SilasWegg

Accepted off the waitlist at Illinois Urbana-Champaign!
 
I am pretty much decided on another school, but I was kind of hoping to hear from the waitlisted schools on my list before I made that decision final, and hey! What do you know?

I've turned down ucla and Michigan and will officially be attending Rutgers. I hope the spots go to someone on the forums!

Turned down offers from USC and UCONN. By email, both times. In the case of UCONN, I emailed my star POI before I emailed the DGS. Best of luck!

I took myself off the Maryland wait list. I hope this helps you!

OSU's visit day is tomorrow, so folks might see some movement in the next few days or so.

I took myself off the Maryland wait list. I hope this helps you!

I think this is exactly right, and what I have been struggling with: the poverty of the conversation about the problem. How can we talk about the personal consequences of this professional crisis (and I don't mean pundits on Slate)? Many people do not want to have an actual conversation about the significant lack of opportunity in our profession, the mass exploitation of labor, or really anything involving labor issues other than their own. Full-time faculty cocoon themselves and dwell on "their" problems, wants, and needs without addressing the larger professional crisis. Of course, their insulation has a fundamental flaw. The problems are all connected: the adjunct crisis, the significant drop in undergrad enrollments across the country, the lack of gainful employment for those entering the profession, and the fact that there seems to be no recovery in sight (this year's MLA job numbers in English fell back down to where they were right after the 2008 crash). I think full-time faculty at many institutions feel very threatened by these developments, especially the enrollment problem, and they have chosen to withdraw. Tenure is not a protection against termination based on financial insolvency, which could be defined as a department that no longer has enough majors to demand the current full-time staffing. It is rare to see such terminations, but what if the numbers fall even lower than they have? The undergrads aren't stupid and they've caught a whiff of the stink our profession is giving off: adjunct instruction for the same tuition $$, no job opportunities for the graduate degree, and no professors who want to address labor and why it might still be good for them to major in English in spite of the larger economy and its demands. 
 
We desperately need a language to discuss the personal despair that attends these realities. What you quoted from the French PhD is symptomatic of the impoverished conversation. He articulates his feelings well, but who will hear him and respond? There are many of us willing to listen, but how can we develop this into a conversation? I am obviously afraid to reveal my identity on this forum because it makes me vulnerable to the hostility that has surfaced here. I think many others feel the same. Talking in earnest about these problems has been coded as a kind of professional failure or flaw. I think it goes back to the Protestant ethic and the drive to trounce anyone who threatens that troubled narrative of prosperity. 

Personally, I don't regret having gotten my PhD. I think I would have regretted more NOT getting a PhD. And that's really what you have to weigh here. Would your life really be better without your PhD? Would you honestly have made more headway during the last seven or eight years without one? Because I honestly believe that if I had decided to not get my PhD, I'd always have wondered "what if?" And even if things had flourished in my professional life, I'm sure I would have always secretly regretted not getting my doctorate. But that's just my personality. I'm the sort of person who just has to know.
 
Okay, what the hell, I guess I'll share my sob story in the interest of full disclosure. I went to an average program (ranked somewhere between #25 to #39). I have a ton of teaching experience, presented at all the national conferences, publications (one major). Because I went to such a lackluster program, I never really expected much for myself in terms of landing a sought-after TT job. I knew it was possible--other people at my program certainly did so, but I never really thought that things like that would happen for me. Moreover, most of the jobs that people landed were in the hinterlands--rural North Dakota, for instance, with 4/4 teaching loads. The *best* graduates landed those jobs. I was always on the fence as to whether I would take a position like that or try to do something else.
 
I went on the job market my first year as I finished my dissertation, and it was pretty disappointing. I didn't get any interviews. I didn't even get any requests for more materials. Then, suddenly, something came together for me, and it was a huge surprise. I interviewed for and landed a postdoc. A major national dream postdoc with a fancy name and no teaching responsibilities. I'd applied for it on a whim, thinking I didn't have a chance in hell. Anyway, when that happened, I began to actually think, hey, maybe I can do this. Maybe I can actually go on to become a professor. My advisor told me that the postdoc was a golden ticket that would put me squarely at the top of the list for a great TT job, and that there was no way I couldn't have like seven interviews at MLA. Everyone actually told me this--other postdocs and people who had recently landed TT jobs.
 
