PhD a waste of time? (Or, give me academic career advice...)

Great Debates
1

I don’t know if this qualifies as a great question, but: In career terms, is a PhD in the humanities a waste of time? All the horror stories about people with terminal degrees working at Starbucks make me think so.

My situation: I have just graduated with an MA in literature from an adequate state U. My goal is a full-time teaching gig at a 4 year school. Not research; teaching. If I have to publish 2 or 3 articles for tenure, I can do that I guess, but I am not a scholar, I’m a teacher. From what I can see that rules out state schools: for one, they seem to be mostly populated by people being paid to do scholarly work, and for two, I hear the applicant-to-opening ratio is something like 250:1 for those jobs, and I ain’t that good. Even if I was, I’m a heterosexual white male whose primary interest is 20th century Catholic novelists.

Which had me concluding that I was going to keep my MA and go for a community college. But now I’m hearing that the job market at 4 year private schools is much better; and that would be my exact ideal – teaching a 4/4 load someplace where I have the chance to get the same kid 2 or 3 times. I’d love to believe this, but I’m very skeptical that job prospects are that much better than at state schools.

Anyway, I’m looking for general input on my situation in particular, or on the question in general. And I supose it goes without saying (which is why I’m saying it, natch) that a PhD in Something Useful like Engineering or Physics is different.

2

I am a college professor and everything you have heard about people with Ph.D.s in the humanities having difficulty finding jobs is absolutely true. My first two positions were in tiny colleges in Georgia that you’ve never heard of and neither had any shortage of Ph.D.s from Ivy League and prestigious state universities.

Something you may wish to consider: a Masters degree in Library Science (MLS or MLIS depending on the school) takes on average about 18 months to complete, far less time (and money) than the Ph.D. path. Librarians have an INCOMPARABLY easier time finding jobs (there’s actually a shortage and it’s a “graying profession” due to the high number of Baby Boomers who will be retiring in the next decade) and most universities allow their faculty members (including librarians) to take courses and pursue advanced degrees either free of charge or at a severely reduced rate. I am a librarian and while I personally am not pursuing a doctorate I have two co-workers who are, both on the university’s dime.

As to salary, librarians usually start in the high 20Ks to low 40Ks depending on where they’re employed. Those with second masters degrees and Ph.D.s usually start at a higher salary than those without and those in administration usually earn in the high five to very low six figures.

3

Interesting you should say that. I was just told by the head of our department that prestigious-school degrees actually work against applicants at “average” places.

In some ways that sounds like an appealing fallback; except that it’s getting me out of the classroom, which is the whole reason I’m in academia to begin with…

4

I think your statement about “state schools” is too broad. That may be true at flagships, but many state universities and colleges have an incredibly strong teaching mission.

5

It’s not a waste of time as long as you think you’ll enjoy grad school. It may be a waste of time if you only do it because you want the credential, because obviously a credential is no guarantee of future success.

What if you ended up teaching high school English? That would be fine with a lot of people, but if it would make you regret getting the Ph.D., then maybe you shouldn’t do it.

6

I don’t know if this is anywhere near the norm, but at my school (another state U) a faculty member cannot be hired on full time without a phD. At most, those not hired full time can only teach for three semesters. We lost our best math professor this way. He’s being forced to take at least a semester off before he can come back. I’m not sure if this is due to finances (the PA state school system is in quite a pinch right now) or something else. Of course, YMMV.

DoperChic

7

I gotta second what Sampiro says. Librarians teach too, you know. Just not in a classroom. My mom was a librarian, so I know a little about it. I also have to second the suggestion that you look at high school. There is still a general glut on the market in English, but you stand a much better chance getting a job in the secondary schools than you do at the college level, especially in your speciality. Sorry to be such a downer, but going into teaching expecting to teach at the college level is a fool’s errand. Too many PhDs chasing too few jobs.

8

[hijack]Does anybody besides me love that the complete set of smilies are back in all their colored glory?[/hijack]

I’m a university professor who just embarked on his first tenure-track job. I finished my doctorate in 2000, in music. I’ve held several part-time, temporary teaching positions and colleges and universities, and spent just over a year at a non-unversity job, but I also spent close to two brutal years in almost total unemployment. My current place of employment is at a state-funded research institution, so yes they put a very high premium on publication. In a nutshell, as far as tenure goes university-wide, “bad teaching will hurt you, but good teaching won’t help you.” I personally hate that attitude; thankfully in liberal arts it isn’t quite so grotesque and blatant.

