ambermt90

If I may.
I say what I'm about to say while still recognizing that there is truth in your comments. The discipline is not what it once was. There is a vast disparity between how many people get PhDs and how many academic jobs are available for those PhDs. Tenure is being gutted at universities across the country. It is, indeed, not the best time historically to get an English PhD (not to mention other types of PhDs). It is also good to point out when departments exaggerate placement statistics, as it well seems Rutgers may have done here. It is concerning that Rutgers' placement page just lists "jobs gotten", without specifying who got those jobs and when they received their PhDs. (And, even if there is some truth to the 87 percent figure, it's worth noting that Rutgers qualifies that by saying, "In assessing our success, we exclude data from the most recent three years, since the job search has evolved nationally into a two- or three-year process, often requiring jobseekers to hold temporary positions before moving into tenure-track jobs (during this transitional period, Rutgers continues to offer support to our students, financial and otherwise)." That is to say: it takes awhile to get to that 87 percent, if it truly happens.)
With that said.
I've been in graduate school for four years now, and *never once* have I met a graduate student in my department or elsewhere who is either deluded or ignorant about the job market. The "holy shit what is happening to the profession" panel has been a staple of just about every significant conference I've ever been to, and they're quite well attended by current graduate students. Professionalization courses, including ones which tailor to non-tenure track jobs, are starting to crop up in grad programs across the country. All this to say: I think it's safe to assume that most people applying for PhDs in 2019 know that things are not great, academic job-wise. I do not know a single person who has ever thought that a published article(s), good letters, and a smile will get them a TT job the minute they turn their dissertation in.
Why do I say this?
During my application season on Grad Cafe and, it seems, somewhat persistently since, there are a certain crop of "grad school nihilists" who come on here and insert themselves in conversations being had by people who, in the face of crappy odds, are working hard to chase a grad school dream. Many if not most of them are already struggIing with the high difficulty of just getting into a funded PhD program at all, with all the resultant anxieties that come with that. I don't want to suppose right off the bat that you're necessarily one of these people, but your post does remind me of that kind of unqualified negativity I've seen on these forums.
To be fair, some of these more nihilistic posts come from people who, not unreasonably, have had their hopes charred after a successful time in grad school, only to find slim to no pickings job-wise. I'd be bitter in that situation too, and it's a reality for which I'm going to have to prepare -- and, in fact, something for which essentially all of my colleagues have prepared. But the brutal reality of the job market is known by people who are signing up for PhDs, so coming onto Grad Cafe to tell people that they're foolish for chasing a "dying profession" doesn't really help things, and at worst it can needlessly stoke the anxieties of prospective applicants who, again, already know how bad things are getting, and continue to get.
Because the other thing is -- and in the face of job market nihilism I always find myself asking this: what's the alternative? Precarity and oversaturation are hitting all different markets right now in the US. Sure, your odds of making a living wage are better if you'd started off being a computer programmer, but even now those programs at universities are getting overcrowded. It's not like the dichotomy is, "Either you risk everything on the chance of a tenure-track job, or you go for something more stable in a non-academic environment." Plenty of people with seemingly "stable" jobs get downsized, and whole industries right now are facing similar circumstances to the academy. The other career I was interested in prior to committing to grad school -- web publishing -- suffers an "independent contractor" disease even worse than the adjuncting crisis in the academy; I tried working there to see if I prefer it, and I made the calculated choice -- factoring the very risks you talk about -- to go to graduate school. 
So, taking your comments charitably, I would suggest that in a forum like this one -- whose directive is connecting people who have already made the decision to apply to grad school -- defeatist comments are at best pointless and at worst needlessly destructive. We know what we're getting ourselves into.

I encourage all current students at UT to post with their thoughts/experiences on here so that it's not just me. Especially those who disagree with what I say or who think that what I say is unfair or not representative. And prospectives should keep in mind that those who post may be more likely to be those who have had negative experiences in the program, and that it's easier to complain about the downsides than espouse all the good things. 
With that in mind, this is my review. 
 
