UT Students React
I was interested in the Chronicle article, too; I was surprised that the demographic category of age was not mentioned at all. As someone who entered graduate school much older than my classmates (I'm in linguistics, entered in 1995 at age 47, expect to defend this semester, and never for a moment doubted that I would finish), it's been my casual impression that some of the ones who come into the program straight from their bachelor's work are less likely to go the distance. It has seemed to me that they are just running on momentum, have never done anything but school, and at some point in the first two or three years, all of a sudden they wake up and realize that there may be other paths in life than pursuing a Ph.D. When they ask themselves why they're here, they can't find an answer.
Something else I've observed about many of my classmates who don't make it is that they've always been "good at school" and have received many rewards - emotional and otherwise - for their good work. But at some point in graduate studies the gold stars stop appearing at the top of our papers, and we come to understand that we have to provide our own inspiration and pats on the head. Some of the less-experienced ones can't seem to endure the lack of praise and lollipops.
If it were up to me (and frankly, I hope it never is), I would not admit students to graduate school until and unless they have some significant non-school experience; I also understand that, for many reasons, that constraint is impractical and unviable. Oh, well.
Thanks for the invitation
to write about this.
Michal Brody
Linguistics
brody@mail.utexas.edu
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Doctoral Student, English
Thanks for forwarding the colloquy URL to the list. I imagine attrition is a different beast in every department at UT. In English, for example, late attrition (by which I mean one year or longer past the M.A.) is a problem, but more than that, I think it's a symptom of a larger problem: the discrepancy between the number of academic jobs available for English PhDs and the number of grad students enrolled each year to work as teaching assistants. The students who come into UT's doctoral program in English are already aware that the job market is tight, but it often takes years of observation for them to find out that in many departmental subfields the academic placement rate is well below fifty per cent. As far as I know, the department itself does not publicize this information, either to applicants or to current students. Programs like IE and PFF help placement, but they can't do everything.
I imagine it would be difficult for OGS to address departmental attrition in ways that were both general and on-target. But encouraging every graduate program to collect and disseminate detailed statistics on program completion, as well as detailed statistics on employment prospects after graduation, would help. The employment stats kept on many law school websites are great examples--here's one from a law school that isn't even exceptionally prestigious or well-funded: http://www.law.washington.edu/Career/Profiles.html.
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As a first-generation College student, I've thought alot about the politics of the Academy, the politics of finishing a degree, and I think I will continue to think (and perhaps write) on these issues as I transition from graduate student to professor. I hope that my experiences, successes, challenges, pain, and insights may eventually benefit future students and mentees of mine.
I really appreciated the article and the accounts afterward. One of the students attended my undergraduate institution. I think she was very right that many students (esp. those from small elite liberal arts colleges like ours) enter grad school as the "thing to do" or as a familiar (and legitimized) way of gaining value in the world even when they are not sure it is THEIR thing to do.
Actually, I have nothing "scandalous" or embarrassing to say about my own position in the Academy. I love my current work and feel passionately about what I do, and I have only grown more, not less, convinced that this kind of intellectual and creative work is for me. I am a Phd candidate who does work that intentionally crosses disciplines. I am quite active in the profession, having Chaired two panels this year, and presented on two others. I read voraciously in my field and love intellectual work and exchange.
However, finishing my dissertation has been a challenge, and I've had obstacles on the way to finishing (I plan to defend this Summer 2004). My feeling is had I been any less stubborn, I would not have finished. During my very first year in the Program, my department in the Humanities did not have sufficient funding, and I did not have a job. I did secure a teaching job my second year and have had one since then, although it hasn't always been guaranteed, and I've had to "agitate" on my own behalf.
Also, there were no official structures in place supporting some of my methodological ideas for my dissertation, but I had a vision, and found outside funding. My work represents only a small percentage of what people in my department usually focus on, but, again, I had very strong personal vision about what I wanted to do. My Supervisor believes in me, but on a day-to-day basis there are no (or very few) signs that anyone really cares if I finish. (for me too, it was difficult, because my Supervisor left UT for another institution a year ago). Having reached this stage, and having watched colleagues drop out, I realize that finishing has less to do with intelligence and more to do with tenacity, endurance, stubborness. (one could add desperation and a fear of humiliation depending on the circumstances!)
Finishing a dissertation does not take intelligence (most Phd students can come up with ideas and brainstorm which is where raw intelligence emerges) - Finishing requires, I think, (at least) two other traits which might be viewed as alternative intelligences: humility and faith. Humility helps one understand that a dissertation is just that - a dissertation - that it is the beginning (not the end or culmination) of one's career, and that it has limits. LIMITS, I believe, is what a graduate student who is having trouble finishing is struggling against.
Paradoxically, however, one must have great faith that one's work "means" something, even in the face of the deafening silence of the blank screen or the long, unstructured days! One must have a strong sense of "vision" and "purpose" that can sustain one even when there is a lack of external affirmation. If one has deepseated doubts about the value and impact of one's work, then, I believe, one will have trouble finishing.
I agree with the person in the article who said that one should be out of college for a few years before being admitted to graduate school, especially in the humanities. (I could go on about that - the connection between the Humanities, fantasy and attrition!) Not only are most recent college graduates not ready to develop career-defining projects, most have organizational and life skills that are underdeveloped. Becoming proficient in daily life skills are just as important to finishing a program as knowing how to develop a well-supported analysis of a novel or the phenomenon of hip-hop. One could have "humility" and "faith" but get lost in the dozens of tasks required to write a book. Many students start programs too early for the wrong reasons.
My close friend from college graduated in 1992 and immediately entered a presigious program at an Ivy League University. She finished her Masters in 2 years and started the Phd right away. It is now 2004 and she is not finished.
She just had a baby and has already confessed to me that she just does not have it in her to finish. She did start counseling/therapy as she started her dissertation, (something alot of people do) but has decided she went into the program for the wrong reasons, and to uphold an identity she no longer espouses. Her parents live in the Boston area, and I don't think she wants to leave which makes the prospect of traveling for a professor job unattractive. Also, I think she has just gotten into a habit of the "instant gratification" of the real world jobs and does not have the patience required for the other rhythm of diss writing and academic work. (btw, most of the people I know who dropped out of our program are women - some are married women.)
One last thing: I mentioned I am a first-generation college student. It has been difficult to be a Ph.D. student with the background I have, and as I was reading that article I wondered if there were any figures on first-generation college students and attrition rates. I entered grad school knowing how to read and analyze with great ease. I think I really needed to learn the ins-and-outs of the professional/collegial world -- in a word, I guess I needed a mentor, but as Ms. Mentor demonstrates, that is not an simple request!
For me, I think it's been a mixed bag to be in the Academy with my background. On the one hand, I've had to 'learn' my collegial skills - (as, perhaps, we all do), and it has taken a long time - I feel longer than my colleagues who have parents with a variety of degrees. On the other hand, my feeling that this degree is "my own" somehow - and my profound determination to finish - have worked in my favor. Also, I think my perspective as an outsider allows me to think creatively within the academy -- and to see the apparent boundaries between the academy and the "real world" as fluid.