I didn't have one interview at MLA. I had two phone interviews and no campus visits. I think my advisor was more distressed than I was. I was just like, of course this is happening. I do honestly think it's time to pull up stakes and move on. My advisor--and a few other people--have told me to do the job market again, and that this was just an extraordinarily bad year, and that there's no way someone "with my talent" could not someday get a job. But every year is worse than the last, and I'm guessing that next year will continue on with the downward trend.
 
The university system really doesn't want us. They're dismantling English departments as we speak. And unfortunately, I don't think that any kind of organizing or advocating will turn that around. The demand just isn't there right now for English professors. English enrollments are falling because people don't want their kids to major in English, and no one sees the usefulness of a liberal arts degree anymore. Other people here have advocated "talking about" or "raising awareness" about these problems, but we've been talking about them for a while. Unfortunately, we live in a very cruel world where capitalism has been allowed to carry the day. People here have accused me of being a neo-liberal; really, I'm a realist. It doesn't matter whether or not you believe that free markets are right; free markets, tragically enough, have been allowed to take their course. The basic fact of the matter is that there is no demand for what we do because no one perceives the English degree as having value. And yes, this is all a confidence/perception problem, but it's a perception problem that runs deep. We can't force people to think that English departments are necessary and English degrees are important. That might not happen ever; if it does, it'll happen because something external to us changes in the market. That's just the way it goes anymore. We used to regulate our markets, but we don't anymore. Our society used to set aside taxes to support English and liberal arts, regardless of market value, because it believed that a well-rounded education was a right. It just doesn't do that anymore.
 
Despite all that, I can't say I regret getting my PhD. I also don't think it's my place to tell anyone what to do with their lives. Getting a PhD certainly wasn't a terrible thing for me, even though my job searches were completely unsuccessful. I learned more than I ever imagined I would, and I published (a lifelong dream), and I wrote a dissertation that other people think is really good. But really, I don't think that anyone here has the right to tell anyone that getting a PhD in English will shatter their lives and destroy their dreams. That's making a huge assumption about how other people handle setbacks or how they value their education. Some people here might be coming from a much different perspective. Some people here might have spent the aughties pulling sand out of their ass in Afghanistan, so getting a PhD and launching an unsuccessful job search might seem pretty minor in comparison.
 
Personally, I'm trying to look at my failure on the job market as something of an opportunity. As I detach from the idea of being a professor, I've started to think about doing the things and taking the big risks that I'd always thought about but didn't have time for. I've also sought out career counseling. I'm trying to meet with ex-PhDs who can give me some advice for how to market myself for other careers. In a weird way, it's also kind of freeing. I've been thinking of all the things I DON'T have to do anymore--because there are always things about our jobs we're not wild about. I think, "Oh God, I don't have to live in North Dakota if I don't want to." At the end of my academic job search, I realized I was applying for jobs that I never in the world thought I'd ever apply for--5/5 load in the middle of hot nowhere like six hours from a medium-sized city and all for the pleasure of $29,000 a year--and I realized that this was the definition of insanity. The problem with this entire profession is that we have all indeed become slaves to this kind of market, thinking of ourselves as not having any choice in the matter, and as a result, our expectations are completely off-kilter. This leads universities to take advantage of us in terrible ways. To break this cycle, we really do just have to walk away from it.
 
Did the job market shatter my world? Kind of. It has been extremely disappointing. You do invest yourself in a vision of living an academic life. Worse things have happened to me, though. In the long run, not getting my dream job is a set-back but not a tragedy. The post-doc was what got my hopes up, not really the PhD in general. I am irritated about my program, though--it has a terrible placement record but still manages to recruit 15-18 new PhD students a year. I think it should really come with a warning label.

I am hard pressed to think of any profession that is not "predicated on mass exploitation, inequity, and total hypocrisy" in some way. I might be old-fashioned or naive in believing that careers in the humanities are less so than, I don't know, say, corporate law or commercial real estate. 
 
Now I'M the one running off the rails with odd comparisons... 

This is important yet I fear very difficult to achieve or even know about oneself ahead of time: 
 
Just to add my voice to the discussion as someone who's been on the job market a couple of times now: it sucks. It hurts. It's full of rejection. It's a full-time job you have to do at the same time as doing the actual job that you are being paid for (which, for most people, will involve a lot of teaching in some visiting capacity, post graduation). And if you are to remain competitive, you also have to maintain your research profile, in addition to teaching and applying. That means finding the time to do new post-graduation research, and travel to conferences to present it, as well as write it up, at the same time as prepping new classes, teaching and grading, and creating dozens of applications, and going on interviews (in the event that you are so lucky). You have to be ready for several difficult years and I think it is very important to think about back-up or alternative plans early in grad school so you can build your CV and profile to be competitive for those jobs as well. It's also important to sit down and think hard, alone or with loved ones, about when enough is enough. How many years are you prepared to be uncertain at any given point about where you'll be this time next year? Not having a guaranteed income, having to uproot yourself and your family, etc? The OP expresses this kind of raw emotion, my guess is probably right after the last rejection of the season or after a particularly painful one. That's an emotion you have to deal with, but it's worth weighing that against how you feel about your life and work on some better days. For me, it's still worth it, but I completely understand people who have decided that it's just not.

