Another Reason to Just Say No to a Ph.D.

bad news, indeed.k

Th above graph really does not say much as the mean incomes are not listed. For example (very hypothetically. I have no idea what the actual average salaries are), if the mean income of individuals with a bachelor’s degree only in 1999 was $40,000 and that number has increased by 1%, that would mean that they are making $40,400. If the average income of someone with a doctoral degree was $70,000 in 1999, and said salary dropped by 10%, then in 2008 the salary would be $63,000, still significantly more than the person who had only earned a bachelor’s degree.

Jerehud, your comments are on target, realistic and sadly too true. Too bad the narrow minded set attempts to block you out. They are the ones with a “moronic” problem.

Look, let’s compare two bits of data:1) From the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment Statistics, May 2008 State Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates for California….Mean annual salary for Postsecondary English Language and Literature Teachers: $81,590 a year.2) (for English, from MLA’s latest “Profession” issue) Percentage of part-time faculty at universities who hold Ph.D.’s: @ doctoral institutions, 17%; @ master’s institutions, 14.7%; @ baccalaureate institutions, 27%; @ associate institutions, 5.7%.What do these imply? Though only 31% of English faculty are tenure or tenure-track (and another 15% are full-time, non-tenure), we always forget that MOST English faculty members DON’T hold doctorates–even if nearly all TENURED faculty members do hold doctorates. At doctoral institutions, 81% of part-time faculty members don’t hold doctorates. At associate’s institutions, including community colleges, 95.3% of English faculty members DON’T hold doctorates. In each, the bulk hold M.A.’s, then M.F.A’s, then a mysterious “other” kind of degree.So, contrary to the dismal notion that most Ph.D.’s end up working part-time for peanuts, the reality is that most Ph.D.’s end up full-time for strong salaries related to the general work force (making, generally, more than school teachers with lots more self-directed time). The truly sad affair here is that so many m.a.’s end up doing most of the work with little of the credit and no “Woe is Us” screaming to rafters.I mean, I’m all for discouraging new humanities ph.d.’s because it helps me out. Less competition in the future is good for me. But, the notion that it’s somehow economically or professionally a bad idea to get a ph.d. is silly. I mean, is it a better idea to get a law degree or something? Hard to say. But, is it a bad idea? No, not if you get full funding and live within those means.

Why is the Chronicle swamped by whining by people in humanities, and have hardly anything on science, engineering and business? Because people in the latter fields are busy doing something.

following this and benton’s line of logic one might say: don’t become an artist, novelist or musician, don’t try to become a professional athlete, and so on.most would-be artists end up waiting tables for life, the average write of fiction makes about $12K per year, and most who dream of becoming rock stars end up as middle-aged denizens of the bar circuit. most who aim to become pro athletes end up debilitated by some injury in their youth or condemned to life in the minors.the fact is anyone who imagines they will do their phd and move into a cosy wood-panelled office like that of their supervisor is a fool, but that doesn’t mean pursuing a passion for learning is foolish. life involves risk and the higher you aim the greater the risk. this is life – beautiful, ugly, uncertain…even a phd in the (so called useless) humanities can give you a range of skills which can help you land an excellent job outside academia if you have some imagination and are prepared to take chances.otherwise, if we are to believe all of the (humanities phds) writing these columns, we should advise our would-be students to head for devry instead. in 6 months and for $30K you can get a certificate and become a licenced TV repair man. guaranteed wages of $30/hour.pathetic.

I think that Jerehud raises some valid points about diversity. Economic and social diversity are important, too. If affirmative action means only middle-class women and people of color, a university or college will certainly suffer from a diminshed vitality.

Gyvahn, please quote the alleged whine for us. I just see an honest appraisal of income trends.

What is wrong with everyone? The Ph.D. is not about the money; it is about the scholarly journey so that you can work in air conditioning. I am fragile. I do not want to do roofing or road work for a living. I make a decent salary doing some great work like teaching and writing and going to conferences to confab with my colleagues. I am not tenured and probably never will be, but I am having fun doing a job that is, well, important. Continuing to go to school was never about the money. I had a wife and eight kids while in school and continuing my education was a splendid excuse to get out of the house. I will never regret the investment in time and money; it was all just too cool! If it is all about the money for you, you should have been a plumber or electrician! Now, those guys make the bucks! Michael W. Popejoy, Ph.D., M.P.H.