Here’s what I have to say about this whole business:

  1. The horror stories of 250 applicants to one position are somewhat exaggerated, but not too much. These jobs are damn tough to get, no doubt, and they do not pay well, especially in liberal arts. Nevertheless, if you are inclined to such an occupation, it is some of the most rewarding work one could ever be allowed to do. I love teaching, I love being around college students, and I love the atmosphere of learning and seeking insight and knowledge. Of course, there’s a lot that sucks, too. More on that later.

  2. Some of the keys to landing a job are: staying active in your professional organizations, making lots of contacts whenever possible at national and regional conventions, and above all sheer perserverance. Get those applications out. Work very hard on your coverletters. Polish that c.v. Get input from mentors and colleagues whenever possible to help get it together properly.

  3. There is much more to a degree than the job you get out of it. A liberal arts PhD can get you great jobs outside academia, but you said you want to teach so lets focus on that. With your PhD in hand, you’ll want to focus on smaller state schools and liberal arts colleges, where there is a lot less emphasis on research. However, when you’re applying for your first job, you pretty much have to accept almost anything, in order to build your resume and to get more good letters of recommendation. If you start out at a research-driven institution, there’s nothing stopping you from moving on eventually to a place where your love for teaching is better accomodated.

  4. Teaching at community colleges in most places is frankly a dead end. The pay is terrible, there is usually no job security, the teaching load is onerous, and you get little (or none) of the respect you get teaching at a 4-year college or university. It is not bad for resume padding, but settling on it for a career is not a great idea.

  5. Get those affirmative action worries out of your head. The fact of the matter is that the majority of people being hired are still white guys who specialize in traditional subjects. This is a topic for a much longer dicussion, but frankly affirmative action is unlikely to do you any harm whatsoever, and in any case you’ll never know what is going on in the political background of any hiring process. Just let it go, and do your best. Most of the time, the search committee just wants to find the best person for the job, horror stories notwithstanding.

  6. Academic jobs are as difficult (or more difficult) to get in sciences and engineering as they are in liberal arts, and furthermore those jobs respect teaching much less than liberal arts, so be happy for your degrees in literature.

  7. The market for academic jobs is indeed improving. Of late, it got to be about as bad as it could possible be, and there’s nowhere to go but up. There is and will always be a great need for instructors and professors in English; although there are also may jobless humanties PhDs, the job situation for you when you gradiate (in say 5-6 years) will probably not be all that dire.

Bottom line, are you still enjoying graduate studies? While you are working on a PhD, there’s a good chance you’ll have a TA and get to try out college-level teaching while working on your degree. You’ll get a better feel for how academic jobs function, and you can still bail out anytime if you start hating what you’re doing. It isn’t like being in the military, after all. I personally enjoyed my graduate studies really very much!

No, a PhD in the humanities is not a waste of time!

9

This doesn’t really address the practicalities of the issue, but this is how I look at my own attempt to get a humanities PhD (I am in grad school right now).

You (like me) want to teach at a small liberal arts college. I doubt you would consider this simply a career; it would be your vocation, your life’s calling. (Or I may be projecting.)

There is some chance that you can do just that if you get a PhD.

If you do not get a PhD, there is essentially no chance that you will end up doing it.

What will you do with your life instead if you don’t get a PhD? If you have a back-up plan that is reasonably secure and that you feel could leave you content, that’s one thing.

But my personal feeling is that if this is your dream, what you really want to do, then you have to take the risk and get the PhD, rather than giving up before you begin.

10

Knorf,

I wouldn’t be too quick to dismiss the community college route for a teaching position. I can attest that in my case

  1. I am currently filling a tenure-track position in which I was recently awarded tenure (and am currently in the review process for a promotion);

  2. my teaching load is not unusually onerous (I am required to teach a minimum of 16 hours a week - roughly 3 classes a quarter on a quarter system);

  3. my pay - although less than if I were teaching at a 4 year institution - is enough to allow me to take summers off if I choose do to so (and I do);

  4. Finally, in regards to respect, I am assuming that this is in regards to the attitudes of those who teach at 4-year institutions towards those who teach at 2-year institutions in a given academic field. In other words, the lack of respect stems from the fact that those at 4-year institutions teach and do research, while those at 2-year colleges only teach - true “academics” versus those that are not. While it could be argued that this attitude is justified, I would counter - so what? The respect that matters most to me is the respect of my fellow colleagues where I teach, the staff and administration, the local community, and most importantly - my students. (Note: I am not claiming you are one of those who feel those who teach at 2-year institutions are not worthy of respect).

