The PhD Now Comes With Food Stamps (article)

[farrellgirl99]

It was telling me I went over the quote limit and I tried to fix it and failed

[Hype]

It was telling me I went over the quote limit and I tried to fix it and failed

I think your reasoning is pretty sound, too, btw.

[creep]

Well as a poetry major

sorry for insulting your major. i didn't know you were a poetry major.

[mockbee]

I think the arguments regarding the value, pro and con, of a college/university education are fascinating. Each argument coming from a completely different motive and background, or life experience.

Personally, I can empathize with components of each perspective and depending on my mood can say it all comes down to money or it all comes down to 'this is your life, follow your passion and live it'. Of course the answer lies between the two.

I will just say that there are intangible things you learn about yourself and the world in a liberal arts education that have no bearing on your 'net worth', maybe it doesn't 'cost out' to get certain educations....but this is your life we are talking about, and as much as we may like to think so, we are not commodities. They may ram that down our throats 24/7, but history shows us that will never be true. But saying that, just be sure to not bankrupt your own future in the process. It is a fine line, but there are so, so, so many options that can work to satisfy both sides.

I don't even know who I am talking to, but it is fascinating nonetheless.

[Larry B.]

Ahhh you got the quotes inverted!

(Don't judge Hypey... part of his work is to know how to properly quote people. As Jesus himself once said: It's alright, son... it's alright.)

[Hype]

Plagiarism is serious business.

[Desri]

Plagiarism is serious business.

Only in academia.

[Hype]

Plagiarism is serious business.

Only in academia.

Patent violations aren't serious?

[Desri]

Plagiarism is serious business.

Only in academia.

Patent violations aren't serious?

Well considering how majorly the use of patents has been stretched and abused in the last decade or so, I would argue the answer is often no. That's probably a whole different thread though...

[Hype]

Plagiarism is serious business.

Only in academia.

Patent violations aren't serious?

Well considering how majorly the use of patents has been stretched and abused in the last decade or so, I would argue the answer is often no. That's probably a whole different thread though...

The question is really just whether misrepresenting someone else's formulation of an idea as your own [formulation] is serious or not.

One reason to think it is serious, and always should be, is that it amounts to a form of deception in which the appearance of understanding/knowledge/authority is given without support. So it's not just that it wrongs the person it's taken from, it's that it undermines the purpose of the activity you're engaged in in the first place.

I have spent the past year trying to explain to students why copying and pasting their lecture notes into their essays is stupid. But all they care about is "getting things right" so they can "get marks". They don't even want to TRY to understand the material, because that takes mental effort.

The analogous case in patent cases might be if Chinese or Russian knockoffs try to copy say, jet engine plans... but because their own engineers didn't come up with it themselves, the risk of making a mistake may be higher, and you may be endangering lives. Admittedly the Apple/Samsung type of patent issue is less drastic.

[SR]

Forgive me if this has been articulated already.....I skimmed.

Here in the states, I am not aware of any Masters level programs that are funded by the school, unless the Masters is impacted into the PhD program.

The better Phd programs usually fund the student because they expect that (1) the student who's is initially accepted will complete the program and (2) the student will teach at the school while working on the Phd. This makes for a profit for the school. This paradigm is relegated to the finer schools in the country, so it doesn't make earning a Phd exclusive. There are other, reputable Phd programs, where a good student can pay the school and work on the Phd. Then there is the pay to play schools thayt will grant a Phd from whatever depths of depravity that some, alternate accreditation committee will allow them to do so.

[Hype]

See, e.g.,: http://philosophy.yale.edu/graduate-program-description

Financial Aid
Students are normally given at least five years of full support -- tuition, plus stipend, plus health care -- in the form of non-teaching fellowships for the first two years and the fifth (or sixth) year, and teaching fellowships for the third and fourth year. In the past years, the stipends have increased every year for both incoming and current students. This great mix of teaching and non-teaching fellowships allows students to get the teaching experience they need to prepare them for teaching careers, while also providing for much time where the student is not teaching, and so can devote himself/herself more completely to his/her own research.

