filmluv

Swagato: thank you thank you for your sincere reply. I think what you said makes sense. I am not an undergrad but am attempting to pursue my PhD. (I have an mfa, which is a whole other story!) I see now what you're saying and is a very valid point. Reading the boards and thinking about it helps me get my mind around everything as I'm going through a transition right now. I come from a top tier school for my MFA and have not found a job too so I know how hard it is (I have professional experience as well). You sound like you have a lot of experience in academia.

If he wanted to write a column on how "Adjuncts are killing academia" he failed miserably. Critical writing 101: let's start with a thesis sentence shall we and bring that argument home. So what? So there were 900 applicants, so what? Again I ask: WHAT IS THE ALTERNATIVE? You apply for a sh1tty job in a corporate world that has 1500 applicants? At least in pursuing something you love -- you have the chance of getting employed in a position you love. What his article fails to address is-- it is TOUGH ALL OVER. NO MATTER WHAT YOU DO. EVERYTHING is the exception to the rule. So what? So what does he advocate? Working crap jobs and dealing with corporate politics until your company gets acquired and entire departments are laid off? I've seen it happen again and again. Like I said: IT'S TOUGH ALL OVER. That's no excuse to do what he's doing: you call it "warning" I call it misleading with a condescending attitude. It reflects HIS values. I was glad to see that I wasn't alone and, in fact, he received tons of e-mails lambasting him for that column. If he sees something askew and/or amiss in academia -- stick to the facts but don't go around acting like all undergrads have "stars in their eyes" and need his "wisdom" to become disillusioned. If his argument is that academia is just encouraging students to go into debt and they have no real chance of a job -- well what's his point? They're all liars? Is he seriously advocating that you tell undergrad English majors: "Don't read. Don't study literature. Don't take out student loans to be here. It's irrelevant to the world. Go become a dentist." ??? I don't get it. You have to pursue what you love in life, that's it. You may succeed, you may fail, but if you don't even try -- you're guaranteed one thing: failure. You have to try. Look, if someone has an aptitude for science and a love of it -- by all means go make a living. You said: "whose degree will not be good enough to get a full-time job." Again: the idea that you go to college to get a job is not why you go to college -- that's why you go to Vo-tech school. It's important to have a college degree. There is no degree that guarantees jobs anyway. I read an article about students coming out of law school -- unable to find jobs. That's the WORST of both worlds, imho: you pursue something just for security and then you can't even get a job! I stand by my assessment of him: crabby and quashing people. If he wants to write an indictment on academia and offer up solutions -- he failed miserably.

That's true & I understand that but that is not the same argument. You are talking about pursuing athletics professionally which everyone knows -- has to be done from a very young age to be successful. That's like saying "I want t to become a ballerina or an astronaut at 34." Um, no you're not. But his argument in the article is not about being basically crazy -- it's about his condescending view towards undergrad students. How can a professor in good conscience try to quash a young person's love of learning and reading? It's despicable. He shouldn't have a column. This gets down to values. Being in the arts my entire life -- I've heard this argument lobbed at me repeatedly. It always irritated me. Do you think that college should be a time to explore yourself, your interests, your values? To learn to think critically and learn what it means to think, to become educated? Or do you think it's just about following a track to get a job? I think it's a big mistake -- I don't know how this guy has a column -- to try to tell students that they should all become doctors and lawyers. Or what? I really don't understand what he's advocating. And anyway, he's not even talking about the arts -- he's talking about academia. Which, to me, is even more bizarre. Has he looked around at the world? It's very difficult in the workforce. Corporate America isn't the answer to a fulfilling life, imho. Again: what's the alternative? We should all go get our MBAs? There is no guarantee in that either. We are moving as a society where it's the haves and have-nots. There are the elites and the non-elites. It used to be apparent in the arts -- now I guess it's apparent in academia. Now college is basically unaffordable. So many things I took for granted growing up are broken and need fixing. What's next? So this guy gets a column to shake his head, tsk tsk tsk and wave his finger at students he looks down upon for what? Wanting to go to college, loving learning, and wanting to read books? What's the world coming to?

The article is a) way too long. He needs some serious editing and -- it's irrelevant. Seriously dude if you wrote 8000 words to discuss how you can't talk to a plumber you need therapy. To begin with -- that's a cultural stereotype. Plumbers can be well-paid. Second of all: TALKING TO PLUMBERS IS OVERRATED. What does he think it's like 1940 and he's learning to converse with the "salt of the earth"? I mean, really. What a gasbag. Figures that a dude like that has an entire column at American Scholar. I admit I skimmed because -- no editing!

I just don't understand what the alternative is. Yes so it's competitive. Everything is. So are MBAs and Law school degrees. Everyone has everything. It's competitive everywhere. What's he advocating? No education? What? We're all supposed to abandon our love of books and learning and go to Vo-tech school? yeah, there's the ticket to fulfillment. It's tough and what he says is true but what of it? Does he not know that companies are horrible and constantly lay people off? Or get acquired and lay people off? It seems like there may be some good points in there mired under a heavy dose of disdain and condescension. Maybe he hates Michigan and I can't say I blame him!

I took mine several years ago, pregnant at the time, and totally bombed. I studied a little before. Mine was almost 80% non-fiction essayists and people I'd never heard of. I was so nervous I even failed on the ones I knew. My suggestion would be to study for 6 months before.

Does anyone have information on the slant of Harvard's Film studies program? I've heard different things from different people and I know it's relatively new (PhD in 2009).