With the above out of the way, I should point out that I generally agree with your assessment. But I think it depends on numerous factors - particularly the state where the 2-year college is located, it’s size, the teaching requirements, teaching position (tenure versus non-tenure) and the like. Maybe my case is the exception rather than the norm :slight_smile:

furt,

If all you really want to do is teach, then by all means keep an open mind on 2-year institutions. While teaching at many community colleges only require an MA,
you’ll be better served by getting a Ph.D. if you want to get into a tenure-track position (where job-security and promotion potentials are greater).

11

Sampiro, speak to me more of the joys of librarianhood and the ease with which one advances into its ranks. Linkage requested.
Knorf brings up some of the same points others do, so I’ll just address some of his points. If I sound bitter and depressed, I sorta am this week. Don’t take it personally.

Which is just the thing I’d say, too, except I’m 34 and tired of having no money in the world other than what I have in my checking account. I’ve never made more than $20,000 in my life. And while I have no illusions about ever being rich, I need a career. Getting a PhD because it’ll be personally fulfilling does nothing for me.

Cite? I’ve heard just the opposite.

Don’t care about respect. A 4/4 or 4/5 load is fine. And don’t most 2 year schools have tenure tracks?

So it’ll be down to 100-1?

Oh, I’ve been TAing while getting my MA. Taught Freshman Composition 1 & 2, loved it, and by the end felt I was doing pretty good. For a variety of reasons, I don’t think HS would be a good fit for me (or I for them), except maybe in certain special situations.

Hmm. I guess not really. But I think a better program could fix that.

Thing of it is I’m not willing to go through it all just to end up back where I am now – looking for adjunct work at $1500 a class. :rolleyes: :frowning: :mad:

12

Perhaps the mods could move this to IMHO? You might get some good answers from people who don’t usually read GD.

My qualifications to answer your question: I have (essentially) flunked out of a PhD program (in a math/engineering field) twice. I am now returning to school at the age of 33 and after working for four years, to finally get the PhD. My wife is ABD (in a humanities field) and is finally letting the unfinished dissertaion go (with a great deal of relief instead of regret and guilt, finally) since the clock just ran out on it. My mother is working on her PhD (in English, and teaching at a community college no less).

Together my wife and I have many close friends who have finished PhDs, and many who have left PhD programs. We have also had long conversations with both of our former advisors and my new advisor.

Here is the biggest thing I now know: the PhD is a professional degree, like an MD. Do not get it if the career you (think you) want will not require it. It is not something you do for personal enrichment (could you imagine someone pursuing an MD or JD because they thought it might be fun, but had absolutely no intention of practicing law or medicine?).

The second biggest thing is related to the first. Know why you are getting your PhD, be motivated, and don’t dawdle over it. I’m not saying don’t enjoy the journey, but since it is not an end in itself you are necessarily giving up what you really want to do (teach, do research, be a museum curator, hunt for fossils, direct a lab, whatever) to do the PhD.

My advice if you are unsure (please don’t take it for any more than it’s worth :slight_smile: ): don’t do it. Wait. Go find out what kind of job you can get with your current qualifications and how much you enjoy it (I was quite surprised by how much self-directed research I could do in my field without the PhD). In a year, you may well be (a) sure that you want the PhD, or (b) sure that you do not want the PhD. If not, wait another year. As long as you don’t put it off forever in the case where it turns out that you really want to do it, you’ll be OK. You’ll make some money, you’ll know what you’re getting into (and getting out of), and you’ll be ultimately better motivated in your PhD work.

13

Missed a couple last night on preview:

Melandry, you are exactly right about my motivations and my feelings. Damn you for trying to encourage and inspire me.

Epy, any ideas where I can look around for 2 year TT jobs? They don’t seem to advertise in the Chronicle. I am willing (yea, eager) to relocate.

Since this has become about me rather than the issue in general (not that I mind) … Mods?

That’s kind of what I’m looking toward; teaching 2 year for a while and see how it goes.

