Is a PhD worth it?

[Steph Smith]

Hello all,

 

I just submitted four grad school apps and am anxiously awaiting the results. While I wait, I have been doing a lot of thinking about what I want to do with the PhD and how that aligns to my ultimate goals and plans. I always just assumed grad school was the next step in my future, but I'm beginning to question that for a variety of reasons. For one, teaching is not my passion. I really don't have any desire to teach and I feel that is a profession that requires passion and dedication to do well. My focus lies much more along the public policy and research aspects. My dream job would be working for organizations like the Sentencing Project that work to reform criminal justice, or even as a politician working to implement these changes. I don't think a PhD would be necessary in this sort of situation, though additional education can't hurt. I just wonder if I'd be wasting my time on earning a degree when that time could be better spent making connections and working my way through the ranks of politics. Secondly, the new tax bill and the uncertainty of what will happen over the next few years has me worried. If the tuition waivers become taxable income, I know that even the highest stipend from one of the schools I've applied to won't be enough to live on. That's not to mention any other sort of torture the government could come up with in the next few years. Finally, I've always been really invested and passionate about politics and I feel it is so imperative to get involved and make some changes for the better. I don't think we can afford to wait another few years and just keep our fingers crossed. Essentially, I want to put my money where my mouth is; I want to walk the walk, sooner rather than later.

 

So here's my question: If I don't plan on teaching and public policy and politics are more my avenue, is a PhD necessary/beneficial? How concerned should I be about potential financial difficulties and other unforeseen obstacles?

 

I've also been doing a lot of reading about the current grad school climate and I'm not impressed with what I have found. There seems to be an unhealthy pressure put on grad students to do extraordinary amounts of work with little pay and recognition. With the topic of sexual abuse and harassment on the news daily, it seems the academic community also has quite a bit of skeletons in its closet regarding this topic as well. I've spoken with a handful of current graduate students, professors, and admissions counselors who are encouraging me to go the politics route instead.

 

I could keep going but you get the point, your input would be much appreciated.

 

[dr. t]

23 minutes ago, Steph Smith said:

If I don't plan on teaching and public policy and politics are more my avenue, is a PhD necessary/beneficial?

No.

[Professor Plum]

A quick piece of advice I dispense a lot this time of year: Spend some time researching people who currently hold the positions you'd like to hold in five to 8 years, and see what you can learn about their career trajectories. How many hold advanced degrees? How many hold PhDs? What fields are their degrees in? How competitive are the programs? What does an entry-level position look like in the organization? How did people gain entry into the field? What else besides advanced study do they have on their CVs? A lot of this information is available online, so if you set aside a few hours each week you can learn quite a bit. If you're very serious about a particular kind of organization, there's no harm in e-mailing people who are at the 5-8 year mark asking if they have any insight to share with someone who is hoping to get a foot in the door. Not everyone will have time to respond, but people rarely respond badly to a message like Hey, I'm really impressed with the career you're putting together and would like to have one like it myself someday.

Other advice: Going to graduate school simply because it seems like the next logical step is, in my experience, almost always a bad idea. Your apps are in, so you have a nice window here while you wait on replies. Use it to clarify your goals and how the degree will get you closer to them. That way you'll be better prepared with the right answer in the spring as answers come back. People who go because it seemed like the next logical thing frequently drop out, so if you can determine that a PhD is not for you (or is not for you right now) before you enroll, so much the better.

[AP]

This is great advice:

23 hours ago, Professor Plum said:

Going to graduate school simply because it seems like the next logical step is, in my experience, almost always a bad idea. 

A doctoral degree is not something you embark on lightly. There are a lot of struggles all over the place: academic, personal, financial, political... The requirements are not simple bullet points you cross off a list and doing the research and writing of a dissertation takes time and a lot of work. 

That said, I know many people who went into policy after their PhD in History because they had acquired the skills to absorb a huge amount of information and process it quickly, to summarize, synthesize, and paraphrase, to produce scholarly and political documents, and to speak to an array of audiences. 

