thestage

what makes you think this? what MBA program that isn't a ponzi scheme cares about your academic achievements? and who in the world, outside of the institutions to which you are already indentured, cares the slightest about your CV? the "cultural capital" a PhD in the humanities caries with it, to the greater world, is that of the worthless academic siphoning money off the system for something the 'real world' would never pay him for. sure, the new york times might theoretically call you to ask you questions when some news story breaks about something tangentially related to your existence; maybe you'll even get to write for such a "prestigious" publication. for which they will pay you nothing. and which no one will care about. you are right that people will assume a certain background and append to you a certain social privilege if you have a PhD. but their will be no envy, and the realities of capitalism do not care for these appearances. your nominal "protests and donation work" do not curtail your privilege, they are efforts to maintain it. after all, no real person has the time or ability to care about something against which they might protest, save what their union tells them to do. and you can't even unionize!

class certainly exists in america. even "factually," as we are one of the least socioeconomically mobile countries in the world. class in america, however, exists in terms quite apart from what we associate class with historically (ie, physical labor, genealogy, etc.). for instance, if you get into a graduate program and spend seven years with a PhD stipend, congratulations, you are no longer upper middle class. you will pretend you are, because you are doing things that poor people don't understand, but you are, in fact, poor. and if you do not get a job as a tenure track professor, you will continue to be poor and you will no longer have a way out. you will still think you are upper middle class, you will still act like you are upper middle class, and you will occasionally affect the trappings of the upper middle class by buying things you can't afford--but when you turn in your food stamps, you will be lower class. in related terms, this is also in actuality the definition of the hipster, that nebulous term that people insist is undefinable and/or doesn't exist and/or only designates better taste than nothipster. a hipster is a poor person who does not understand or accept the realities of poverty, and who will consequently appropriate imagery of "traditional" poverty in order to neutralize it. this is but one minor example, of course. there are swaths of what you might call "traditional" poor people, and just because you will read stories of one of their children going to Harvard in order to Become The System (the fact that this story exists as story someone assumed you would like to read already assumes entrenched class relations) does not mean we are particularly graceful in our ability to forget how broken we are.

I don't think that phrase means what you think it means

whelp I guess I'm not going to Buffalo either. this is about to get out of hand

why would that decrease the loan anxiety? it's not like a cent of your PhD stipend will or even could be spent on repaying the MA debt.

STD sounds like a pretty appropriate acronym in this particular instance

I feel just as shitty this year as last year, but I am definitely checking shit a LOT less than I was at this point last year. in fact, I'm not really checking at all. I click on the acceptance thread here to see if a school has started notifying people, and then if I don't have an email from that school it sucks. basically the end of that story. I haven't logged back into any of my apps since I got confirmation that they were completed, I'm not checking my email any more often than usual, and I'm not using the results search at all. so go me. but there was that one time I got a call from some bullshit solicitor that came from CITY OF A SCHOOL I APPLIED TO, so that guy can fuck right off.

on Buffalo: I actually had a real problem with my letters (two of my writers claimed to have never gotten emails, so they had to send their letters directly to the grad office), so when my app still said they hadn't been received after like I month I contacted the department to ask whether or not it was just a clerical error and they said my app file was complete. so I'm sure everything is fine for all of you as well. and I still say not reviewed as well.

in all seriousness, this is it for me. last year I knew I'd try again if it didn't work out, so maybe things were easier. don't have that luxury anymore.

christ, there is nothing more depressing than being in this thread two years in a row

I wonder what the pencil is for

I trust you will not be surprised to learn that drmegjay has a website, that this website contains a logo of her name, and that she does, in fact, "maintain a private practice" specializing in rich people (jk lol, all clinical psych Phds with private practices specialize in rich people, poor people see pill pushers MDs) and the twentysomething children of rich people. in the business we call this "leveraging your expertise". that, or criminal negligence. take your pick, really.

why do you want another phd, meg alt: I'M SPARTACUS

reading your own self-help book is the perfect image of the heat death of the universe

it doesn't sound to me or to Dr. Meg Jay, PhD that you are doing a very good job of defining yourself right now, young lady. in the second book we have a ten point plan for you. here's a sneak peak: 1) xanax, 4) divorce, 10) tenure I think it is possible, and probably likely, that all reading is procrastination.

if my 20's end up defining me it's going to be a pretty sad obituary also if a book has a didactic subtitle you know it was sold in the front of the bookstore and you should walk away or else that the acronym of the (not at all) downtrodden this book purports to champion necessarily includes the word attractive is like a joke singularity if the cover of a book indicates that the author has a PhD, you know their PhD was not at all relevant to a single word contained within the book at least 'Meg Jay' (this can't be a real name) was kind enough to bake her demographic into the title "Why your twenties matter, and how to make the most of them now" Chapter 1: -because that's where you get a job -I would tell you to go to college, but it is scientifically impossible for you to have purchased this book without having already graduated. what, you thought you found this book on your own? Chapter 2: -step 1: put down this book look, I know you already went through school without learning anything, now you can buy my book and continue the process of paying money to people with PhD's in order to keep up pretenses. if at first you don't succeed (then the definition of narcissism-nee-insanity is to try try again) donthate I'm a little worried that you read this book. let's talk--as a one (uhh, two) time PhD applicant, I feel comfortable in saying that I know all the things, and I charge less than one hundred dollars an hour (in most states (for most people (tax deductible)))

every life is many days, day after day

well, I suspect you're going to have a hard time in grad school

is it a little weird that I've already seen that video

voodoo magic

or if they will end up drinking themselves to death, fleeing the country, or marrying a poet before their indentured servitude is up.

well I tried to embed that wayne's world delaware bit but the forum is not cooperating

does this make me the exception that proves the rule

these days, English is a field that basically means and encompasses anything. I think you can take it from there.

I like the implication that you ought to be rejected if you are a fan of nicki minaj (I don't like this implication) (no, I am not a fan of nicki minaj) (pretty bomb-ass verse in that one kanye west song though) (lol)