Weighing the merits of a DMA

[nycbone]

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[nycbone]

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[adam0408]

It seems that prospects are pretty dark. I've now done quite a bit of research on this subject and I must say that I am less than excited about the opportunities waiting after a doctorate of any sort. I was looking for positive stories and all I got was a bunch of stuff screaming "DON'T DO IT!!" This is really looking like a bad, bad idea.

It does speak to the lack of quality in higher education when professors are treated like expendible resources. (wether or not the majority are is a question up for debate) This is a practice that is not effective in any field. I've seen it in restaurants numerous times. It seems to me in a career this fosters an attitude of "working just hard enough not to get fired." Or, if you're probably gonna be let go anyway, why apply yourself at all?

Now that I think of it I've seen several of my former professors, all of them very capable and excellent teachers, fall prey to the unfortunate decisions made at administration levels that cause them not to get tenure and even get "fired." It boggles my mind that people still ascribe to the fantasy of professorship when all the evidence points that it is nothing like what they say.

Another problem that has been nagging at the back of my mind is that most tenured professors who have made a life out of teaching began when the job climate was much, much different and have zero perspective on the current academic and professional climate.

I have a friend who is a visual artist with an MFA I believe who just got a tenure track position in Michigan. He expressed some well-founded trepidation about getting fired before receiving tenure. I sincerely hope he makes a very long and fruitful career in academic world, as he seems to be one of the lucky ones.

Testing the temperature of the waters on this issue has led me to the conclusion that they are frigid and very uninviting.

[Ken Herrick]

Welcome to the "real world". It can be devastating to find that what you have been told " ain't neecessarily so", but you now, possibly, have a clearer view of what could be ahead.

Many of those in the upper levels of academia have never been outside that cloistered realm and just don't know any better. Then too, without a steady stream of aspirants to their jobs, they wouldn't have their jobs.

If nothing else, you started one of the better discussions wr have had here.

All the best in whatever you do take on.

[sloan]

"Prospects are dark" only if you hold on to this silly idea that a DMA or a PhD is something painful
you do now in exchange for something wonderful that happens to you later. A sort of Calvinist approach to education.

Education should not be like hitting your head against the wall ("it feels so good when I stop!").

In my (personal) experience, it hurt when I *stopped* - so I went back for more...and never left.

This is true at all levels, starting in college. If you view it as a necessary evil which will pay off in the end,
you should stop. Go and do something else. IT WILL NOT GET BETTER, and IT WILL NOT BE WORTH IT IN THE END. If you are 18 and college seems irrelevant, go and get a job, or join the Navy. Learn a trade, and practice it. Perhaps later you'll change your mind...perhaps not. If you have graduated from college and can't stand the thought of grad school - do not be tempted by promises of a better future - the future starts now. Get a job. If you think that it is DELAYING your "real life" - you are right. Only recognize that for other people it IS their life. One size does NOT fit all. What works for Harry may not work for Joe.

"Doctor, Doctor...it hurts when I do that". "Don't do that!"

The means justify the ends.