I made it off the wait-list at Indiana with full-funding, wait-listed for a fellowship. I'm guessing others will be hearing similar responses from other schools soon, as I hear this week and the next is when most people begin turning down offers.

I don't like the term "duped" because it turns a structural problem into a personal morality play. And while there are plenty of faculty that bear some blame, the reality is that state legislatures and higher administrations are ultimately responsible for the collapse of the academic job market.

Well, imagination and reality are two different things. I asked almost all of those questions because of a helpful list posted here on GC as well as suggestions by my current advisors. I also heard students talking about these things at the open houses. I just don't find my reality to match up with your imagined possibilities and, quite frankly, I find it a little patronizing to suggest that we're all just naive students being led to our doom. But, perhaps you haven't been on GC long enough to know that these are things that we've discussed in multiple forums. I'm sorry if you didn't ask these questions or that you've interacted only with graduate students who didn't think to ask them because these are some of the most important questions to ask a graduate program because they reflect directly on your well being as a student and ability to finish. 

I agree that there is a distinct form of exploitation in the academic job market and that there can be a degree of deception in our training in the humanities. Also, I believe you put it well in describing this as "alienation." The shortfall between our expectations and the realities of the job market induces a particular kind of despair, yet I must maintain that these emotions are entirely distinct from the long-term social and economic impoverishment that attends the service industry labor market. This is exactly why this comparison fails to index the set of emotional turmoils that accompany our field, leading to a very unproductive (and I must reiterate classist) conversation regarding the problems in the academic job market.
 
Rather than co-opting the narratives of exploited labor in the service industry, we can surely develop a more precise vocabulary. There is a very distinct set of deceptive and exploitative practices in our field that delimit our careers. Let's talk about this deception and exploitation in terms that are grounded within our field. I believe this will generate a healthier and more productive conversation on this important issue.
 
Here, I'll start. I adjuncted for five years at an urban public university, teaching a 4/4 load and earning around 30k with no benefits. I was tapped for administrative duties and departmental service routinely and I was never compensated for my time. Because I believed undertaking these additional duties would protect my professional standing and lead to advancement in the department, I willingly committed my time and energy to these projects. No one ever told me that it wouldn't matter and that because I didn't have a PhD there was a pretty low ceiling on the possibilities for advancement. Instead, tenured faculty and handsomely compensated admins hoisted their duties onto me and seemed to imply that I was being "ramped up" for some kind of promotion. When the department announced they were bringing in five new faculty, I applied for one of these 12-month contracts fully believing that I was a competitive applicant. My job-talk was polished, the responses were glowing, my interviews extremely positive, etc. Then they brought in five people from outside the department and asked me to accept an even more exploitative contract: a pay-grade based on contact hours rather than credit hours. I quit on the spot. It was crushing.
 
In my many years of service industry work, this complex set of exploitation and deception finds no corollary. It would be really weird if I said "this was like when my boss at the restaurant bumped me off the dinner shift because he wanted to give it to his new girlfriend." My adjuncting experience is far more complicated and resulted in emotional upheavals of a very different sort. Again, let's not play fast and loose with these comparisons.

Remarks like this remind me that our discussions regarding the academic job market are in dire need of a privilege check. To suggest that admitted doctoral students in English should consider working at a fast food restaurant instead of pursuing an advanced degree grossly minimizes the very real and very devastating abuses of the labor market in the service industry. Obviously the job market in academics is bleak, a fact which has been reiterated in many different ways and in many different threads on this board, but to suggest subjecting oneself to the abuses of a massive consumer-driven soul-crushing service market in order to ward off minimal losses in opportunity costs legitimizes these exploitative labor practices.
 
