Grad school

[robinturner]

I have asked, in some of academic communities I belong to, what this "grad school" thing is all about. To date, I have not received a reply. The article, Wanted: Really Smart Suckers goes some way to providing an answer. American universities are underfunded, so they make postgrads pay for courses they probably don't need, then use them as underpaid labour, which they can get away with because of the debts students incur by taking these courses (and when I say "underpaid", I'm talking something comparable to McDonalds rates here - I earn more than the typical American TA/adjunct, and I live in Turkey, where you can get a bottle of hard liquor for $12 and a good meal for half that).

However, I'm still not sure what grad kids do in grad school. Given that they call it a school, does this mean they go to class and sit in rows listening to the teacher? Please tell me this isn't true. I mean we're talking about PhD students, for crying out loud!

All I can say is that if you're a bright student thinking of doing postgraduate work, go east young (wo)man. That doesn't mean Boston, that means as far east as a plane will take you.

Comments

[alsoname.livejournal.com]

If you go as far east as a plane will take you, you'll just end up back in the west.

At my alma mater, grad students tended to take seminars, small classes where they shot the shit with their professors. They also took some of the undergrad lecture classes, but they had separate discussion sessions with the professors.

[solri.livejournal.com]

If you go as far east as a plane will take you, you'll just end up back in the west.

I think you'd run out of fuel first.

[bram.livejournal.com]

The situation is different in the sciences and in the humanities. In the sciences, for one, you get paid better. At a state university, the tuition is very low and as a TA or RA you get the fees waived and a not-so-bad salary.

PLUS there is much to learn in class in the sciences. I didn't take a single class in astronomy as an undergrad. Instead I tried to build up an understanding of basic physics, which is needed to understand astronomy. Similarly in physics: as an undergrad, unless you are an exceptional autodidact, you will not learn enough technical material for your career.

The teacher/class format was boring though. We used to pass notes in Galaxies class. Seminars were better. But classes typically took only the first 2 years of grad school

[solri.livejournal.com]

I suppose there's also the factor that in the sciences, graduate students' research can take up a lot of valuable lab time and equipment, so you need to keep a closer eye on them.

[chr0me-kitten.livejournal.com]

Graduate classes tend to be far smaller than undergraduate classes. So instead of sitting in rows listening to the teacher, it usually involves sitting around a table talking with the teacher and your fellow students. Also, there's a far greater reading, research & writing component outside of class. There's field research if necessary. And finally, there's your thesis (MA) and dissertation (Ph.D.).

You're right on about the pay. It's a racket and a good one for the universities. Some schools' TAs and adjuncts unionize, but for the most part, they don't. Also, as the poster above points out, your discipline makes a difference. There's not much money in the humanities.

[chr0me-kitten.livejournal.com]

The other thing I forgot to mention is that not everyone goes into debt paying for these classes. Often, tuition is part of the pay for a TA.

[trochee.livejournal.com]

I'll echo all what chr0me_kitten said, with respect to my grad program:

* Tuition is paid for by my RA-ship, which also pays me a salary (which is just barely a living wage).
* My classes are very small (the largest yet had 20 people) and I know all my professors on a first-name basis.
* We are unionized as of this quarter -- we're currently negotiating the contract for the next period (as yet undecided).

I'd be happy to answer more-specific questions if you want.

[ironed_orchid]

Here in Australia we have the good ol' commonwealth degree structure, so I don't have the same experience of grad school. But I was thinking of applying for the US, so I know bit about the differences.

Basically, if you do a PhD in the US, you have to do 2 years of graduate level seminars then sit exams before being allowed to write your dissertation. On the one hand this gives you a lot more grounding and time to write papers and read that isn't included in the 3 years you write your dissertation, on the other hand, the whole process takes longer and costs more.

Masters degrees are different all over the place. Here we have to course between a coursework masters, which is 2/3s courses and short dissertation (20k), and research masters, which is up to 1/3 courses (sometimes none or simply unstructured seminars where students report on their research) and a long dissertation (60k). From what I gather, most masters degrees in the US have a considerable coursework component. If anyone knows better, feel free to correct me.

[solri.livejournal.com]

I did my MA part-time while working. I'm still putting off doing the PhD - every year, I think "next year."

[solri.livejournal.com]

I was thinking for a while of doing philosophy, but I'll probably go for cognitive linguistics with a philosophical slant (rather like I did in my MA dissertation).

[solri.livejournal.com]

Not really. My dissertation was on categorisation (specifically Turkish terms for women and girls, and the reasons for choosing one term rather than another). That involved looking at categories in general, with reference to Aristotle and Wittgenstein, as well as the usual cogling idols like George Lakoff, Eleanor Rosch and those Siamese twins, Berlin and Kay.

I'm keeping mum about my idea for a thesis, but it will again involve categorisation, a fair amount of conceptual metaphor, and a bit of classical rhetoric.

I'm glad you responded to this post, as it's making me feel more enthusiastic about it. Maybe one day the enthusiasm will reach critical mass and I'll actually apply to some university. Pretoria looks good - they do distance learning with occasional visits to see your thesis supervisor, which will give me a good excuse for an expensive holiday, during which I can get an earful of mbaqanqa.

[solri.livejournal.com]

Pretoria is the capital of South Africa.