THE PROS
-The atmosphere in most seminars is collegial and collaborative. For the most part, graduate students are kind and respectful, even when objecting to/arguing with each other.
-Graduate students are great. By and large pretty supportive of one another. People who attend social events are generally amenable to making new friends. Etc.
-There’s an attitude among a lot of graduate students that we should be working to make graduate student life at UT better. There are various plans in place to work toward this.
-Graduate student life seems to be on the upswing; it’s improving.
-Some seminars have reputations for being really great (having really engaging discussion, etc.). 
-Free coffee during normal day hours.
-The faculty do practice job interviews for people who are going on the market.
-We have a pretty good placement record for a school of our ranking.
-Austin is a cool city. There is a lot of live music, and there’s usually something going on. It doesn’t get very cold here. And something a lot of us were pleased to find is that Austin is neither prairie nor dust and tumbleweeds. It’s actually pretty lush. There are a lot of rivers and creeks, and dense, lush foliage. There are oak trees everywhere. And lots of pecan and pomegranate trees. There are a lot of greenbelts all over the city, as well as just outside the city. The greenbelts have great hiking, and many of them have swimming holes. People in Austin tend to be very friendly, and very liberal (but not intensely so: this is Texas, after all).
-You get a free city bus pass as a UT graduate student, which is really nice.
-Groceries are relatively cheap, and the main grocery store in Texas (HEB) is fabulous. You’ll never want to shop at another grocery store again.
 
CONS
Transportation
-Austin has amazing public transit relative to the rest of Texas, but meh/slightly below average public transit relative to the rest of the U.S. Many areas, especially those around campus, have reasonably decent (average relative to the U.S. for a city this size) public transit, but other areas have essentially zero or extremely limited public transit options.
-If you live further than 4-5 miles from campus, public transit starts to become a bitch. We’re talking 1-2 hr. long commutes to campus. Unfortunately, those also tend to be the cheaper areas to live.
-Austin is kind of sprawling, and most of it is arranged around a massive, extremely complicated highway system. It confuses siri and google maps, making it extremely stressful to navigate. It also makes it difficult to safely walk or bike to certain places.
-Traffic in Austin is awful. All cities are going to have some traffic issues, but Austin is much much worse than it should be given its size (population less than 1M). Look it up if you want to see what I mean. It’s bad.
-Parking around campus is expensive.
Funding/Cost of Living (easily the #1 biggest con)
-The base funding package at UT (i.e., TA stipend) is about 13k for students coming in without an MA, and 15k for students coming in with an MA. If this sounds like it’s not enough to support yourself in Austin, that’s because it isn’t.
-(It might be enough to support yourself in other places that have lower costs of living. But it’s not very realistic given the rent prices in Austin. It might be if you lived frugally, lived pretty far out from campus, or had 2+ house/flatmates, and worked a summer job.)
-If you were to get a summer TAship or AIship every summer, that might be enough. But you shouldn’t count on getting one. My understanding is most students who want/need those in the summer don’t get them.
The students I know who are not on one of the few, coveted fellowships that actually cover cost of living in Austin (only a minority of students in each cohort are these fellowships) either (a) receive additional financial support from their families, (b) spend their summers living at home with their families, or (c) work other jobs during the summer. Ultimately, it’s not so bad in the grand scheme of things to have to spend 20-40 hours a week working at Starbucks in the summer. We’re getting paid to go to school and that’s wonderful and awesome and we shouldn’t forget that.
With that said, other ranked phd programs generally pay students enough to cover year round cost of living (at least rent and basic necessities), including during the summer. Why? So that we can do research, work on publications, and work on our prospectus/dissertation. UT Austin does not do this, and it does not provide enough opportunities for graduate students to fund themselves over the summer (especially international students, who aren’t allowed to work outside of the university, and get stuck going home over the summer when they can’t get a summer job with the university/department – this is actually a really big problem).
The program at UT is best characterized as a partially funded phd program, with a few students in each cohort receiving full funding through a fellowship.
If you think of the program this way, it’s still not such a bad deal in the grand scheme of things. If you have a fellowship, or you have family who can provide additional financial support, or you are comfortable working a summer job (or taking out loans), then you’ll be fine. Just don’t come here expecting to support yourself on the base funding package without working a summer job or taking out loans.
How funding contributes to quality of personal & professional life:
-Working a summer job makes it more difficult to focus on writing and research in the summer.
-It’s stressful. It’s harder to be productive, social, and happy when you’re constantly stressed about money (or for some of us, constantly having to ask our families for money during a time when they and we both thought we would be financially independent).
-The most common way that people socialize is by going out to bars and drinking, and maybe going out to eat. This makes it difficult to have a social life around here if you are on a tight budget.
-The places it’s most affordable to live are absolutely miserable to commute to/from via public transit, and expensive to commute to/from via car (between gas and parking). This makes even the most dedicated of us less likely to attend non-mandatory department events, and less likely to socialize with other students in places around campus in general.
-Funding/money is a very tense, taboo topic around here that most people avoid talking about. When it does come up, almost everyone immediately becomes visibly uncomfortable. Among a lot of crowds, there might even be a little hostility directed toward the person(s) who broached the topic.
-My hunch is that most people are either on fellowship or are receiving at least some additional help from their families (sometimes in addition to summer jobs). But this doesn’t mean that most people aren’t stressed about money – one of the two entry fellowships makes Austin barely livable (so money is still a bit of a struggle on it), and many of those who receive help from their families don’t receive enough help to live comfortably, or without a lot of money-related stress.
It’s worth noting, I don’t actually know anyone who is surviving on the base package without additional help (regardless of summer jobs). They might exist (if they do, they either live far out from campus or have 2+ house/flatmates, and probably have MAs). But if they do, I do not know them, and nobody that I know knows them. If you have spoken to other graduate students about it, chances are you have gotten a bunch of vague indications that everyone they know seems to be getting by. Uh-huh. The reason everyone seems to be getting by is because, I believe, almost everyone who isn’t on fellowship is receiving outside help, sometimes in addition to working summer jobs. Which is what you would expect in a partially funded program. So again, just treat UT as a partially funded phd program.
 
FACULTY
Pervs
-There are at least three known pervs among the tenured faculty who were going around doing pervy stuff at various points in the last decade. From what I hear, they have had stern talkings-to and have not been actively pervy in at least the past 3-4 years or so. (One might ask: why haven’t they been fired? The answer is, I don’t actually know. One or two of them might not have had firing-worthy offenses. But at least one of them did (from what I have heard via grad student rumor chain). My suspicion is that we’d go down several  rankings if these people were exposed or fired, and UT would be unable to climb back up since the faculty here are completely incompetent at hiring new people.) At least two of them have worked in recent years / currently work with female graduate students and have not made any problems for them. I haven’t personally heard of them being pervy to anyone since I’ve been here, or since anyone I’ve known has been here. But people should know they exist.
----You probably don’t have to worry about being actively harassed by anyone. But if you’re going to work with the pervs, you should be careful. If you’re a concerned prospective, you can PM me, or even better, email a bunch of female grad students at UT and ask them for names. At least a few of them will be forthcoming
Normal Sexism/Racism/Etc.
-I have noticed (and have heard people complain) that certain people (esp. women, some nonwhite people) are just generally more likely to have their questions dismissed in seminars. It’s not that uncommon for someone who isn’t a white dude to make a point that gets immediately dismissed, but then for a white dude to come back to that very same point (often crediting the person who originally said it, which is good) and then suddenly the point gets taken seriously. Some professors are better about this than others.
 
Giving a Shit
-This is not a nurturing department. No faculty member is going to encourage you to come to their office and talk about your work, your interests, or even just your term paper. If you want to work with a faculty member, or get their thoughts on something you’re developing, you’ve got to be prepared to fight for it / advocate for yourself. You will have to be the one to suggest and arrange every single meeting.
-First years have complained that there is no guidance. The first year here tends to be a struggle.
-In your time here, you will run into at least a few professors you want to meet with who will not be able to find the time for you, or who won’t be interested in reading your work. 
-Most programs have a graduate student representative sit in on faculty hiring meetings. UT does not. The rationalizations for this that the faculty have produced over the years are pathetic to the point of being laughable (most recently, for example, the rationale was that the faculty might say insulting, demeaning things about the people they consider hiring, and they wouldn’t want to expose a graduate student’s impressionable ears to that because it might influence them to dislike the person if they ended up being hired). Over the years they’ve made it clear that they are not reasons-responsive with respect to this topic, and we have given up on trying to get a representative in on those meetings.
Not Enough Faculty
-There is exactly one ethicist I know of who is known to work with graduate students who want to do ethics. 
-You get the sense from a lot of faculty that they are overburdened. I don’t know if it’s with their own research, or if it’s with classes, or if it’s with other graduate students, or what, but there are several faculty members who sort of act like they can’t find the time for graduate students who haven’t already gone above and beyond to impress them, or haven’t already tailored their research project to be extremely relevant to the faculty member’s own research. I would believe that the faculty really are overburdened (there are a lot of students here, after all – the size of the cohorts seems like it was designed with the idea that we had 3-4 more faculty members than we actually do). But I’d also believe that they just don’t care, or that it’s a mix. Either way, the upshot for us is the same.
-The department has funding for something like two senior hires and three or four junior faculty members (so I’ve heard). They have been trying to hire someone since before I and all the other graduate students I know came here, and for all those years they have been completely unsuccessful. Nobody understands why or how this is a thing. We all wish they would just get it over with and put out a job ad.
-Rumor has it that there are a couple ethicists in the works who might actually come here. But I wouldn’t bet money on it.
In other words, this is an environment where resources (i.e., funding, faculty time/attention, etc.) are scarce. This can sometimes breed competition and resentment among graduate students. I like to think that most of us don't let it get to us. But it can be hard. 

I similarly applied to their PhD in anthropology and was accepted into this "interdisciplinary masters" instead. They invited me to an *online* visit day, not very promising. Prestigious revenue stream to be sure.