what the fuck am i getting myself into with this grad school stuff

interesting article thanks

Yay, another ridiculous article that by and large treats "Ph.D."'s as one large, homogeneous bloc looking for faculty positions. 100K Ph.D.'s and 16K professorships in the past five years ... that's a totally meaningless stat. It's like saying "out of X people with English degrees, only Y% of them are writing books for a living". How many of those 100K people are, uh, WORKING? That's what's important. I want to see these employment numbers broken down by discipline.

You also can't throw around employment numbers from different countries as if they can be straightforwardly compared to the situation in Britain or the US. There are far, far fewer faculty positions in Spain and Germany than in the US because the hierarchy is completely different. Most researchers work on a five year "temporary" contract as a necessary prelude to getting a permanent position ... there is no exact equivalent to this in the US. So it's misleading to complain that "45% of graduates are still on temporary contracts after five years in Germany".

The "earnings premiums" numbers are important, and huzzah, how about that: "only in medicine, other sciences, and business and financial studies is it high enough to be worthwhile." That kinda ruins his whole thesis, doesn't it? But rather than acknowledge that the advantages of a Ph.D. is entirely dependent upon the chosen discipline, the author whitewashes them by averaging them out across all disciplines to give the impression that there's an across-the-board crisis.

lol @ "only in medicine, other sciences, and business and financial studies is it high enough to be worthwhile."

AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

one essay written - very very poorly but should just about get away with it. I now have a week to recycle an essay from 3 1/2 years ago into a submittable form for an entirely different question. I don't yet think this masters was a mistake but i'm not sure I'm approaching it quite as I should.

I don't yet think this masters was a mistake but i'm not sure I'm approaching it quite as I should

AM
I
RITE

hay i am trying to apply but it is hurting my head.

1. i have no idea how 2 write the goddam essay. I mean i know why i want to go there, i just dont know what the hell an essay like this is supposed to look like. feel kindof stumped from the outset.

2. did anybody work while doing a postgrad? i have no idea how im gonna pay for this thing. it scares me, i really want to do it but it feels like i keep putting hurdles up in front of myself, the idea of living in london and working enough to support myself while in full time education (esp as i really want to make a good go of it) is starting to freak me out.

3. like i'm gonna apply for some sort of grant, but i need a fallback if i dont get it right?

4. hmmmm

what are you going for?

http://www.gold.ac.uk/pg/ma-contemporary-art-theory/

fantastic

tbh i have no idea how people without substantial savings or other means manage to study full time at pg level in london.

i am working f/t but my masters is p/t and evenings only so it's really not the same. looks like a great course though.

/unhelpful

plax, when you say 'essay' do you just mean personal statement or do they demand a fresh piece of work from you in addition? There are a fair few example personal statements out there on the web if you need to get an idea. Make sure you keep an eye out for course specific instructions, too (i.e. length sometimes varies, and there seems to be a brief person spec on the main site, etc etc). If you really want to feel better about yourself I can webmail you my Crit Theory personal statement, which got me in even though it was utter crap.

2. did anybody work while doing a postgrad? i have no idea how im gonna pay for this thing. it scares me, i really want to do it but it feels like i keep putting hurdles up in front of myself, the idea of living in london and working enough to support myself while in full time education (esp as i really want to make a good go of it) is starting to freak me out.

Worked a bit during term time on my MA, and nearly full- time through the summer when I was supposed to be doing dissertation. Ended up doing it in a month flat, start to finish, library everyday 9-8.

Worked a fair bit during PhD, but mostly in the summer, and I had funding, so that helped....

My advice? you can do the MA - save like crazy till the autumn, live on pasta, while you're there, work through Xmas and maybe w/ends. It's *only* a year, so you should be able to cover it, and you can cope with hardship, because it will end soon. Also, everyone else on the course will be as broke as you. I went from full time employment, back to studenthood, and to a life where I suddenly had to live for a week on what I would recently spend in a night: didn't matter, because everyone else was broke too.

People in my graduate program routinely spend $50+ just on a meal or whatevs when they invite us along. Like a couple times a week. I just quit hanging out with them bcz I couldn't afford it. I assume they are getting into massive credit card debt bcz ––– where the fuck is that disposable income coming from?

omg reading admissions essays they are hella cheesy, do they all have to be inspirational stories.

Shouldn't they not be? I mean all of mine were pretty straightforwardly: "Hey, I'm applying to your program, this is what I wanna do and this is stuff in that vein that I've already done; btw this professor's cool, too."

Okay, I feel like a massive fucking idiot for not even knowing about that Goldsmiths Contemporary Art Theory program, because I'd probably have applied to it.

xp well i have no idea then

i know it looks unbelievable right?

