Based on my academic experience, and the strength of my musical compositions (which will annoy at least one poster on these boards), I’ve been offered the possibility of doing a second PhD in Music Composition over two years (starting Fall '24) at a very well respected university.
Pros:
I’ll be a Doctor Doctor
I love being in school
It will give me more time to get my music career going before being forced back into a job I don’t want to do.
Cons:
Costs. I can technically afford it but I’m not infinitely wealthy.
I would finish when I’m 53. How fearful should I be of ageism?
Is the second PhD being considered as an act of consumption or investment? That is, do you want to do the work for personal growth/fun or to move into a different field of work that requires the degree?
A little of both. It would be nice to focus on a music career (and if I’m independent then no ageism). Of course, I don’t need a music degree, let alone a PhD to do that kind of work. It gives me more opportunities to teach at a university level. I would be able to teach CS, Music, and Computer Music. However, it is to some degree an excuse to not go back to work in technology, because I hate it.
The university I’m at doesn’t have a music program, but increasingly universities do not hire tenure-track positions. Instead, they hire people on a course by course basis, with no guarantees of work from semester to semester. So if you’re thinking of a career change and counting on becoming a professor, that is, one with a full time, tenured job, it is not very likely, regardless of age. If there were a tenure-track position, ageism might indeed be a thing, if only because a younger person is likely to have more publications (because they have more energy and time and fewer distractions, like family, health, etc.) and be doing whatever the hot new thing is.
You didn’t make it all that clear, but your first PhD is in Computer Science? I first thought you already had a Music PhD and were for some reason getting a second, but other posts seem to say otherwise.
If you have the means and like learning that much, sure. Practically though, I would suggest doing it in twenty years if it is unlikely to be remunerative.
I voted “yes, but” before I saw your further comments. Now I’d say, go for it.
I’ve worked 30+ years in various Finance, IT and Operations Research fields in the corporate world.
A few years ago I was thinking of going in for a DBA and doing some Adjunct Professor lecturing starting at age 57 or so.
But after talking to people at local colleges (either community colleges or third rate four year ones), I found that the supply of Adjuncts was already in surplus.
I say “sure, why not?” Of course the adjunct professor jiggery pokery has been addressed.
I’m assuming you’d be a fully funded doctoral student, given a (small) monthly stipend in exchange for teaching undergraduates or TA-ing for a larger course. And health insurance, which IME tends to be pretty good.
I sure wouldn’t pay money or take out loans for any advanced degree: that’s just the rule I’ve always heard since an undergraduate. University pays tuition and stipend, or it’s never worth it. IME students who pay tuition/fees are definitely regarded as second-class within the department.
ETA but, for an adult unwilling to live like a twenty-something kid, the stipend will be insufficient, almost definitely, to support your living expenses. So, yes, you will likely end up paying the difference to make ends meet, however you choose to do so.
Maybe an MFA, a terminal degree, might be a more reasonable alternative, provided the university covers tuition and fees.
It is really wild. I’ve heard it is similar in the USA, but in Canada, almost every university is moving more and more towards adjunct/sessional professors. It is vastly cheaper for them. It is an awful job. You have zero security, and the pay is awful. Junior programmers make more money than sessional lecturers.
So yeah, my options are return to a technology field that I don’t really enjoy or continue to press on with the music as best I can. I could almost certainly make a pile o’ money going back into technology but I just don’t enjoy it.
I would be fully funded almost certainly, which really doesn’t quite pay all the bills so it would cost me a bit of money, but not an absurd amount. There is always the possibility I would be able to get scholarships such that it would cost me nothing, but I’m not counting on that. I would rather assume I don’t and be happy if I do, then count on it and not.
Yeah, could happen! Fulbright maybe, depending on your situation, or something like that.
It’s been a while, but I had a friend doing his doctorate in music composition…he received a very nice scholarship to study “computer music” (I think it was called “sonology” or something) in The Hague…I don’t know if that was a post-doc role, but it was after he passed his qualifying oral exams and submitted his “thesis” (a lengthy composition…don’t recall if he had to write an actual dissertation, but he was musical composition Ph.D., not musicology). I’d bet there are some tasty scholarships in that niche.
As well as perhaps a professor (maybe one with an endowed chair) would have the budget to take you on as an assistant.
And private teaching in music/composition can be surprisingly lucrative without much preparation time needed, necessarily. Not high-valued CS work, of course, but $40-$50 bucks per hour seems a reasonable rate, depending on location.
I would be perfectly happy with being able to survive as a musician. So long as I’m independent. What I’m realized is that I just don’t like working for somebody else. I like to be able to do my own thing. Ironically, I really did enjoy being in the military, but I think that was the only time I enjoyed having somebody be in charge of me.
I think I’m going to do it. Besides, being a Doctor Doctor sounds like fun.
You da man! Make it happen! Even if live music (for non-laughable pay, that is) is kind of in a major dumper, I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to hustle, even while in school, enough music-related gigs to make it work, either teaching, maybe stumble into a rare playing job that pays non-insulting amounts of money, inter alia.
Congrats! Doctor doctor! Close relation to Major Major Major Major, but legit!
Well that deserved a laughing reaction emoji, but I think we have to settle for a separate post. (Yes, I think I understand SDMB’s reasons for disabling reactions, but still felt the need to react!).
