Enter the real-life school of hard knocks


It’s such a refreshing feeling walking into a class taught by a fun, informative professor in a subject I love. There’s a wealth of incredible professors here: those who tell witty jokes, weave entertaining tales of their travels and research or simply amaze students with their sheer prestige and power in the world. I’m sure I’m not alone in going to class and thinking, “I want my professor’s job someday.”

But with the state of the economy, I can’t help but think the response in those professors’ heads is, “Over my dead body.”

One look at all the fliers for Graduate Record Examinations practice tests and Kaplan classes indicate that graduate school is on the minds of hordes of undergraduates. Granted, a significant number of those students are applying to law or medical schools to pursue high-earning professions. It’s a long road for any graduate student. But the difference between a medical student and a humanities student is after years of intense study, research and competitive residency, chances are high that every medical school graduate will be able to practice medicine; the same can’t be said for humanities graduates.

In a recently updated article, Thomas H. Benton of The Chronicle of Higher Education laments this state of academia and advised students to stay away from graduate school in the humanities, arguing that institutional education and the economy exploit students and send them out ragged and unprepared for the real world. Because the majority of graduate humanities students intend to work in academia, Benton argued these students are setting themselves up for heartbreak in a current economic climate that influences universities to restrict their hiring policies, severely limiting the benefits of becoming an adjunct professor and making the odds of getting on the tenure track the same as winning the lottery.

As a student considering graduate study in the humanities, this was a wake-up call. We as students must be able to represent the university as two entities at the same time: one that wants to support study and research and another that wants to make money. Guess which one calls the shots on hiring policies?

Of course, I didn’t just decide to roll over at the sound of bad news. I’m far too stubborn to give up subjects I love. However, I was forced to realize this “love” is exploitable and ensures absolutely nothing. Benton, decrying such sentimentalization of studies that should be preparing students for professional positions, argues such “love” allows for unfair labor policies under the rhetoric, “We don’t need to pay you fairly because you are doing it for love.” He sees the academic labor system working under the motto, “Provide no more costly tenured positions than are needed to keep the graduate students coming and the adjuncts working.”

Benton’s article does not offer tangible alternatives to those students considering graduate study but rather hopes those who do pursue graduate studies despite the obstacles try to transform academia by bridging their subjects to the real world and creating much-needed relevance.

A reported example suggests law enforcement and medical programs should institute more literature into their curriculum to increase aptitudes for compassion and sympathy. It’s these new connections those studying humanities should seek rather than the isolation of academia that produces more graduates than it hires.

It’s entirely OK to be “in love” with a subject and to pursue it for the joy of learning, but we must realize that working for academia is no different than other career ventures; it is just as risky as being an actor or professional athlete.

College might be fun and comfortable, leading many to want to make education a career, but the choice to work in academia cannot and should not be motivated by a desire to remain sheltered from the real world. Some of us may love learning art history or literature, but the economic and academic climate needs us to do more than just regurgitate what we’ve learned back to incoming students.

To change the academic system, we need to be skeptical of and pickier about how the university treats us. They may be welcoming when we’re paying students, but not so much as prospective faculty.

If we humanities majors intend to further our studies, we really should take our school motto to heart: Fight On!

Victor Luo is a junior majoring in English.

3 replies
  1. Sam
    Sam says:

    I’m not a student of USC, but I love your article. I am a 2004 Sociology grad. Most of my professors pushed grad school, too. My grades were average at best and I thought grad school wouldn’t help with my future aspirations, “manager of something.”

    I ended in the i/t field. The first couple of years hurt, no doubt. I worked for around $12 an hour, part time, no benefits, for about 2 years. I then got a much better, full time position paying double what I was making with benefits and retirement. That was going well until just recently. The recession hit pretty hard and I took an early exit.

    The reality is there is no magic degree. If you take composure’s advice you’d think that a engineering degree or a math degree is only way to go with. I know plenty of unemployed and unhappy engineers. Then I know lots of happy engineers, too. The difference? The love (with dedicated that comes with it).

    For you, finish your English degree. Take a few years off and enter the job field. Most English majors tend to go into technical writing or public relations. Never forgot your career aspirations, though. If you want to work in academia, volunteer for a professor while gainfully employed.

    Take that article with a grain of salt and work on a backup plan. What if you don’t make it as a rock-star professor? Can you write documentation, speak to engineers, deliver a marketing report, or do someone’s taxes? Lots of potential there in the private sector if you can be flexible and work hard at it.

    In closing we are much too wrapped up on degrees and titles. In the real world you are what you make of yourself. No one is going to hold your hand and say, “This is what you should do today.”

    • composure
      composure says:

      I didn’t mean to sound so 1-dimensional. Yeah, my friend’s fiance who’s a grad student (computer science major) at that school across town isn’t faring so well in the job market. And yes, I hate to say this, but UCLA’s grad school is more prestigious than SC’s. But even with his UCLA computer science grad school degree, he’s not geting any responses from any of his resume submissions. I don’t care if you came out of Harvard, if your degree isn’t in demand in this dismal economy, then you’re going to be unemployed for some time.

      I agree with you, it’s a pyrrhic victory to get to wrapped up into degrees, the prestige of which school you attended, titles, etc.

  2. composure
    composure says:

    There’s a good reason your parents implore you to pursue the highly competitive and rigorous academic endeavors such as pre-med, engineering (not social engineering), computer science and the likes. It’s not just about the titular prestige of “M.D.” etc. It’s because majors that are based on structured disciplines such as mathematics and natural sciences are what enable cancer treatment, surgery, space shuttles to fly into space, sophisticated computer programs, etc. These are the things that make the world go round.

    You can waste your time and believe that grad school will set you apart from an undergraduate degree. A grad school degree is not a sure shot in this uphill economy, especially one in business, law, or humanities. I have friends who are pursuing these now, and even they’re worried about “what’s next?”

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