What's worse, this comparison equates white-collar labor anxieties with the struggle of hard-working people to fend off generational poverty. The service industry, even in a fun kitchen working with cool friends, offers no advancement, no self-improvement, makes it impossible to start a family, own a home, or ever even feel "okay." I like shift drinks and tips sometimes add up if you're lucky. Then you catch a slow shift and make fifty bucks in eight hours and there's no beer in the fridge. Though $3500 for teaching a college course is exploitative, your time is your own, opportunities to advance are plentiful, the work is meaningful, rewarding, (even) stimulating, and you don't have to clean the grill. By the way, earning $3500 (at a higher service industry wage) means over 400 hours of work time. I don't think anybody on this thread would want to do 4 hours working at a Wendy's, let alone 400.
 
It's not even oranges and apples. This comparison implies a very troubling disconnect between our worldview within the university, a noted engine of inequality, and the devastating reality of consumer-driven economics. I do believe we need to keep stirring the pot on this issue but we have to realize that our struggles go hand-in-hand with everyone whose labor is undervalued. Let's not lose perspective.

I adjuncted for five years before starting doctoral work. It was the first time in my adult life I had a clear path to financial stability. Teahching four classes a semester was really hard but Wendy's it was not.

If you really think teaching undergrads is about as enjoyable as working at a Wendy's you need to find a different line of work.

I adjuncted for five years before starting doctoral work. It was the first time in my adult life I had a clear path to financial stability. Teahching four classes a semester was really hard but Wendy's it was not.

If you really think teaching undergrads is about as enjoyable as working at a Wendy's you need to find a different line of work.

Remarks like this remind me that our discussions regarding the academic job market are in dire need of a privilege check. To suggest that admitted doctoral students in English should consider working at a fast food restaurant instead of pursuing an advanced degree grossly minimizes the very real and very devastating abuses of the labor market in the service industry. Obviously the job market in academics is bleak, a fact which has been reiterated in many different ways and in many different threads on this board, but to suggest subjecting oneself to the abuses of a massive consumer-driven soul-crushing service market in order to ward off minimal losses in opportunity costs legitimizes these exploitative labor practices.
 
What's worse, this comparison equates white-collar labor anxieties with the struggle of hard-working people to fend off generational poverty. The service industry, even in a fun kitchen working with cool friends, offers no advancement, no self-improvement, makes it impossible to start a family, own a home, or ever even feel "okay." I like shift drinks and tips sometimes add up if you're lucky. Then you catch a slow shift and make fifty bucks in eight hours and there's no beer in the fridge. Though $3500 for teaching a college course is exploitative, your time is your own, opportunities to advance are plentiful, the work is meaningful, rewarding, (even) stimulating, and you don't have to clean the grill. By the way, earning $3500 (at a higher service industry wage) means over 400 hours of work time. I don't think anybody on this thread would want to do 4 hours working at a Wendy's, let alone 400.
 
It's not even oranges and apples. This comparison implies a very troubling disconnect between our worldview within the university, a noted engine of inequality, and the devastating reality of consumer-driven economics. I do believe we need to keep stirring the pot on this issue but we have to realize that our struggles go hand-in-hand with everyone whose labor is undervalued. Let's not lose perspective.

Remarks like this remind me that our discussions regarding the academic job market are in dire need of a privilege check. To suggest that admitted doctoral students in English should consider working at a fast food restaurant instead of pursuing an advanced degree grossly minimizes the very real and very devastating abuses of the labor market in the service industry. Obviously the job market in academics is bleak, a fact which has been reiterated in many different ways and in many different threads on this board, but to suggest subjecting oneself to the abuses of a massive consumer-driven soul-crushing service market in order to ward off minimal losses in opportunity costs legitimizes these exploitative labor practices.
 
What's worse, this comparison equates white-collar labor anxieties with the struggle of hard-working people to fend off generational poverty. The service industry, even in a fun kitchen working with cool friends, offers no advancement, no self-improvement, makes it impossible to start a family, own a home, or ever even feel "okay." I like shift drinks and tips sometimes add up if you're lucky. Then you catch a slow shift and make fifty bucks in eight hours and there's no beer in the fridge. Though $3500 for teaching a college course is exploitative, your time is your own, opportunities to advance are plentiful, the work is meaningful, rewarding, (even) stimulating, and you don't have to clean the grill. By the way, earning $3500 (at a higher service industry wage) means over 400 hours of work time. I don't think anybody on this thread would want to do 4 hours working at a Wendy's, let alone 400.
 
It's not even oranges and apples. This comparison implies a very troubling disconnect between our worldview within the university, a noted engine of inequality, and the devastating reality of consumer-driven economics. I do believe we need to keep stirring the pot on this issue but we have to realize that our struggles go hand-in-hand with everyone whose labor is undervalued. Let's not lose perspective.