I guess the main thing is that I just feel like I have nowhere to go. I don’t really have a “mentor” and I chose this school based on it being the only MA program in the area (don’t get me started on my department), so I don’t have any experience in “looking” for a grad school. And the thought of applying for adjunct jobs (which I will be doing this very afternoon) that pay squat and have no future – which describes pretty much every job I’ve ever had – is just depressing. I kept telling myself that when I finished school I’d be able to get a job that enabled me to at least start paying off my debts, think about a non-embarassing car, etc. and I’m just being impatient.

Maybe I shoulda just open a pit thread for my whining. But I do want advice/suggestions, so keep 'em coming.

14

Perhaps I shouldn’t have been so dismissive, since certainly there are people I know who have been quite content with community college gigs, and some are certainly way better than others. Nevertheless, your situation sounds different than most I have heard. For one thing, many community colleges seldom if ever grant tenure–there are lots of them that are dominated by adjuncts, people teaching without benefits and without a future in that school. But, YMMV.

How do you get 16 hours = 3 classes? Are all your classes 5+ credits each? Or do you get credit for stuff outside class time?

Like I’m one to complain: I music we have the by far the highest teaching load at this university, since we’re all at 4/4; most departments are at 2/2. Worse, it’s not like we’re given some leniecy when it comes to publications…

15

Ok, I’ll try to keep that in mind… :slight_smile:

I know the feeling. I never made over $20,000 a year until after I finished the doctorate, either. Neverthelss, I woudn’t give up the degree for anything, regardless of whether I had managed to end up with an academic job or not. But then, I am passionate about the subject I studied (music composition), and I really enjoyed the experience of earning the degree. It was hard work, with lots of frustration, but I’m glad I did it.

OMFG. Do you want a debate, or people to help you? You said you want to teach, so I focused on that. If you want to move on toward stuff you can do besides teaching, that’s a different thread, isn’t it?

Look, I don’t feel like doing the you work you should be doing yourself to verify that your humanities degree isn’t worthless. I don’t have the time, and I don’t want to get into a debate about it.

Suffice it to say that the statement: “liberal arts degrees are worthless for jobs in the real world” is a pernicious lie.

I was shocked when I found out how few 2-years schools actually grant tenure to a majority of its faculty (as most universities do).

But, hey, it does sound like the community college might be a good one for you to investigate. Be sure to check out how well the college treats its faculty (what % are adjunct, how often is tenure granted, etc.)

Or less. Less than 50 applied for the job I know hold. And 100-1 isn’t as freakish as you seem to think: many of the nicer jobs out in the commercial world have similar numbers of applicants. I was a finalist for a computer job a few years ago which had over 200 applicants.

Well, when working on the PhD, you can continue being a TA, and see if the academic career track is really what you want. Or, try for the 2-year gig, and go back for the PhD if you so decide. Really, you have good options. Don’t be so pessimisitic.

Unfortunately, if you want to good teaching gig, you might have to put up with that for a little while (You do love teaching, right?) I had to, and most professors I know had to at some point as well. If you want a shot at a tenure-track teaching job at a university, the PhD is mandatory. Look: starting a PhD and giving up on it won’t hurt your community college career, and working at a community college for a while won’t hurt your chances to get a PhD.

16

furt,

Try the American Association of Community Colleges. There’s a section where they post job listings (Career Center/Job Bank).

You also might want to contact someone with the Community College Humanities Assocation. They might be able to direct you to other sources with positions not posted in the Chronicles.

If you’re interested, keep Columbus State Community College in mind (where I teach). We are planning to build a second campus in the near future (I think the time-frame is sometime within the next 3-5 years), and there will likely be full-time, tenure track positions being offered in the humanities (although for which positions and how many I have no clue).

17

A bit of bio background about myself: I was 30 years old, had never earned more than $18,000 per year, and on the Ph.D. path in history when I switched gears to libraries. I did this because, among other reasons, I had too many friends with Ph.D.s working in Wal-Marts, Ruby Tuesdays, or at best Podunkville colleges in places you’ve never heard of (or worse, in Valdosta, GA). I sometimes consider resuming the Ph.D. course in history, but frankly this is very rare as for the first time ever I actually like my job (well, for the most part- and that’s really the best you can say about any profession).

