I will add more in 2015, inshallah!!

Peace in the Middle East,

The Bronxite Selah

Thank you VERY much Alex!!

Nice Informative Post. Seriously makes me doubtful, not much about my intention – that is at a very nascent stage – but my chances – having done a Bachelors and Masters in Economics and Research Jobs in all areas of Development from Nutrition to Waste Management – anything but Communication – and that too far from the U.S. – in India.. I can’t imagine anyone who would give me a recommendation either – all my supervisors and colleagues would think I’m crazy and not take it seriously..

If you truly are the type of person who wants to do research, plus you don’t mind hard work, find a high-quality PhD program in communication and apply!

The Bronxite Selah

That is a terribly depressing story, and I fear not unique. As I hinted at above, because there is an abundance of Ph.D. holders, particularly in the humanities, there seems to be a significant amount of credential inflation. It’s hard to be the person without a Ph.D. competing with newly minted Ph.D. folks. There may also be more to this story: those with less experience may, for example, be more pliable and willing to take direction, or it may be that they are the students of friends at a nearby university?

In any case, I guess the question is whether it makes any kind of economic sense to pay for three more years of school just to possibly tread water as an adjunct. You’re right, the Ph.D. isn’t going to make you magically more attractive as a candidate for TT jobs–all of those ABDs you are now competing with are gunning for the same positions.

I suppose the exception here might be if you decided to take things in a completely new direction and seek further work at a tangent to what you do now. No, I don’t know what that means: content strategy for the web? Science writing? Technical writing? I don’t know. But if it’s far enough from what you are doing now, and is an up-and-coming area, then maybe the Ph.D. makes sense? It’s a big gamble, though, both in terms of ultimate job prospects and three years of opportunity costs.

I will continue to say what I said above: don’t pay for the doctoral program. If you can get funding from the school or from an outside fellowship, that’s another story. If you can’t, not only are you accumulating debt that is basically sunk, you are also competing against the folks who did get fellowships and will use them as leverage in the marketplace after.

Beyond this, depending on where you are geographically, it may be possible to make more as a high school teacher than as a college adjunct. And good writers are in demand in the corporate world, as long as you can market yourself well.

I’m in the bind — in more ways than one — of being someone with 10 years of experience as an adjunct (business wriitng, journalism and lately, academic English) who was just informed my contact will not be renewed at a state college next semester. They opted to give the position to an ABD nearing a PhD in “writing.” Other ABDs were hired this semester, apparently endangering us M.A.s in the department. The competition is fierce now even at the community colleges — hundreds of applicants for a few openings, and PhDs get better consideration.

I looked into getting a doctorate myself, but as someone out of school for many years, I did poorly on the GRE (just under 1,000, thanks to a low math score, but I got a 5 out of 6 on the writing part). I imagine that won’t get me past the first level of admission in most programs. I have published several books, many articles, have a list of journalism-related awards and I’m a former Fulbright scholar. The worst part is I’m in my mid-50s, and a single dad with a young daughter. Also, and don’t take this wrong, I am Caucasian. At this point, I’m headed for the dole, (as is my former office mate who also did not make it).

One program I found claimed that I could have a PhD in communications in as little as 2.5 years if my communications M.A. and other college courses transfer. I’m an excellent researcher and writer. I figure I still have at least 10 productive years left. Might it be worthwhile to puruse the doctorate? Is it a gamble to borrow for the tuition, but at least have a better shot at a teaching spot, even as an ABD? I do not expect to ever have a tenured job.

Or, is there a second act for washed-up adjuncts? Thanks.

Fantastic post, and I am glad to see that you are still responding to people who stumble upon it like me. I am currently developing my “go back to school in 2013” plan and your post here has been very informative.

My plan basically revolves around maximizing both private sector employment and academic employment options upon graduation, this basically translates to applying to a few top-20 MBA programs, and also some highly regarded Communication MA programs – the thinking being that at the conclusion of either path, I could always go back and get the other option if I feel the need. Call me a pessimistic late twenty-something, but I feel the job market – even for MBAs – is rotten, and I do not plan on it getting much better soon, if ever in the USA.

Despite this plan I have developed, there is still one aspect of a Ph.D that is tempting me: more and more academics I am talking to have identified college teaching as a growth industry over the next twenty years due to a disproportionate number of soon-to-retire baby boomers in the profession. Not everyone shares this opinion however, I was curious as to how you feel about this?