Remarks like this remind me that our discussions regarding the academic job market are in dire need of a privilege check. To suggest that admitted doctoral students in English should consider working at a fast food restaurant instead of pursuing an advanced degree grossly minimizes the very real and very devastating abuses of the labor market in the service industry. Obviously the job market in academics is bleak, a fact which has been reiterated in many different ways and in many different threads on this board, but to suggest subjecting oneself to the abuses of a massive consumer-driven soul-crushing service market in order to ward off minimal losses in opportunity costs legitimizes these exploitative labor practices.
 
What's worse, this comparison equates white-collar labor anxieties with the struggle of hard-working people to fend off generational poverty. The service industry, even in a fun kitchen working with cool friends, offers no advancement, no self-improvement, makes it impossible to start a family, own a home, or ever even feel "okay." I like shift drinks and tips sometimes add up if you're lucky. Then you catch a slow shift and make fifty bucks in eight hours and there's no beer in the fridge. Though $3500 for teaching a college course is exploitative, your time is your own, opportunities to advance are plentiful, the work is meaningful, rewarding, (even) stimulating, and you don't have to clean the grill. By the way, earning $3500 (at a higher service industry wage) means over 400 hours of work time. I don't think anybody on this thread would want to do 4 hours working at a Wendy's, let alone 400.
 
It's not even oranges and apples. This comparison implies a very troubling disconnect between our worldview within the university, a noted engine of inequality, and the devastating reality of consumer-driven economics. I do believe we need to keep stirring the pot on this issue but we have to realize that our struggles go hand-in-hand with everyone whose labor is undervalued. Let's not lose perspective.

Remarks like this remind me that our discussions regarding the academic job market are in dire need of a privilege check. To suggest that admitted doctoral students in English should consider working at a fast food restaurant instead of pursuing an advanced degree grossly minimizes the very real and very devastating abuses of the labor market in the service industry. Obviously the job market in academics is bleak, a fact which has been reiterated in many different ways and in many different threads on this board, but to suggest subjecting oneself to the abuses of a massive consumer-driven soul-crushing service market in order to ward off minimal losses in opportunity costs legitimizes these exploitative labor practices.
 
What's worse, this comparison equates white-collar labor anxieties with the struggle of hard-working people to fend off generational poverty. The service industry, even in a fun kitchen working with cool friends, offers no advancement, no self-improvement, makes it impossible to start a family, own a home, or ever even feel "okay." I like shift drinks and tips sometimes add up if you're lucky. Then you catch a slow shift and make fifty bucks in eight hours and there's no beer in the fridge. Though $3500 for teaching a college course is exploitative, your time is your own, opportunities to advance are plentiful, the work is meaningful, rewarding, (even) stimulating, and you don't have to clean the grill. By the way, earning $3500 (at a higher service industry wage) means over 400 hours of work time. I don't think anybody on this thread would want to do 4 hours working at a Wendy's, let alone 400.
 
It's not even oranges and apples. This comparison implies a very troubling disconnect between our worldview within the university, a noted engine of inequality, and the devastating reality of consumer-driven economics. I do believe we need to keep stirring the pot on this issue but we have to realize that our struggles go hand-in-hand with everyone whose labor is undervalued. Let's not lose perspective.

I gotta second empress-marmot. Five years is a long time and being near family has priceless hidden rewards: lower relocation costs, lower visiting costs on holidays, not to mention leftovers and hugs! Funding is super important and this not to downplay very real problems that result from a lower stipend. But emotions are unquantifiable riches that often outweigh finances. In the end, pick the program where you feel you can best do your work.

I gotta second empress-marmot. Five years is a long time and being near family has priceless hidden rewards: lower relocation costs, lower visiting costs on holidays, not to mention leftovers and hugs! Funding is super important and this not to downplay very real problems that result from a lower stipend. But emotions are unquantifiable riches that often outweigh finances. In the end, pick the program where you feel you can best do your work.

I gotta second empress-marmot. Five years is a long time and being near family has priceless hidden rewards: lower relocation costs, lower visiting costs on holidays, not to mention leftovers and hugs! Funding is super important and this not to downplay very real problems that result from a lower stipend. But emotions are unquantifiable riches that often outweigh finances. In the end, pick the program where you feel you can best do your work.

Off to my campus visit! Nervous, anxious, excited, looking forward to a few days out of town, and hoping that this helps answer some questions for me in my decision-making process.