There are many reasons why Library Science (or as it’s coming to be called by several institutions, Information Science [never mind that it’s not really a science by the more common definitions of the term) is a good field.

  1. Malleability

There are many things you do with a Massa’s degree in MLS/IS:

*Academic libraries (they often don’t pay as much as the other forms of librarianship, but they have their own benefits)
*Public libraries (generally the highest paying form of librarianship- the disadvantage is that you have to deal with book banning right-wingers upon occasion who want every copy of Harry Potter replaced with a Left Behind volume and you have to deal with kids, homeless people and, worst of all, genealogists on a daily basis
*School media specialists- pays on par usually with academic or public librarianship; the disadvantage (for me anyway) is having to deal with pubescant kids and incompetent teachers (not to in any way imply that all teachers are incompetents, but the ones who are raise your blood pressure quite significantly) advantages include excellent benefits and summers off
*Museums/Special Libraries- some require a degree or emphasis in Archival Studies, which is often taught alongside Library Science
*Corporations- all major corps have research divisions (one fellow I went to grad school with is now working for CNN, for example)- jobs may pay more or may pay less than education related librarianship depending on the company
*Self-employment- you have to find exactly the right niche to fill (usually medical or legal), but I have known librarians who make enough as independent researchers to pay their bills (the disadvantage being that there are no benefits so you have to make enough to pay for insurance, retirement, etc.)

Even within the same field there is a great degree of flexibility. Reference, Instruction, Public Relations, Collection Development, Technology, Government Documents, Maps, etc., are all specialties within the field (though if you work in a smaller institution you’ll probably be doing a little bit of all-of-the-above). If you really want to be super-duper-double employable, learn cataloging, probably the hardest to find type of librarian specialty, but that’s another story.

Incidentally, you will DEFINITELY have the opportunity to teach as an academic librarian (and I’m not just talking “helping students learn” but “formal classroom setting”) as bibliographic instruction (BI) is a major part of the job, plus librarians who have second masters or better are often given the opportunity to teach adjunct classes in their subject specialty. (I’ve been offered the chance to teach a history class [an extra $1,500 for the semester, if you’re curious] but turned it down because that particular semester I was just toooooo busy with other things both in and out of the workplace; I have taught a for credit weekly class in research skills where I was able to work my history background in far more than you might think, and making BI interesting is a challenge that I’m glad to say I’ve become famous for mastering).
2. Employability

I have never had a problem finding a position and it’s a fantastic feeling to know that if I was laid off tomorrow I could probably find a job paying just as before my severance ran out (not that I’m likely to be laid off- academia usually works on one year contracts and if yours is not to be renewed you’re usually given at least 90 days notice).

Librarianship is, as I said, a graying profession facing many retirements in the next few years. At the same time, due to the expense of databases and technology library schools all over the country are closing or downsizing, meaning there are fewere upcoming graduates during those years. This is a bad thing for employers and a good thing for librarians.

  1. Portability

My favorite co-worker met her husband when both were pursuing Ph.D.s in English. She never finished, taking a MLS instead, while he earned his doctorate from a large public research university. He has found work in a tiny mismanaged liberal arts college in the Midwest, where she went with him and found work immediately in the college library. He left that place for a community college in Dublin, GA, a city and school as large and prestigious as the description sounds, because he hated his job in the Midwest and this was the first position he was offered after a year of looking. She followed him and within 3 months had been offered 3 jobs, each paying the same as his.
Had she pursued the Ph.D. path then they would probably have one of those annoying academic marriages in which Dr. Spouse 1 teaches at the University of Pittsburgh while Dr. Spouse 2 teaches at the University of Utah and they see each other on holidays and perhaps during summer, but ironically the Masters degree is able to be moved almost anywhere at a moment’s notice because there are fewer applicants and greater flexibility.

Must run, but I’ll write more later about the actual course of study and provide some links.

18

Previously replies were detailed, but the computer keeps eating my replies. Oh, well…

We have a system here based on contact hours, not credit hours for determing minimum and maximum teaching hours. A class that is 5 credit hours may actually be equivalent to 7 contact hours (if the course has a lab component). To explain it in detail again (as I had tried initialy in my 2 previous attempts) is too exasperating.