By the way some background – I graduated from a highly regarded Organization Communication BS program with a 3.8 GPA and a final research paper that was good enough to maybe publish in some smaller journal had I cared to deal with all the review and letting some PhD put their name on the top! Over 6 years as a young professional post-college, however, I have been unlucky in climbing up the organizational ladder and have found myself (I feel) needing more education and more options going forwards. Thanks again for this great post.

This, of course, depends very much on your definition of the good life!

If financial stability/wealth tops that list, the PhD is probably the wrong route. I can understand the desire to “wait out” the current recession in an MBA program, but it’s not clear to me that an MBA always pays off, given the expense. I suspect that the $40K (at a minimum) you would end up spending on an MBA would be better spent starting your own business. Given your language abilities and training, I would look for freelance work while continuing your job search.

That said, the primary advantage an MBA would probably bring is a set of contacts that can lead to opening doors. Particularly if you are able to enter an elite MBA program, that may serve as an expensive, but viable, path into a business career.

I am a new immigrant to the United States. I recently graduated from M.A in Professional and Business Communication program in the United States. I got my Bachelor’s degree from post-Soviet state and I have 3-4 years of international experience at broadcasting organization. I can speak 4 languages including Russian.

Recently, I quit my job and now I am at the crossroad. I have three options: 1) MBA, 2) PhD in Communication or 3) look for another job. Given the unemployment figures for the time being, which of the above would you suggest so that I can live good life in the future.

You didn’t say in what field. The GRE is not predictive, on the whole, of future success in a graduate program, but I know that our faculty used it as a kind of “low pass filter.” Unfortunately, an 1150 is probably pretty low pass. You might want to put that time into bringing up your score. You didn’t say how you had prepped for the exam, but especially if your prep was relatively lightweight, you should be able to raise it significantly with some concentrated effort…

I completed my masters program with flying colors, graduating with a 3.9. It was, however, a “professional” program that offered (but didn’t encourage) a thesis; being young and stupid, I didn’t do one. I have taken the GRE, and did mediocre, at best (1150).

I am wondering if it would be worth my time and effort to apply to a PhD program, with these limiting factors. As I mentioned, I found when I was nearing the completion of my MS that I really love research; I just hadn’t gotten enough of a chance to do a lot of it until that point to find out sooner. I had always thought teaching would be a suitable match, but had planned on doing it after I was a bit older.

In any case, I am passionate about my topic of interest, and would be thrilled to research it in depth. If it would be ill-advised to pursue a PhD right now, do you have recommendations for making myself a more appealing candidate, in the future? I’m only 24; I can’t give up yet. Thanks in advance.

First, in terms of university presidents wanting to reduce the number of tenure track lines, that’s not at all surprising. That said, I don’t know that it will have an impact on the desire for people to get the Ph.D. Many university positions that formerly were held by non-Ph.D.s now seem to require the Ph.D. Community colleges, for example, that might have hired many more people without the Ph.D. in the past now have a larger pool of degree-holders to choose from, and so increasingly it’s a matter of degree-creep. Many of our non-tenure lines are held by those holding Ph.D.s. Heck, in Manhattan, most of the private high schools list the number of faculty with advanced degrees. It just seems like degree inflation in many ways, but I don’t see that tide turning any time soon, unfortunately–it’s less a matter of a Ph.D. getting you a leg up and more a matter of not having the Ph.D. potentially excluding you from a search.

I’m sure that it is field-dependent, but generally I think the reputation of the university is more important than whether it’s in the US. As long as it is a globally recognized program in the area you are pursuing, you’re in fine shape. You can actually see that by looking at the make up of most department faculties in the US–you’re sure to find at least one or two holders of foreign doctorates in many. In recent hiring processes we’ve had finalists with degrees from the UK, France, and Latin America–all from schools you would immediately recognize at top-tier. So yes, there is space to do that. As above, what matters more is establishing yourself as a budding scholar, with a solid publication record.

My impression is that higher education in the UK, particularly in the humanities and humanistic social sciences, is in a bit of turmoil, and so you may find that you are among a number of other, more experienced job seekers attempting to make it across the pond. But that’s anecdotal, and comes from some folks I know who are in that situation at present.