If you get in, you should think very seriously about why you want a PhD in History. What are the takeaways? How would a specific program help you achieve your career goals? And I'm saying this for the sake of your time. 

[psstein]

I was given this advice and I'll pass it on: you should ONLY pursue a history PhD in the event that you cannot possibly see yourself doing anything else. For me, it was grad school, the Navy, or Canadian oil fields.

I'm being totally serious, by the way.

[ashiepoo72]

I'll add my 2 cents. PhDs are grueling in every way. Mentally, you go through the wringer. Intellectually, you're pushed beyond what you thought possible. Physically, you're exhausted from all the work and the fact that you can never really shut it off because most of that work is going on in your head and it never stops, plus I legit got a UTI from sitting for 10+ hours a day in archives at one point--yeah, it actually happens. Besides all of that, even at the better funded schools you'll probably have to do some teaching. Whether that shakes out to 1-2 years or 4-5, doesn't matter if it's not your thing. TAing in GEs when you love teaching is rough...if you don't like teaching, you can get through it, but you'll probably be miserable. Now that I'm doing comps, I finally realized that I can reach a point where I loathe reading. Thankfully, I reset pretty quickly, but that's because I'm a sicko who loves all this crap. But I naively figured once I was out of coursework I would feel fabulous. Joke's on me  Just be prepared for every stage to be hard. 

If you truly love research, I think you totally could do well and even be happy at a PhD program--even if you aren't interested in teaching. My concern is that, if it isn't something you need for your career, the PhD could very well be a demoralizing process for you. It could also put the brakes on you beginning to build the career you want. I would suggest you do some more research on the typical trajectory of people going into your dream jobs (like Prof Plum said) while you wait for application results, and also do some soul searching. Who knows, you may find that with your first acceptance it really is what you want.

[TMP]

Do you honeslty want to do the following:

1) Read over 200 books within 3 years?
2) Write grant/fellowship applications every single year for research funding? (numbers vary depending on dissertation topic itself)

3) Work 40-60 hours a week (Reading, classes, grad assistantships, department semianrs, lectures) including weekends?

4) Write a 200+ page dissertation that involves tons of drafts in the process?

If you say "no" to the last one, then PhD is not for you.  It is essentially a research degree.

As for teaching, it's doable if you don't love it but you may surprise yourself when you actually give it a try.  College kids can be an interesting bunch (I have a love/hate relationship).

[Steph Smith]

Thanks for the advice everyone!

I feel I should clarify that I have given quite a bit of consideration and thought to pursuing graduate school, so much perhaps that it hadn't crossed my mind for the last few years that maybe I wouldn't go. The change here is that I was approached by an old friend who I gathering together a team to work on a campaign for the 2020 Presidential election, starting in 2019. As I had planned to begin graduate school in the fall of 2018, obviously I can't do both at the same time. It's not the process of getting a PhD that I'm questioning, it's mostly wondering if my time would be better used networking and working my way through the political ranks if politics/public policy is my end goal.

 

[Account6567]

2 hours ago, Steph Smith said:

Thanks for the advice everyone!

I feel I should clarify that I have given quite a bit of consideration and thought to pursuing graduate school, so much perhaps that it hadn't crossed my mind for the last few years that maybe I wouldn't go. The change here is that I was approached by an old friend who I gathering together a team to work on a campaign for the 2020 Presidential election, starting in 2019. As I had planned to begin graduate school in the fall of 2018, obviously I can't do both at the same time. It's not the process of getting a PhD that I'm questioning, it's mostly wondering if my time would be better used networking and working my way through the political ranks if politics/public policy is my end goal.

 

I could be wrong, but if policy is your underlying goal, even if you do want to attend graduate school you might be better suited in a different program. A lot of history students can (and do) transition to that, but I would think a political science/IR/public policy/ etc. kind of program would be easier from a time/cost/prestige(?) standpoint if you're sure that's what you want to pursue regardless.

That said, I'm not an expert by any means so take this with a grain of salt, just offering my personal opinion, if I am wrong feel free to correct me!

Edited December 11, 2017 by Account6567