19

Sorry, I wasn’t trying to be snarky; it’s just that I keep hearing from schools that it isn’t useless … but most of the first-person accounts I read suggest that it is (Yes, I have been doing some research). I was just wondering what your basis was for saying that was (personal experience or whatever). And yes, you’re right, I’m not terribly interested in parlaying a PhD into a Corporate America job, so it kind of is a moot point.

Yes, I guess that’s true; I suppose to have to remember that I wouldn’t be applying at just one school.

I’m trying, I’m trying… :wink:

I guess:

  1. MA
  3. Profit!

Doesn’t work. Sigh.

Please. I am … intrigued, especially by the “degree in 18 months” bit, and the ability to teach on an adjunct basis. Is that over and above normal Lib duties, or as a component? Are there any half-and-half jobs?

Thanks Epy, I will pursue.

20

As for coursework: I can only speak with authority on the SLIS at the University of Alabama. Their requirements were 36 hours which could, if you went summer and Maymester, be completed in one year (though personally I didn’t due to a family matter and because I think Maymester is an abomination). So long as the program is ALA approved, however, the degree is employable, though the two most prestigious library schools (now that Berkeley has indefinitely suspended their program) are Florida State University and the University of Illinois.

The coursework is largely some of the most boring stuff you ever had to sit through. The assignments vary widely from course to course, but expect a lot of very tough scavenger hunts (e.g. locate a biography of Father Nehemiah Goreh written in Sanskrit- do not use the Internet; find 12 resources on diabetes specific to octagenarian Asians, etc.), which can be very time consuming but can also be fun. There is a good bit of technical training and I would advise anybody in a SLIS to take all the technology related courses they can, especially if they don’t already have a firm background. Since almost all of library work is going to ultimately be OTJ training, the classes are very varied as to how useful they are in the real world, though good grounding in Boolean, online union catalogs and major information sources and their quirks/limitations will be applicable anywhere.

Repeat: the course work is boring. There is no intellectual stimulation comparable to any course in the humanities. That said, the work itself is actually very interesting. If you love knowledge for the sake of knowledge it’s a great career, and you’d be amazed how remembering something you once read in a popular physics book, something you once saw on an episode of GREEN ACRES and some information you helped a student find on a speech given by William T. Sherman can somehow all come together to help you find exactly the source that you need for a professor who has to find a source on exactly XXX topic (and I’m not exagerating- my knowledge of cheesy movies has on several occasions helped me find perfect information on obscure medical topics, for example).

A background in English would be absolutely perfect as the first trip most students make to the library is for an English Comp or Lit class. You’ll soon learn to hate the very mention of Langston Hughes and or Midsummer Night’s Dream, but you’ll also know things about each that you never would have learned from being a specialty in Appalachian novels or whatever.

For more info on the job of a reference librarian, please see the little song I wrote that go a liddle sumpin like
this .

As for the available jobs in the field,

here are some sources. The first job a newborn graduate takes will probably be at a small to medium sized college or university in the sticks, but that can actually be good as you’ll learn the ropes better than at a huge library and some of these places are quite comfortable. (I am bound by family commitments to the AL-GA-FL area and my first academic job was at a college in Americus, GA, a town I’d never heard of, but I had the pleasure of meeting Jimmy Carter several times while there [he lives 8 miles away], the Civil War buff in me loved the fact it was 10 miles to the Andersonville POW museum, and the Windsor Hotel that dominates the downtown area (across the street from the International HQ for Habitat for Humanity and their “Slums of the Earth” exhibit) is a wonderful piece of Americana that I rarely got tired of experiencing; special collections at the library included the papers and many effects of “Miz Lillian” Carter (including a rosary that was given to her by Pope John Paul I (that’s “the first”, as in the one whose canonization has been mentioned) and signed photos/letters from Frank Sinatra, Beatty/McLaine, Charles Lindbergh, etc., that were basically hung on the wall in cheap frames for lack of a budget to do anything else with them.
After one year I left that college for my current position which, if your specialty is American literature you might be interested in as part of my duties involve maintenance and publicization of the original manuscripts of Flannery O’Connor and docent duties at her home, both of which provide some opportunities you’d never get as a lit professor.

So long story short: it’s a good field, it’s largely what you make of it, work’s challenging and rewarding, pay sucks but not compared to the non-academic jobs I had, and it’s a quick degree that will allow you to go anywhere you want as well as a good degree to use to complete your Ph.D. on somebody else’s dime. Hope this helps.