Oh, I didn't even see that the deadline is march 1. To be honest, I'm so burned out on applying to schools that I'm probably not going to bother.

omg reading admissions essays they are hella cheesy, do they all have to be inspirational stories.

― plax (ico), Wednesday, January 5, 2011 11:43 AM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark

might be a US/UK divide thing - I remember reading a book about cambridge admission essays and being surprised at how staid and straightforward they were

From what I can tell (at least from my very recent personal experience applying to UCL and the Courtauld's Art History MA programs) British schools are especially straightforward with respect to stuff like statements of purpose. I think what you want to keep in mind is letting them know you have something particular in mind (something you'd hypothetically write a thesis on) and that you can deliver the goods (i.e. that you have you've been thinking/writing/been educated about it etc. already) and not bother with fawning inspirational stuff. It's also a good idea, for these schools, to highlight the role of particular subjects that are offered and that you intend to take (especially if the program is focused around one or two subjects).

I don't know what to say about $$$, because I don't know what things are like for British/EU citizens, but AHRC and tuition increases and all don't make it look promising.

"My husband often likens me to a flower. Not some delicate and fragile blossom that droops in adverse environments, but a strong and hearty plant that can make the most of what is offered and bloom anywhere."

im assuming bc it is goldsmiths and bc it is postgrad that the price hike is gonna be as minimal as it can be under the circumstances, but yeah.

yeah i assumed it would be something like what you guys are describing and then i actually looked for samples and they are all about the moment that somebody's friend died and they realised that life is precious and urban planning is their vocation

"My husband often likens me to a flower. Not some delicate and fragile blossom that droops in adverse environments, but a strong and hearty plant that can make the most of what is offered and bloom anywhere."

― plax (ico), Tuesday, January 4, 2011 11:08 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I hope, for everyone's sake, that this application was throw out upon reading this.

If you want I can even send you one of my statements of purpose.

whoa i would v v v appreciate that! i mean i feel like if i knew what one of these things looked like that wasnt from one of these shitty sites i would be a lot less anxious about it. i've written a list of what i want to cover i just

my email is t14rn4nmcd0n0ugh at gmail btw [with letters instead of numbers - mod.]

personal statements are the worst u just write w/e like fuck u, just accept me, ill be great

thats how i got in ne way

Sent.

I think these things are much easier when you've seen a real statement. Granted I haven't been accepted/rejected from anywhere, so I don't have legitimation of whether my application is good or not.

Plax, who are you angling to study under? VVG friend of mine is on the staff there.

(best of luck BTW but I'm sure you've made yours out of all kinds of awesome)

is it a little early for thinking that way? idk im asking, I dont have any friends who are trying to move into this kind of academia so there's lots of conversations I haven't had. I read up on the staff list and there were plenty of mentions of feminist and queer and postcolonial approaches so that made me p happy...

Also EDB i am a LOT happier having read your statement and Ive started a first draft.

i don't think it's too early for thinking that way, so long as you don't fix your ideas now - not rly sure how it is at Gsmiths but friends of mine doing one-year Master's had to decide their dissertation topic and supervisor after one term, or a term and a half. Which is really soon! So it's worth picking out a few topics where you have deep thoughts etc.

Obviously you can't predict the conversations you'll have and the ideas that will spring from them but it's good to show that you've thought about potential conversations, that you're not just interested in feminist and queer and postcolonial approaches as abstract stuff you want to learn from them about but as dealing with questions that you already think pretty hard about on your own, in which you already feel an engagement, and which you think this course specifically will help you navigate.

i am in a funny place here tho as the only masters application i've done was for a research masters - that was like 50% 'what i want to write about' 40% 'why your course is great' 10% 'hi i am a person who exists'. I am v v lol britishes about these things but I do think you want to address yourself to them as an intellect that happens to have a personality, rather than a person who happens to have an intellect.

also that course sounds a ma zing (and now i am reading everything i can find from 3yal w3izman)

Thinking of starting a thread called "what the fuck am i getting myself into with this postdoc stuff"...

subtitled - indentured servitude pt. II

Perhaps you could start with a 'how the fuck I get into this post-doc stuff?' - it's a world proving resistant to my charms at the minute.

viva passed w/o corrections today

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUVAxBZojWQ

Woo! Congratulations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz9q9UZS4M0

congrats caek

congratulations

feeling particularly chilled out right now in a bar by oxford station.

Never done the postgrad thing myself but no corrections sounds pretty exceptional! Congratulations.

when do you get your floppy hat and wizard regalia?

congratulations!!

Good work Dr. Caek.

Fabulous, caek!

http://i.imgur.com/st5hK.jpg

i am gonna be so fucking rich now