A PhD (in humanities) May Cost You a Lifetime of Debt
And while much of the discussion about higher education has focused on undergraduate student loan debt, or the appalling conditions under which adjunct professors often work, usually with little or no benefits, we think it’s fairly safe to say that most people are unaccustomed to hearing that for many professors, even a tenure-track position (decent salary and all) isn’t enough to achieve financial stability.
So if PhD debt is really as big a problem as Kelsky and her survey’s contributors claim, then why does the current data on the subject paint such a starkly different picture? According to the National Science Foundation’s Survey of Earned Doctorates, an impressive 63% of PhDs completed their programs with no graduate school related debt.
Kelsky says that the numbers tell a deceiving story, primarily because
there’s a huge discrepancy between those graduating with doctorates in, say, engineering and those graduating with advanced degrees in the humanities. For instance, just under half of humanities students were able to earn their PhD with little to no student loans, and about 28% needed to borrow $30,000 or more to finish their programs. In contrast, those graduating with PhDs in engineering rarely had any student loan debt of which to speak. Kelsky notes that for students in the humanities and social sciences, student debt varies widely, “anywhere from $0 to $250,000.”
According to Kelsky, a typical PhD stipend for a candidate in the humanities is “about $15,000. Which — almost anywhere — is not enough to get by.”
Karen Kelsky explains that the increase in PhD student loan debt “starts with the massive defunding of higher education in the United States.” She adds that, “basically, it has become a revenue-driven institution, and so departments and programs that don’t generate revenue in the way that the sciences or engineering or business do, find themselves defunded.”
For most PhD candidates in humanities and the social sciences, the hope is that eventually they’ll land a tenure-track position where they’ll finally be able to work their way up the ladder and gradually pay off the debts accumulated while living on poverty wages as a student.
But even a tenure-track position at a major university is often not enough to justify the often staggering amount of debt some students take on.
“I make a payment every month, bigger than my rent, but I’ll likely die with this debt unpaid, despite a TT [tenure track] job,” reported a sociologist who contributed to Kelsky’s survey, and who reported having more than $200,000 in student loan debt.
Another survey respondent, also an anthropologist, describes his experience as a graduate student. “I tutored, worked 5 jobs, never bought drinks or ate on campus. I had several craigslist tutor jobs up. I also had 6 years Research Assistant to an administrator in which I was published a lot. I got 3 fellowships. I played the game and it was okay for the tuition payoff.
I don’t regret it but do not recommend it for anyone unless you are rich and want to get a ‘vanity PhD.’”
Read more:
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/persona...ifetime-of-debt.html/?a=viewall#ixzz3KOAG4ccr