Or, less ambitiously,

http://www.utexas.edu/cola/depts/philos ... ssions.php

Financial Aid (optional)

The application for financial aid is a section on the application for admission. However, many of our admitted students receive financial aid in the form of assistantships. Teaching Assistants and Assistant Intructors in Philosophy earn a monthly stipend for nine months, pay tuition at the lower rate applicable to Texas residents, they receive health insurance, and their dependents are eligible for health insurance benefits. If an applicant is admitted with financial aid, the department tries to continue aid for 6 years, provided they remain in good standing and meet minimum requirements.

Typically TAs with a Bachelor's degree earn a monthly stipend of $1,461; TAs holding an MA earn $1,609 per month, and AIs earn $1,783 per month for nine months.

In-state tuition for a graduate student taking a normal courseload of nine hours will total approximately $3,903 per semester. AIs, TAs, and Readers receive tuition assistance of $3,784 per semester, a special stipend to partially offset tuition offered by the Graduate School. Students who meet certain criteria of personal and family financial need are eligible for various other awards administered directly by the University-wide Student Financial Aid Office-scholarships, long- term loans, and work-study awards.

We also award a modest number of competitive fellowships. In both cases, tuition and medical benefits are covered. Students also receive additional stipends for study, research, and academic travel; a limited number of summer assistantships are also available.

Or, http://ase.tufts.edu/philosophy/graduate/financial.asp

Financial Assistance

Financial assistance in the form of tuition remission is available to incoming students. The average tuition remission has ranged in the past few years between 50 and 65 percent. Remission is based on both financial need and academic merit. Applicants interested in tuition remission should be sure to complete the financial aid forms included in the application packet.

After their first semester in the program students in good academic standing can apply for a Teaching Assistantship. These are granted on a course-by-course basis and currently pay $4,265 per course (or, when a course breaks into discussion sections, per section, though students rarely are assigned more than one section per semester). Most students who apply for a TAship for any given term receive one.

So I really don't know where this idea that MA programs aren't funded comes from. A lot of schools don't have a separate MA program -- you just get one on the way to a PhD in a 5 year program. Tufts only has an MA for philosophy, but they offer funding.

[SR]

Yes, many students are partially funded in the form of financial aid. Many more at the Bachelors level I presume.

I am really referring to the school accepting a student and paying directly for their degree. Tufts is an interesting example for a couple of reasons. One, the philosophy department is one of the best in the country, headed by a 'superstar' in the field. and finally, I imagine the department is remarkably small.

[chaos]

I received my Master's from a state university system and received funding. As part of the package, I was a TA for one semester and an intern (instructor with full teaching responsibility) for two semesters. I did not attend the main campus (or what is known as the university hub), so I did not have to compete with the Phd students in my discipline. I taught for eight years as an adjunct at a campus where my situation was an anomaly due largely because of the union: I received a decent salary, health insurance, and as I accrued seniority I received pay increases and was guaranteed a certain number of classes each semester. Unlike other institutions where I was an adjunct, I had "service" responsibilities since I was considered part of the faculty even though I was non-tenured. These responsibilities included student advising, committee work, etc.

I could only teach Freshman courses, however, since I only had a MA. I just recently quit since this was not enough for me. I need something with the potential for more growth. I contemplated getting a Phd but decided against it for many reasons. One in particular is that there are fewer and fewer tenure-track jobs in the US. There has been a trend over the last decade of replacing retiring professors with adjuncts. This is being done across the board at all levels - public and private institutions. There is a lot wrong with the things going on in higher ed - I could go on for pages. So I am in a transitional period, but at least I know what I don't want. Although my individual situation was better than most and I am grateful, I found it was time to move on.