I treasured my search for deeper knowledge about comparative literature while I specialized in French colonial and postcolonial fiction by women writers. There are issues that should trouble us, such as those decisions made to whittle down the number of tenure-track jobs by hiring many adjuncts (without offers of healthcare coverage)…or the ideology, rampant on university campuses, esp in humanities departments, that to seek and accept work outside of academia is shameful. I earned my PhD from an ivy league university, but was so fragile from several sources of extra stress in my life (some of them unrelated to finishing the PhD) that I gave up searching for a job within academics. Actually, I got sick with major depressive disorder and suffered through several hopitalizations before I could accept that the pressures of job searching and the pressures of the job should I even land one, were not what I truly wanted given how sensitive I had become to stress. While I’m sure there are still profs out there who enjoy their jobs and have achieved tenure with little pressure to publish frequently, it is apparent that academic life truly isn’t what it once was. Without idealizing, I think it is safe to say that, back thirty or even forty years ago, the faculty within a humanities department was comprised mostly of full-time professors with PhDs, who were tenured or tenure-track, while visiting profs, lecturers, and adjuncts played important yet marginal roles. As a professor, you built relationships with other faculty members over many years–some beneficial and healthy, others maybe not so much. You could rely on a basic continuity from one year to the next, and you could build programs and curriculums with the stability and strength that usually came with continuity. My dream of a career as a professor was not just about teaching and publishing and serving on committees. Much of my attraction to the career had to do with the environment of colleagues with PhDs working together over the long haul for the betterment of the department. Sounds old fashioned, I know. For me, a central departmental life was alluring, while a commuters’ school where faculty might come and go frequently was unattractive to me. I’m seeing a greater and greater movement in universities and colleges towards this latter sort of department, essentially because it costs the administrations less. That is extremely short-sighted. The costs–those other costs that are harder to measure but which matter so much–there are many costs that have little to do with money and everything to do with providing outstanding education….It was years before I overcame the shame and disappointment I felt from not “making it” within academics. Now I think that, while disappointment when you don’t get what you hoped for is normal and healthy, shame because you’re not conforming to a ridiculous ideology that gets its hooks into so many humanities PhD students is pathological!! Don’t buy into the smug and snobbish message (which you’ve likely internalized) that it has to be academics or it’s not worth doing. That is total B.S. and you’ll waste loads of time feeling paralyzed by shame when you could be developing a great career for yourself, like I finally am!!

Some who earn a Ph.D. are telic; others are non-telic, that is, they understand that,as the old Cunard commercial ran, “getting there is half the fun.” Few of us can predict what the result of our having a Ph.D. will be; for luck plays a part in what happens afterwards: which institutions will hire us, which fellowships we will receive, which of our writings will be published in the best journals or by the most prestigious university presses, etc. I may be wrong, of course, but it seems to me that those who are almost totally goal-oriented set themselves up for the educational equivalent of postpartum depression. Though I do not work in the field in which I hold degrees, I do not for one minute regret the journey I took in obtaining them.@boncoeur: I would have found your comments far easier to read had you broken them into paragraphs.

Unfortunately, the premise of the article is that salary is the penultimate source of satisfaction and evaluation. I got a Ph.D. because it was necessary to move into the academic world, and have never regretted it. While my salary might not have increased much over the past twenty years, I have a great deal of control over my personal schedule (when to come in, when to leave, when to work at home), travel around the world to conferences, have a large number of personal friends and colleagues from collaborations and shared intellectual interests, choose projects and research largely on what I wish to learn about and work on, and get an enormous satisfaction at mentoring and teaching, and the occasional success and publication. There are downsides to academia as well, but on balance, it’s an incredibly fulfilling occupation that would be largely unmatched in the private sector over a lifetime.

It is not about making money. I get to hang out with and learn from amazing students everyday. I get 12 days off for winter break and get to walk across a beautiful campus daily. All my friends with jobs at insurance companies etc. are jealous!