Reply to PhD - intelligence or persistence?

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "PhD - intelligence or persistence? "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]As a tenured prof in the humanities, my take is that you need:

1) Persistence. A lot of really smart people out there, but not all of them have grit. You need resilience to get through the lonely times, rejections, setbacks, and relative poverty (compared to peers who, say, went to law school and are making multiple times what you make) for years. In the humanities, many PhDs take 7-10 years to finish.

2) Intelligence. You have to be able to read and decipher a lot of arcane material, write about it, and make arguments about it. You have to be somewhat quick on your feet to defend your ideas in seminars and before other colleagues. Many PhD programs also require at least reading knowledge in two foreign languages.

3) Professional smarts. A little different than street smarts. You have to know to seek programs that will land you a tenure-track job, mentors that are both well-respected and good to students, and assume the culture of academia. Every culture has a code that you need to break into in order to be accepted, and academia is no exception. There are thousands of cultural ques in academia that no one really explains to you.

4) Money. I tell my students that if they can't be fully funded for graduate school, they should really consider other options. Harsh reality. Top graduate programs will pay for tuition and living expenses. You won't be high on the hog, but you'll be able to get your Phd with minimal debt.

5) Luck. A colleague of mine happened to be writing her dissertation on contemporary Arabic literature when 9/11 happened. She was flooded with interviews when she was on the job market. After 9/11, a ton of colleges and universities opened tenure-track lines in Arabic. Of course, she was also smart, accomplished, and personable, which helped her to land a tenure-track job. But, she doesn't discount the timing, which was entirely beyond her control, in her professional success.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics