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Has anyone here completed or pursued a Ph.D. in the humanities? Is anyone here currently in the throes of doing so?
Any wisdom? Any regrets?
I am a married mother who works full-time in a career in which I am quite talented, educated and trained for, decently compensated and generally respected. However, I have always desired, deep down, to pursue a career in academia. I will complete my master's in literature next semester and have applied for a couple of Ph.D. programs in English.
If admitted to either program, I will be either fully or partially funded with a small stipend for the next five years. However, I will also have to stop working full-time in order to meet the requirements of a doctoral assistantship (that is, teaching and working 20 hours a week on campus).
I plan to continue teaching as an adjunct professor at a local college while doing this, if admitted, and believe I may be able to parlay my 14 years of specialized past and current professional experience into part-time freelancing and consulting.
I am wondering if this is really worth considering, as the academe job market is the pits, according to many recent articles, and this is especially true in the humanities and liberal arts. Moreover, with my real life obligations, is this smart or fair to my family? I would be in my late 30s when I finish.
My dad was a little older than you when he got a scholarship to do his Ph.D. in Philosophy. After years on unemployment, he became a cashier at a grocery store. Now he sells insurance.
If you think you could parlay your Ph.D. into something other than academia, then go for it. However, adjunct faculty make very little money and you will have to move to where you can find a teaching job, which means uprooting your family.
If you have a passion, do the Ph.D.- you should never turn down (funded) academic advancement. However, to do so with the sole intent of entering academia is foolish unless your husband has a job that is transferable to where you can find a job.
These days, if you want a tenure-track position, you need to be open to moving either for the PhD, (the school on the diploma is an easy way to cull when there are 50-250+ applications for a position) the tenure track position or both.
If you need to stay in the area for spousal employment or family reasons, I'd angle for a professional/management position at a school where they're open to you teaching a couple of adjunct classes every year. There are far more schools that need someone to teach 1-2 lower division English classes every year than who want to make the commitment for a tenured position these days.
I started my PhD in Humanities 4 years ago, quit one year ago. I have no regrets. Here's why:
1. I went straight through from undergrad to MA to PhD and felt that I had no worth outside of academia, so when people told me I was smart enough to do a PhD I said "okay" and did it.
2. I really didn't want to be a professor and I realized I didn't need the PhD to go into any other line of work that was interesting to me.
3. I like to teach but I do not want to be a teacher. I'm teaching right now until something more suitable comes along.
It sounds to me like you don't have any of the above problems, especially since you've been out of academia for a while doing other stuff. It sounds like you're still happy to go on after your MA which is also a good sign, I was burnt out and should have listened to myself. The most successful people I know in PhD programs have end goals in mind, like the ones you have. You'd be surprised how many people are in PhD programs "just because", they don't even have a good reason.
As for people saying the academe job market is the pits -- well yes, it is. People told me not to get an MA for the same reason, and the MA is one of the best things I've ever done, so don't let that argument put you off. Just have a strong rebuttal to it: what are you going to do to try to stand out or diversify your skill set should academia not work out for you?
It's all just so much to consider and, for now, simply a waiting game, as I have already applied and completed everything I need to do. I should know if I've been accepted by either program by late March.
I've always been very industrious and disciplined. I worked throughout high school (well, beginning at age 16) and completed six internships (and had two real, career-related jobs) by the time I finished undergrad. I started two graduate programs and abandoned them because life (i.e. my job, marriage and having children) got in the way. I have managed to complete this M.A. program over the past three years.
As exhausted as I felt when I was completing my master's thesis, I was left feeling a lack of finality, like there was more I wanted and needed to do. That was the incessant impetus that motivated me to apply to Ph.D. programs. Granted, I only applied to two schools located within the immediate vicinity; uprooting to go to school in another state is not an option, given our obligations.
I am certainly non-traditional in that I have not gone straight through from one degree to the next. Instead, I have done the school and work thing simultaneously. I have 14 years of real world, relevant career experience, but have a lingering fear of opting out at this stage for a Ph.D. and what that might do to my advancement potential, retirement planning, savings, etc. But I also fear what doing what's expected could mean for me as well in the short- and long-term.
Financially, the writing on the wall is pretty clear: welcome to the world of the working poor, because that's where you're headed. Unless you become the one superstar in the crowd, it's likely that your income will fall off a cliff. Academia is brutal and jobs that exist generally pay pathetically.
That obviously means less money for your family - less for daycare, less for necessary items around the house, less for school funds, less for lessons, less for vacations, less for your retirement - unless, of course, your husband earns a large salary or you have other means to comfortably support your current lifestyle. I would hope that you discuss the impact of this very carefully with your spouse and that he agrees to the potentially significant decline in living standard that you all may face as a result of your decision.
Put another way, you'd better have some very good non-financial motivations for doing this and be happy with quite possibly never seeing anything more than a very modest financial return for your efforts. And, assuming you don't have other substantial sources of income, you have to be ok with witnessing the impact of your lowered living standard on your family.
I'm considering the same thing, although have decided to put off the applications for another year. Like you, I'll already have a master's degree finished, and like you I've been out in the "real" world for some time. I think you sound pretty realistic: you don't expect that a tenure-track position is going to fall into your lap, sounds like you're expecting funding (and aren't taking out huge amounts of loans) and are looking to freelance and other opportunities to supplement whatever funding or courses you can pick up along the way. Your ability to save for retirement will almost undoubtedly take a hit. For me, I'm doing mostly freelance work at the moment anyway, so it won't be such a shock. You might also want to consider ways in which you can make some money off of your academic work; maybe by translating some of your more academic articles or research into something more public-friendly and therefore that could be published for the general public, for example. There are also a lot of grants and other sources of funding for research or projects that are available for those pursuing or holding PhDs. I know of people who have received funding to research and write books, the books are then published and promoted outside of the academic world, and they then benefit from the royalties. It's still potentially a lot of work for not a big financial return, but if you're okay with the life of a freelancer (and the risks involved) then I think it could be a great opportunity. At least that's what I'm telling myself.
Make sure that you can continue to work outside of campus with your assistantship. Certain universities make you sign a contract stating you will only work on campus in department approved positions.
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