“(W)e must think of graduate school as more like choosing to go to New York to become a painter or deciding to travel to Hollywood to become an actor. Those arts-based careers have always married hope and desperation into a tense relationship. We must admit that the humanities, now, is that way, too…For those students who seek to go to graduate school, presenting the choice as an artistic career means that we must accept that persistent professional disappointment is a central part of the life.”
— James Mulholland at the Chronicle responds to Thomas Benton’s article calling graduate school in the humanities a “trap” and a “lie” (via)
One response
I wrote a little bit about this at my website. URL = http://onetoughvoncookie.com/?p=2287
Having spent the last 8 years in a grad program at a generally great university, and still being unable to land a job after 2 years, I honestly don’t know where I stand on the whole “trap-and-lie” issue. In some ways, yes, but in other ways, it’s just the economy… or at least that’s what I’ve been told.
For the record, ONE person got a job this year, out of all the people that were on the market. Last year, nearly everyone got a job. So, maybe it’s temporary, this lack of jobs… One can only hope.
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