[perkana]

Before I studied my masters, students received more a finantial aid than a scholarship, but since nobody could pay back once they finished, CONACYT (Science and Technology National Council), decided to make it a scholarship. I still have one year left of my PhD, most people assume there is nothing else you can do but teach and especially since our government destinates so little of its budget to science. I would so love to work in research, so I guess I still have a long way to go. But, hey, my dad has been a researcher for 30 years now, so I know there is a way.

[Hype]

Yes, many students are partially funded in the form of financial aid. Many more at the Bachelors level I presume.

I am really referring to the school accepting a student and paying directly for their degree. Tufts is an interesting example for a couple of reasons. One, the philosophy department is one of the best in the country, headed by a 'superstar' in the field. and finally, I imagine the department is remarkably small.

Tufts isn't really one of the best Philosophy depts in the world. See: http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/overall.asp
It's true that working with Dan Dennett would be great, but there's no PhD program in philosophy. You could go do an MA there, but that doesn't make them a great department.

And I think you may be slightly confused... the Yale link shows that it's full funding, automatically, and almost no one doesn't get it. It's true that not all schools offer full funding, but the general understanding is that if you get accepted to a school for a PhD, they'll make sure you can go.

[Hype]

This is from my field's perspective:

A REALISTIC PERSPECTIVE ON GRADUATE STUDY


Students beginning graduate study in philosophy ought to have a realistic sense of what awaits them. You need to realize that job prospects are uncertain, that jobs at top departments and elite colleges are hard to come by, and that many who start PhD programs do not finish them. The following data may help provide some perspective—though it bears noting that this data is culled from a "top" graduate program; it is likely that data from less prestigious graduate programs is even more sobering. Students should check with particular programs for detailed information on matters like rates of attrition and completion.

The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, long one of the leading departments in the nation (ranked in the top ten for most of the 1980s, in the top five more recently), makes available extremely detailed and informative information about job placement over the last decade at www.lsa.umich.edu/philosophy/placement.html. Of the 48 students who completed the PhD during that time period, 13-or slightly more than one-quarter-have not secured tenure-track appointments. 3 of these 13 first entered the job market since 2000, and so may very well secure such appointments, as might one or two of those from before 2000. At the same time, 11 graduates (or almost one-quarter) secured tenure-track (in some cases now, tenured) appointments at highly ranked departments (in philosophy, law, and political science). Since attrition in philosophy graduate programs is often as high as one-half the entering students (and one-quarter is not atypical even at top programs), it would not be misleading to say that, even at a top graduate program, only one out of ten entering students will end up teaching in strong research-oriented departments, while perhaps as many as two out of ten will be unable to find permanent academic employment. In addition, 4 of the 18 graduates from the above list who have come up for tenure decisions failed to get tenure; three of them secured other tenure-track or tenured academic employment.

For 1995-96, there were 341 PhDs awarded in the United States and Canada, as reported by the Review of Metaphysics. Of these 341, just 17 were offered tenure-track jobs (or the equivalent) in top 50 Ph.D. programs or their foreign equivalents. Of these 17, six were graduates of Princeton, three of Pittsburgh, two of Michigan, and one each of Rutgers, Stanford, Iowa, Minnesota, Notre Dame, and Texas . Of these 341, a mere six were offered jobs at top fifteen programs. Of these six, two each went to Princeton and Michigan, and one each went to Pittsburgh and Rutgers .

A further warning: the vast majority of the Michigan students who had tenure-track offers from top ten departments during the 1990s spent 7-10 years in graduate school. There is a sobering message in this: the kinds of skills needed to land a entry-level post are now the kinds of skills someone thirty years ago would have acquired after three years as a tenure-track assistant professor! The ferocious competition for jobs creates an incentive for students to spend a very long time perfecting their work.

[Essence_Smith]

I wouldn't mess with him here SR...lest we forget who we're dealing with here:



sorry...couldn't resist...

[Hype]

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(except a better philosopher)