Thank you in advance for any feedback you can give.

For those wanting to find a cut-price 3 year PhD program that gets straight into the research without requirements for graduate classes, you might consider the UK. I am a Professor at a UK institution that is increasingly taking the American model of tenure and also pumping out PhDs. There is no exact equivalent to ‘Communication’ but there tends to be more tolerance of interdisciplinarity amongst PhD students, depending on your supervisors, and disciplines such as Philosophy or Cultural Studies at the ‘new’ universities (formerly Polytechnics, pre-1992) and English or even Human Geography in the ‘old’ universities, allow more adventurous reading and research. Fees are lower, the quality of tuition is patchy but sometimes excellent, the cost of living is high but the program is short – Universities in the UK get penalised if their PhD students aren’t finished within 4 years, and they encourage submission in 3.

Having said this, the reason I was looking at the post is because I will soon be a visiting Ass Prof in Communications at Pitt, and am desperate to leave the UK. It is a toehold as my partner has been offered a tenure-track position in Philosophy there. The cuts and the UK government’s philistine attitude to education is deeply shocking, and we don’t want to stand by and watch more and more cuts to public services happen when, in the past few years, our welfare state and national health service was something to be proud about.

If more prospective PhD candidates read your post, Alex, and the Economist article, they would be disabused of any notion of ‘status’ that the PhD brings, and aware of the many potential pitfalls. It is heartbreaking to think how many human years of unpaid and unrecognised labour is out there in the system so that only a few tenure-track positions can be sustained.

Hi, Kara. Not sure how you manage to read “I loved graduate school,” as a bitter and horrible experience. I, um, loved grad school. And I think it’s fair to say that most of the people that finished around the time I did also loved grad school. The ones who didn’t usually dropped out along the way.

I’m also not sure what a “spurned opinion” is, or who would be doing the spurning :).

I was lucky enough (and luck had a lot to do with it) to come out of my program with an R1 tenure-track offer in hand. This may not be what everyone wants when the go into a Ph.D. program, but far more people want it than get it.

I’m all for more research. As I say above, prospective students should talk to current faculty and students at the schools they want to attend.

You can help. You note that you were supported with a TAship, which is great for you (as it was for me). I also presume you got the job you wanted. What percentage of your peers at UAF were supported as TAs? How many get tenure-track jobs upon graduation at schools where they wanted to teach?

The point is not that the Ph.D. is dismal for everyone, just that it is a very hard row to hoe, that if it is pursued in the hope of a faculty career you should be prepared for the extreme difficulties in finding work, and that universities should be more forthcoming in letting students know this.

Well, I don’t want to be in the business of handicapping schools against one another. The college of communication at Ohio has a strong reputation, generally, though I’ll admit to not being familiar with all of their schools/departments. I know several great faculty and students who have come out of Ohio, and so I’m sure that reflects well on the quality of their programs. From there, it’s just a question of fit to your interests and approach.

My advice to PhD students to pick your supervisor extremely carefully…developing riles and boundaries with him/her around things like contact etc…and have a signed contract between the two of you that you can refer to if/when things get sticky.

FYI: http://sarah-stewart.blogspot.com/2010/01/what-i-have-learned-about-doing-phd.html

Hi Alex … first time reader; first time commenter.

Great advice. I would add that communication professionals consider closely linked fields that rely (very heavily) on communication theory. My undergrad is in Communications, and I eventually made my way into education (but playing mostly on the “corporate” side of learning — M.A. in Educational Policy & Leadership Development). I eventually earned my Ed.D. in Instructional Technology & Distance Education about 5 years ago. I am continually amazed at how much of my UNDERGRAD applies to the work I do in the field with my Ed.D. and I think this is a huge advantage to those in the Communication profession. Good writing, understanding the goal of the message, the perceptions of the medium selected on your target audience, yadda yadda yadda … lots and lots of overlap.

So, while I’m not well versed in the wonderful world of Communication Ph.D. programs, I can say that there’s other avenues with which to pursue that terminal degree that may be in wickedly close fields. I’m just sayin …

Dr Steve Yacovelli
Owner & Principal
TopDog Learning Group, LLC

(PS: The “research bug” did indeed bit me during my doctoral studies and I have found a lot of success at applying academic research methods to business problems. Qualitative research kinda rocks) …