Culturebox: Overeducated, Underemployed

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culturebox Overeducated, Underemployed How to fix humanities grad school. By William Pannapacker Posted Wednesday, July 27, 2011, at 7:21 AM ET The journalist and writer Anya Kamenetz once said that graduate students are "really smart suckers," and I--as a Ph.D. who teaches at a liberal arts college--couldn't agree more. It's my view that higher education in the humanities exists mainly to provide cheap, inexperienced teachers for undergraduates so that a shrinking percentage of tenured faculty members can meet an ever-escalating demand for specialized research. Most programs are unconcerned about what happens to students after they graduate, and it's not pretty. In all likelihood, a humanities Ph.D. will place you at a disadvantage competing against 22-year-olds for entry-level jobs that barely require a high-school diploma. A doctorate in English that probably took you 10 years to earn is something you will need to hide like a prison term while you pay off about $40,000 to $100,000 in loans. Your consolation: deep thoughts about critical theory. I can only recommend graduate school in the humanities--and, increasingly, the social sciences and sciences--if you are independently wealthy, well-connected in the field you plan to enter (e.g., your mom is the president of an Ivy League university), or earning a credential to advance in a position you already hold, such as a high-school teacher, and even then, a master's degree is enough. But this is not the place to remind undergraduates that most of them are out of their freaking minds if they are considering graduate school. I've done that elsewhere, and so have several others in the last few years. Now I'd like to suggest a plan for reforming higher education in the humanities that could, someday, make graduate education a responsible, ethical option for the students I advise, and students everywhere. To continue reading, click here. William Pannapacker (Ph.D., Harvard, 1999) is an associate professor of English at Hope College in Holland, Mich., and a columnist for the Chronicle of Higher Education since 1998. Join the Fray: our reader discussion forum What did you think of this article? POST A MESSAGE | READ MESSAGES Also In Slate Applebaum: If Breivick Hated Immigrants So Much, Why Did He Target Norwegians? Why Amy Winehouse's Music Will Endure How Tina Fey Solved Comedy's Supposed "Woman Problem"	Advertisement
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