Not mentioned here, but if you want an academic job in the humanities, in the US, don't be white. Universities have adopted explicitly racist hiring policies for the time being.
Yeah, and until the last 20 years don't be anything that isn't white.
So you want to go to grad school (in the academic humanities)?
31–40 of 74 posts
Re: So you want to go to grad school (in the academic humanities)?
#32Some more nuggets of advice about grad school that I heard or came up with grad school friends over my decade (this mainly applying to engineering programs): 1. It’s almost always okay to quit. Quitting grad school is probably the smarter decision to make for the majority of grad students even if it’s two years before graduation. Your sanity and self worth are more important and surprisingly your career success follo…
> Unless you’re trying to also use it as an immigration ticket to a 1st world country, if you can’t make it to a top school (top 20 for US, 5 elsewhere), don’t bother. Every qualified person I've heard talk about this said the opposite. "Top-20 school" isn't how professors or large industry labs evaluate a PhD, they will look at the advisor's reputation and the specific lab. > A masters would end up taking your caree…
> if your definition of "mediocre" is "from a non-top-20 school", that definition is absurd.
My guess is that they are talking about a program that is Top-20 in a particular field, or even large sub-field, rather than the overall university ranking. This can be quite different than an overall ranking. For example, SUNY Stonebrook and University of Minnesota are powerhouses in topology and combinatorics, respectively, but certainly not amongst the most prestegious in other fields.
With the qualifier of "within a a field", this comment is far from absurd. The exact cut-off, of course, differs from field to field. In Near Eastern Languages, don't waste your time outside the Top-3. In CS, even graduates from programs in the Top-50 have a chance a faculty job.
Re: So you want to go to grad school (in the academic humanities)?
#33Glad the author gave a shout-out to the positive experience that is an undergraduate degree in the humanities (I did that myself), but I would add a word of caution along with his others: Literature departments are maintaining themselves on "Creative Writing" programs aimed at every Harry Potter and YA fiction fan in the world. As such, a lot of unwitting kids think they can go to a trade school in how to be a litera…
Seems to me that there is essentially no evidence that following any given course of study materially increases your likelihood of being a successful author. Neither creative writing courses nor the humanities courses you advocate are known to help with that outcome.
Re: So you want to go to grad school (in the academic humanities)?
#34Not mentioned here, but if you want an academic job in the humanities, in the US, don't be white. Universities have adopted explicitly racist hiring policies for the time being.
Just so you know, I read your comment about racism and your choice of a throwaway name ending in 88 as a statement that you are a nazi or nazi-adjacent.
Just so you know, I have no interest in or affiliation with any sort of nazism. What does 88 have to do with anything?
For the record, I originally made this throwaway to criticize the CCP’s oppression of Hong Kong (hence “hk”). 8 is a lucky number in Chinese.
As for throwaways, maybe look at the fact that any questioning of the currently predominant racism leads to accusations of nazism, and see if that explains why people might want to make their objections anonymously.
Re: So you want to go to grad school (in the academic humanities)?
#35Not mentioned here, but if you want an academic job in the humanities, in the US, don't be white. Universities have adopted explicitly racist hiring policies for the time being.
Yeah, and until the last 20 years don't be anything that isn't white.
Racism was wrong, so we must be racist.
Re: So you want to go to grad school (in the academic humanities)?
#36Glad the author gave a shout-out to the positive experience that is an undergraduate degree in the humanities (I did that myself), but I would add a word of caution along with his others: Literature departments are maintaining themselves on "Creative Writing" programs aimed at every Harry Potter and YA fiction fan in the world. As such, a lot of unwitting kids think they can go to a trade school in how to be a litera…
Creative Writing is a mixed bag. At least at the postgraduate level, a lot of programs do, at first blush, seem to be revenue hubs first and useful training second. Those, of course, you don't want.
But there are good ones out there, and I would say the good ones are candid from the start that you're highly unlikely to write a bestseller as a new author (or ever) and they actively disabuse applicants and students of unhelpful ideas like that.
I did one recently and I'd say the quasi-apprenticeship model described in the source post is pretty accurate. The overall purpose is professional polishing - the degree acts as your calling card. The program isn't meant to teach you how to write, since admission is essentially premised on being able to write at or very close to a publishable level from the start.
My tutors have said bluntly that if you are interested in publishing commercially, editors often greatly prefer submissions from authors who have their Masters. It's a bellwether that the manuscript has a better chance of doing well and that the author has a clue about how the industry works and will be easier to work with.
Re: So you want to go to grad school (in the academic humanities)?
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just so you know, I read your comment about racism and your choice of a throwaway name ending in 88 as a statement that you are a nazi or nazi-adjacent.
Just so you know, I have no interest in or affiliation with any sort of nazism. What does 88 have to do with anything? For the record, I originally made this throwaway to criticize the CCP’s oppression of Hong Kong (hence “hk”). 8 is a lucky number in Chinese. As for throwaways, maybe look at the fact that any questioning of the currently predominant racism leads to accusations of nazism, and see if that explains why…
Just for your knowledge (I’m Asian too so I had to learn this) 88 is a nazi dog whistle in America. Specifically, h is the eighth letter of the alphabet and 88 -> hh -> heil hitler. I don’t know how common it is among actual nazi circles to use that phrasing, honestly, because I don’t know any nazi communities, but that’s the common online belief.
Re: So you want to go to grad school (in the academic humanities)?
#38Well, from my point of view, elite-level education in humanities for most of the history was a privilege reserved for the elites (to define "elites", I will use a narrow definition of "not having to work for living", though there are some exceptions). So if you consider obtaining a PhD in humanities, you need to _plan_ that you won't be "working" for the rest of your life, either by the "virtue" of being born in a we…
The author has an essay arguing why we shouldn't allow the humanities to go back to being the purview of the idle elite: https://acoup.blog/2020/07/03/collections-the-practical-case...
Re: So you want to go to grad school (in the academic humanities)?
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just so you know, I have no interest in or affiliation with any sort of nazism. What does 88 have to do with anything? For the record, I originally made this throwaway to criticize the CCP’s oppression of Hong Kong (hence “hk”). 8 is a lucky number in Chinese. As for throwaways, maybe look at the fact that any questioning of the currently predominant racism leads to accusations of nazism, and see if that explains why…
Just for your knowledge (I’m Asian too so I had to learn this) 88 is a nazi dog whistle in America. Specifically, h is the eighth letter of the alphabet and 88 -> hh -> heil hitler. I don’t know how common it is among actual nazi circles to use that phrasing, honestly, because I don’t know any nazi communities, but that’s the common online belief.
Just so you know, most of that “nazi dog whistle” stuff (like the ok sign) was fabricated by trolls on 4chan. So maybe think for yourself a little before you go accusing people of things based on Internet hearsay.
Re: So you want to go to grad school (in the academic humanities)?
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just for your knowledge (I’m Asian too so I had to learn this) 88 is a nazi dog whistle in America. Specifically, h is the eighth letter of the alphabet and 88 -> hh -> heil hitler. I don’t know how common it is among actual nazi circles to use that phrasing, honestly, because I don’t know any nazi communities, but that’s the common online belief.
Just so you know, most of that “nazi dog whistle” stuff (like the ok sign) was fabricated by trolls on 4chan. So maybe think for yourself a little before you go accusing people of things based on Internet hearsay.
Wait, how is it possible that you stated you don’t know what the person was talking about and then turn around and tell me the precise origins of the thing? Did you Google it?