An Article Criticizing Grad Cafe

[Lola Wants]

I found an overly critical article of the Grad Cafe and its participants. I thought it was interesting and amusing.

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/culturebox/2012/04/grad_school_admissions_grad_cafe_exposes_gen_y_s_job_search_angst_.single.html

[ANDS!]

Old article. Stupid then, stupid now. Misses the entire point of a forum in order to make some "academic" point: message boards are largely a place for people to bitch and moan unrealistically.

[MaxiJaz]

I found an overly critical article of the Grad Cafe and its participants. I thought it was interesting and amusing.

http://www.slate.com...st_.single.html

In case you posted to learn about the opinions of Gradcafe users about the article:

[Sigaba]

amusing..

Stupid then, stupid now.

As the saying goes, "perception is reality." Right now two groups have two issues with how they're perceived in some sectors of general public--young people and academics. Is scoffing at, denying, or dismissing these perceptions the most efficacious way to challenge them?

(The modern American navy was built on the ability of navalists to shape public perception of the U.S. army during the late nineteenth century. To this day, the navy benefits from these efforts.)

[thedig13]

As the saying goes, "perception is reality." Right now two groups have two issues with how they're perceived in some sectors of general public--young people and academics. Is scoffing at, denying, or dismissing these perceptions the most efficacious way to challenge them?

(The modern American navy was built on the ability of navalists to shape public perception of the U.S. army during the late nineteenth century. To this day, the navy benefits from these efforts.)

I find it amusing and dismissable because it centers around an assumption that most young students at TGC choose grad school to "avoid" the job market and somehow escape the responsibilities of adulthood. The writer's main critique of TGC seems to be that it "is puncturing [her alter-ego's] illusions about what grad school could represent for a young adult eager to take a time-out from the neurotic competitiveness of real life." Maybe I haven't spent enough time outside of the History forums, but I think that most at TGC (especially the veterans and frequent posters) have chosen to consider/attend graduate school because they genuinely love their discipline and/or are serious about pursuing a career in academia. Most of us (at least within the History forum, and maybe the Humanities and Social Sciences in general) have made an informed, independent, and conscious decision to devote ourselves to a discipline that is dramatically under-appreciated within society. We've made a deliberate decision to pursue a career path where the job market is absolute shit, the salaries are meager, the benefits are (often) nonexistent, the lifestyle is hectic, unstable, and unpredictable, and those who are employed are overworked into the dirt. We're not starry-eyed idiots trying to live up to some misinformed and hyper-romanticized illusion of what life of mind is like. We do it because we love it, but we know that it's not going to be pretty and we have no illusions about it.

If somebody's applying for grad school because they're scared of a bad job market or because they want to avoid the so-called "real world" (a term I despise, since it's not like undergrads and high schoolers exist in some alternate reality devoid of responsibilities, stresses, and problems), then he/she was in for a rude awakening sooner or later.

Edited June 28, 2012 by thedig13

[ANDS!]

Is scoffing at, denying, or dismissing these perceptions the most efficacious way to challenge them?

Yup.

Edited June 28, 2012 by ANDS!