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FarCenter

(19,429 posts)
Tue May 8, 2012, 03:53 PM May 2012

Even A PhD Couldn't Kept This Man Off Food Stamps Or Out Of The Unemployment Line

Tony Yang is getting beaten to a pulp. He's not wanted by mobsters nor is he another Cybercrime bully. The former University of California doctoral student (c/o '09) just says that's what it feels like each quarter when he wraps up his teaching gigs and goes home without a permanent job offer.

"It can be very tough on the pysche," he told the Chronicle of Higher Education. "The darkest moment had to be when I finished my dissertation. I turned it in and there (was) no job ... So when I graduated, the first thing I had to do was file for unemployment."

...

After the recession took hold in 2007, the rate of PhD holders who've filed for government assistance more than tripled to 33,655 by 2010, according to data collected by Austin Nichols, a senior researcher with the Chronicle's Urban Institute.

...

Like Yang, who holds a PhD in History from the University of California, many graduates are delaying marriage until they can afford the walk down the aisle.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/this-mans-phd-hasnt-kept-him-off-food-stamps-or-the-unemployment-line-2012-5

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xchrom

(108,903 posts)
1. Do this - do that - get an education - dont
Tue May 8, 2012, 04:07 PM
May 2012

Get an education - get the right - no, that's the wrong education.

Nobody fuckin knows - except shit is really fucked up out there.

And this is crying damn shame.

RebelOne

(30,947 posts)
2. That dumb ass Neil Boortz
Tue May 8, 2012, 04:07 PM
May 2012

was dissing a female teacher with a PhD in Medieval History who was collecting food stamps. She was only able to get part-time work. He said she was collecting stolen money from us taxpayers. Good thing I got home before the program was over or I may have smashed my radio.

Proud Public Servant

(2,097 posts)
3. My wife and I have humanities PhDs
Tue May 8, 2012, 04:20 PM
May 2012

The only thing we've ever discouraged our daughter from doing is following in our footsteps. There's no surer path to a life on indentured servitude than the current academic job market; I'm just glad we extricated ourselves from the Academy successfully and now have real salaries, real futures, and real peace of mind.

 

FarCenter

(19,429 posts)
5. I'm not sure when it became imagined that intellectuals would have a comfortable living.
Tue May 8, 2012, 04:42 PM
May 2012

The traditional outcome was a life of poverty in a garret, turtlenecks, shabby trousers, the occasional Galois and expresso, ill health and a long descent into madness.

That is, excepting an inheritance, support of friends or lovers, or a modest sinecure procured through political influence, in which case a more genteel, but still shabby, existence could be afforded.

Proud Public Servant

(2,097 posts)
6. Depends on how you define comfortable
Tue May 8, 2012, 05:09 PM
May 2012

I started as a professor, on tenure track. My starting salary, in 1990, was $28,500, plus health benefits and a good retirement plan. Sure, as an English professor in a top program at a major research university, I still made less than the city bus driver who ferried me to work (a fact I learned during a transit strike that first year). But it wasn't a bad salary -- 4-5 times the poverty threshold, and it bought me the freedom to think my thoughts and not worry too much (I was lucky enough to have gone to grad school on a full-ride fellowship, so I didn't have student loan debt to trouble me).

The thing is, all of my colleagues in grad school -- all of us -- not only thought that was how it would be for us, but were told by everyone -- undergraduate and graduate advisers, our professional associations, independent think tanks studying academic employment trends -- that that was how it would be. Yet, 10 years later, I knew 2-3 un- or under-employed humanities PhDs for every one I could name in my situation. The academic job market for the last two decades has been an enormous bait-and-switch operation, and too few people are on to it. Maybe articles like this will help.

 

FarCenter

(19,429 posts)
12. The winnowing out between PhD and tenured professor is pretty severe
Tue May 8, 2012, 05:26 PM
May 2012

I would think that 1 out of 3 making the leap would be a fair estimate of the odds. The status of the institution where you got the PhD, the status of the institution where you are on tenure track, and your professional networking all play a role.

 

4th law of robotics

(6,801 posts)
4. PhDs are still far less likely to be unemployed than non-PhDs
Tue May 8, 2012, 04:23 PM
May 2012

and history isn't exactly what I'd call an "in demand" degree.

Basically unless you have some other skill that makes you useful as a political/corporate analyst your history degree suits you to . . .teaching history. Not surprising it'd be hard to find a job when universities are laying off people.

Proud Public Servant

(2,097 posts)
7. The scandal is that universities need grad students
Tue May 8, 2012, 05:13 PM
May 2012

Not to study, but to serve as cheap labor. So universities have no incentive to stop grinding out PhDs, who then have to compete Hunger games-style for teh few "real" jobs in their field.

 

coalition_unwilling

(14,180 posts)
11. I never finished my Ph.D. (b/c funding ran out and I lost interest), but do
Tue May 8, 2012, 05:23 PM
May 2012

vividly recall that only about 25% of my cohort wound up with tenure-track positions. The rest turned into gypsy scholars, cast into the wind and adrift by a profession that took their money and years of their lives when there was no reasonable chance all of them would get gainful employment.

So I share your analysis.

 

Zalatix

(8,994 posts)
9. That's his problem right there - a PhD in History is useless.
Tue May 8, 2012, 05:17 PM
May 2012

Why do Americans need to know anything about history? In fact, Ayn Rand teaches you all you need to know about life.

(this is satire, mind you)

 

Bigmack

(8,020 posts)
10. Luckily, our country won't need PhDs in a few years...
Tue May 8, 2012, 05:23 PM
May 2012

..History..? We don't pay any attention to anything older than last week.

Philosophy...? That's Commie stuff. All we need is Jeeeeeezus.

Humanities...? That's awful close to "Humanist", and you know that's just Satan-worship!

And them classical musicians, too. We already got both kinds of music .... Country and Western!

And all them artists, too.... Can't understand what they're trying to say! Just squiggles on the canvas.

US...? meet Third World...

longship

(40,416 posts)
13. Sorry, Bud. You just didn't get born into the right family.
Tue May 8, 2012, 05:26 PM
May 2012

Don't ya get it!? Edumacation doesn't mean squat. You can have 1,000 PhDs, but if you are not born to an entitled family, or if you're not of the correct religion, you just don't matter.

Go screw yourself.


on edit: By the way, whether you get a job or not, we'll be needing those student loan payments on time! Or maybe your parents will get a friendly visit from our friend, Guido. Heh, heh, heh!

aikoaiko

(34,127 posts)
16. Good luck Dr. Yang. Hit the part-time faculty rounds and get your dissertation published
Tue May 8, 2012, 05:54 PM
May 2012

and a job will come if you apply.



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