in you now, expect them to shortchange you later, no matter how nice the prof who admitted you was. Still think I’m cynical and I’m only “one person”, and you’re “just different”? Here are some recommended reads for you: Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don't Go http://chronicle.com/article/Graduate-School-in-the-Huma/44846/
Overeducated, Underemployed
The Big Lie About the 'Life of the Mind'
Blog Posts on Ph.D. Poverty & A Book from the Website's Author
http://theprofessorisin.com/category/ph-d-poverty/ http://www.amazon.com/The-Professor-Is-In-Essential/dp/0553419420
And just an excerpt from the book on the last link:
Data from The Professor Is In's Ph.D. Debt Survey at the time of publication
You think this is still BS because you’re not in the humanities?
Ok, go into a Ph.D. program. Experience is the best way to learn. But then again, plan to explain yourself to all of the underpaid/unpaid colleagues you meet along the way, unless you’re admitted to a program that is full of bored, intergenerationally wealthy middle agers.
On that note, don’t trust any academic institution at its word when it says it values diversity, etc. Keep in mind that universities produce the professoriate and if universities actually wanted a diverse professoriate, they wouldn’t impoverish the few students they get from outside the upper-middle class and they wouldn’t knowingly produce the glut of severely underpaid and underemployed Ph.D.s that currently exists. That’s an ethical problem, and it’s one intrinsic to the neoliberal model of higher education. Comments welcome from other Ph.D.s and Ph.D. students (current or former, including those who didn’t finish).