# Intro Dr. Bret C. Devereaux occupies a significant but vulnerable position within academia as a highly educated scholar in a non-tenure-track teaching role. This essay is primarily about graduate school in the _humanities_, as opposed to a professional or STEM focus. # The Life Cycle - First lie you'll hear, from administrators, not faculty, is that a doctoral program is a five year program. - Realistically, a PhD program will range from six years to a decade, not starting with an MA. - So, additional funding sources will bridge students after the five years. Though they are competitive— grants, awards, fellowships, etc. #### Typical Timeline - Years 1-4: Specialist coursework and thesis. - Specialist coursework begins. - Typically, by the end of your second year, you'll be expected to have completed a major research paper or a **thesis**— a writing project roughly on the scale of an academic article or chapter in a book. - On completion of first two years, you'll be awarded MA and move onto being a PhD student. Or, if you got your terminal MA, you'll apply to a different program - A "terminal" MA means a degree that ends with an MA. - An MA gained from a PhD program, without completing the PhD program, will _read as failure to other academic programs_. - Years 3-4: Comps and presenting a prospectus. - Next are comprehensive exams or '**comps**.' These are both the last and toughest tests you will ever take. - Following comps, you'll assemble a committee of scholars and present them with a proposal for the dissertation— often called a **prospectus**. - With the prospectus approved and classes complete, moving from a **doctoral student** to a **doctoral candidate**. ('ABD'— 'All But Dissertation') - Years 4-9: **Dissertation** phase. - The completed **dissertation** will be a roughly book-length research project which expands the bounds of human knowledge through original research. - Completing the dissertation is often quite solitary and isolating. - You then **defend** your dissertation with your committee. - Failed defenses are extremely rare. You should have been receiving feedback during the development of your dissertation and advisors should ensure you're well prepared at this stage. - It is more common for projects to sputter out before reaching defense. 'Wash-out' rates for the best programs hover around 20-25%, or 50% for worse programs. # The Advisor - Your advisor is the most important person during grad school— echoing an apprenticeship system. - Advisors are generally a senior member of the faculty in your department who shares your specialization. - Advisors have tremendous power over your journey, checking off very step and writing a letter of recommendation. - **Choice of advisor is by far the most important decision**. - However, choosing an advisor is usually an opaque decision, based off reputation of their scholarship and a brief conversation. - You may end up with a wonderful advisor, or someone toxic and abusive, with no real power to fight back. # Graduate Student Life - Grad student course-loads are deceptively demanding— **60 to 80 hours a week**. - Conservatively, the work-load for a 700-level course was something like **4x or 5x more workload** than an advanced undergrad course. - A graduate history course often takes a **book per week** structure. - This is intentional, forcing students to learn to read quickly. - You are likely to be a teaching assistant or research assistant. - You will almost **always be tired**. Graduate school is a condition of **shared suffering**. # Graduate School Finances - There are two kinds of graduate programs: **funded and unfunded**. - You _never_ go to graduate school in the humanities unfunded. - If they're not investing in you, then they're just taking your money. - Most graduate programs are going to expect to have your full and undivided attention. - Many professors will react to students maintaining a work-life balance or second job as lack of commitment. (This is bullshit, but it happens.) - Graduate stipends are often low. You'll likely be living at near-poverty wages. (The author's pre-tax income in 2016 was just short of $16,000 a year.) - While universities invest in undergraduates, graduate students are often sacrificed. # Pressure - Expectations are high: the grading scale was comically described as A(cceptable), B(ad)+ and anything **below a B+ was effectively failure**. - You're expected to be your best and sharpest every day. - This can produce imposter system, even among the smartest people. - One study indicated that **39% of graduate students show signs of moderate-to-severe depression** (compared to 6% of the general public.) - Another study suggested that 32% of PhD students are at risk of developing a psychiatric disorder. - Graduate school takes emotionally well-adjusted, high performers and turns them into neurotic wrecks. - Everyone will feel free to make demands on you: the department, the field, the students, the university. # So Should You Do it? - In most cases the answer is clear: **No, you should not do graduate school.** - At the very least, don't go unless you are already wealthy. - The chances of getting an academic job are slim, even for top programs. - Assume there will be no job for you in the end. - Some may complain of "elite over production," wherein too many highly qualified individuals ("elite") are chasing too few elite positions. - However, the problem is not simple that there are too many PhDs (elite overproduction), but that universities, and society more broadly, are not providing enough academic jobs to match the demand, and instead allocating their resources in a way that does not value the humanities or tenure-track positions.