Doctorate programs take years of study, and in the liberal arts field, may cost significant amount of money to complete. So is it really worth it? The Economist notes that 64,000 doctorates graduate in America per year. This means as a nation we must be getting smarter, the only problem is, there are not jobs enough for all of these graduates.
People who have attended Ph.D. programs usually have been trained specifically for work in academia. After four years or more of intensive study in a narrow field, the skill set they have learned tends to be very specific. The corporate world, however, usually does not consider this a substitute for years of working in business. Thus, if a graduate plans to work outside of academia, their time and energy may be better spent climbing the ranks and growing earning potential, rather than living off a teaching stipend of $20,000 per year, only to graduate with uncertain prospects.
Similarly, academia has its own money problems. When it is cheaper to pay graduate students and postdocs to teach undergraduates and conduct cutting edge research for a salary of $20,000 to $40,000, it just makes fiscal sense to cut back on full time staff. Likewise, as tenured professors are dying off, the concept of tenure is dying with them. Thus, many doctoral candidates can see the writing on the wall. The dropout rate is high, debt is high and the earning power of such a degree in the liberal arts, unlike in medicine and law, is only marginally higher than a bachelor’s degree.
The government talks about everyone needing higher education, but flaws in the system prove it is just a pipe dream. Ph.D.s should be valued as proof of a person’s dedication, rigor and accomplishment in a field, but post-school careers rarely reflect this. Still some people need Ph.D.s to succeed in their fields, but it takes some number crunching and acceptance to a good institution before a student should commit to the pursuit.
People who have attended Ph.D. programs usually have been trained specifically for work in academia. After four years or more of intensive study in a narrow field, the skill set they have learned tends to be very specific. The corporate world, however, usually does not consider this a substitute for years of working in business. Thus, if a graduate plans to work outside of academia, their time and energy may be better spent climbing the ranks and growing earning potential, rather than living off a teaching stipend of $20,000 per year, only to graduate with uncertain prospects.
Similarly, academia has its own money problems. When it is cheaper to pay graduate students and postdocs to teach undergraduates and conduct cutting edge research for a salary of $20,000 to $40,000, it just makes fiscal sense to cut back on full time staff. Likewise, as tenured professors are dying off, the concept of tenure is dying with them. Thus, many doctoral candidates can see the writing on the wall. The dropout rate is high, debt is high and the earning power of such a degree in the liberal arts, unlike in medicine and law, is only marginally higher than a bachelor’s degree.
The government talks about everyone needing higher education, but flaws in the system prove it is just a pipe dream. Ph.D.s should be valued as proof of a person’s dedication, rigor and accomplishment in a field, but post-school careers rarely reflect this. Still some people need Ph.D.s to succeed in their fields, but it takes some number crunching and acceptance to a good institution before a student should commit to the pursuit.
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