I'm finishing up my first (and last) year in a pretty well regarded social science phd program, I also fully swallowed the red pill 6 months ago, so to speak. Being a college professor was a good gig in a bygone era, but things have changed.
I'm not sure how many RVF members are thinking about going this route, but in my college days myself, and many of my friends, were pushed to go on to phd's by our faculty members/advisors etc. Here is the brass tax:
Pros
1) A tenured track position at a university can be a pretty sweet gig, freetime in the summers, travel stipends to conferences, social status, etc.
2) You get to set your own hours, to a certain extent.
3) You get to constantly keep learning throughout your career, and are employed in a fairly secure, lower stress environment, with good job security (tenure track only).
Cons
1) PhD programs in every field produce more graduates then the market can handle, every year. Tenured faculty tend to keep their jobs well into retirement age. Thus the amount of job oppenings per year is structurally skewed against most job market candidates. Getting a PhD from Harvard increases your odds, though most PhD programs are not housed in the Ivies.
2) Even if you are lucky enough to get a job offer after a year or two on the market, it likely will be adjunct these days, and has a good chance at being at Southeast Iowa State Uni in the middle of nowhere.
3) If you end up in smaller sized college town your dating options are going to suck: If you're caught banging your students, you will be fired and never work in academia again. Even dating college girls that are not your students, if caught, will lead to getting judged by your fellow faculty (especially women) and could lead to loose out on contract extensions and tenure. The smaller the town, the harder it is to bang college girls on the low, and the higher chance people (i.e. your faculty peers and chair) will catch on.
4) Its hard to have fun, especially in smaller college towns. Feel like hitting the bars, take a few shots, and talk to girls? If your students see you, they could complain to your chair, or worse, make false allegations. See point 3.
5) You are constantly at the mercey of an instituion that favors women. College campuses are known as bastions of feminism. College girl accuses you of something innapropriate? Everyone from your chair, to the police, to the dean of students will take the side of the girl given her 'protective status' in the instiution (see false UVA rape case).
6) It takes forver to even get to the job market. PhD's take 4-8 years on average, and along they way the most your stipend will pay is $14-20K. You will have no time to make extra money or take side jobs or projects. Think what else you could do with your life in years and energy taken to get the holy PhD.
7) You won't have time or want to read anything for fun or improvement outside of your field. Trust me, you just won't want to. I read the RVF and the news.
I could go on. It's unfortunate, but the academic world, like much of western society, has become a bad route for a man these days. Where I go from here, I do not know. But it will be better than what I have as a phd student.
OLS
I'm not sure how many RVF members are thinking about going this route, but in my college days myself, and many of my friends, were pushed to go on to phd's by our faculty members/advisors etc. Here is the brass tax:
Pros
1) A tenured track position at a university can be a pretty sweet gig, freetime in the summers, travel stipends to conferences, social status, etc.
2) You get to set your own hours, to a certain extent.
3) You get to constantly keep learning throughout your career, and are employed in a fairly secure, lower stress environment, with good job security (tenure track only).
Cons
1) PhD programs in every field produce more graduates then the market can handle, every year. Tenured faculty tend to keep their jobs well into retirement age. Thus the amount of job oppenings per year is structurally skewed against most job market candidates. Getting a PhD from Harvard increases your odds, though most PhD programs are not housed in the Ivies.
2) Even if you are lucky enough to get a job offer after a year or two on the market, it likely will be adjunct these days, and has a good chance at being at Southeast Iowa State Uni in the middle of nowhere.
3) If you end up in smaller sized college town your dating options are going to suck: If you're caught banging your students, you will be fired and never work in academia again. Even dating college girls that are not your students, if caught, will lead to getting judged by your fellow faculty (especially women) and could lead to loose out on contract extensions and tenure. The smaller the town, the harder it is to bang college girls on the low, and the higher chance people (i.e. your faculty peers and chair) will catch on.
4) Its hard to have fun, especially in smaller college towns. Feel like hitting the bars, take a few shots, and talk to girls? If your students see you, they could complain to your chair, or worse, make false allegations. See point 3.
5) You are constantly at the mercey of an instituion that favors women. College campuses are known as bastions of feminism. College girl accuses you of something innapropriate? Everyone from your chair, to the police, to the dean of students will take the side of the girl given her 'protective status' in the instiution (see false UVA rape case).
6) It takes forver to even get to the job market. PhD's take 4-8 years on average, and along they way the most your stipend will pay is $14-20K. You will have no time to make extra money or take side jobs or projects. Think what else you could do with your life in years and energy taken to get the holy PhD.
7) You won't have time or want to read anything for fun or improvement outside of your field. Trust me, you just won't want to. I read the RVF and the news.
I could go on. It's unfortunate, but the academic world, like much of western society, has become a bad route for a man these days. Where I go from here, I do not know. But it will be better than what I have as a phd student.
OLS
