Graduate School Updates
After an exhausting December spent wrapping up grad applications, I have patiently waited for responses. Rejections have trickled in slowly with only a few acceptances in the mix: Arizona State’s PhD program, Colorado State’s MA, and Truman’s MA. I have yet to hear from Washington State and have not received any funding offers and am starting to think that Truman is the best fit for me. Is this foolish? Perhaps. Let me detail my reasons.
After my recent rejection from UNL, my top choice and the second highest ranked school in the running, I realized something incredible. I do not need the prestige and honor that comes along with getting a doctorate from a top 10 or top (X) school. I am not entering academia with any intention of fame or large-scale publication. I want to teach. I want to be happy where I am, with those I love, and with myself. My greatest aspiration is not to be featured among my idols in an anthology (although that sounds lovely), but to simply teach what I love. If I can make a punk-ass cynical kid who resents my class realize the potential she has a critical thinker I will be eternally pleased. I do not care if I have to take an adjunct position or teach at a community college. Just let me teach. I grew up poor and with subpar healthcare and I’m fine with dying in that same condition.
My mother always told me that people went to college so they could get paid for practicing their passions instead of their physical capabilities. My father has worked in factories his whole life and made meagre earnings which he then spent on lottery tickets and cigarettes. We lived off of a combined income of less than $40,000/year when I was growing up. My mother found out she was pregnant with me in a clinic where they asked her when she wanted to schedule a termination in the same breath as “You’re pregnant”. I’m not seeking affluence or social mobility, just a life worth living. I don’t aim to climb any ladders or revolutionize the system. I want to teach and write about what moves me. That’s it. At any cost.
Yes, I was accepted to a PhD program at Arizona State, but taking that offer would mean taking out loans I could never feasibly pay off. I have no guarantee of a teaching position after my studies and even if I do attend this highly esteemed program (compared to other offers), I cannot predict changes in the job market or if the current attack on higher education will be over in seven years when I have my PhD. For all I know, if I take a funded offer I might be riding out the last glorious wave of prized academia in this country and will thereafter have to work in an office. That’s fine. Just give me a few golden years of getting paid for work in this field so I can forever look back at them fondly.
March 24, 2011 at 1:54 pm
My two cents: You are more than willing to be poor, so I’d just go for the PhD. Dereck has student loans that are larger than our mortgage. And guess what else he has? Job security. In this economy. (Unless universities tank, in which case, we are all fucked).
I have only a Masters, and even in Kirksville, my employment opportunities (and salary range) would be infinitely better with a PhD. A PhD will make you competitive in a vastly and highly competitive market (even in the community colleges). So, I’d seriously consider getting a PhD even if you go to Truman to get your MA first and then apply to PhD programs again.
March 24, 2011 at 3:22 pm
Court, community colleges pay pretty dang well (starting salary for an English instructor at a community college here is $44,000), but they want you to come in the door with a minimum of two years of teaching experience.
I would say go get your PhD, but having worked in human resources and spoken to several people with HR experience, the higher your degree, the more they are required to pay you. And in this economy, they are taking the cheaper way out. Trust me. That is why it took me six months to find a job, and even now, I bring home less than $25,000 a year.
Not trying to burst your happy bubble, because you deserve to have that, but these are things to consider. I sat down, made a budget and determined the minimum salary I could accept after school, just to get by, not for any fun or frivolity. If you are happy with the outcome of your own calculations and your feelings about your future, do it.
March 24, 2011 at 4:55 pm
“The oversupply of English PhDs makes the academic job market extremely competitive—some might say brutal. Currently only 60-65% of PhDs find a tenure-track job within 5 years of graduating (Feal).”
What I’m trying to say is: a PhD does not guarantee job security. I would not, under any circumstances, enter a PhD program that is not offering full funding. There is a difference between being poor and being in debt, and I prefer poverty any day. If you are still interested in a PhD program, apply again next year (or after completing a Masters), and only accept an offer that guarantees full funding.
Also- very few masters programs seem to offer funding, but I know that Truman does (in the form of GTRA positions and such), so I think choosing Truman is smart. As long as you can handle a couple more years of Kirksville.
Good luck gal, I know how infuriating all of this can be.
March 24, 2011 at 6:26 pm
Thank you, everyone.
I feel like getting my masters here is a smart choice. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to get the hell out of KV, but unless Colorado or Washington offers a comparable or better stipend, I’ll be playing it safe here. I realize that teaching experience is necessary to get most jobs, but I’ll be teaching for two years here (although it will only be one class a semester) and having that under my belt will make me more eligible for assistantships in PhD programs if I choose to reapply in a year and a half (oh god why?) and more competitive for adjunct positions or community colleges should I choose that route.
My only qualms about staying here are a)the issue of getting my MA at my undergrad institution, and b) dealing with the KV drama I’ve hated for 4 years. Nevertheless, other grads seem to do well avoiding that by creating their own circles, so I’ll hope for that.