# You got your doctorate in what? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 8, 2011, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-got-your-doctorate-in-what/584713 "2011-06-08T04:32:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-got-your-doctorate-in-what/584713/1 "2011-06-08T04:32:25Z")
No. Seriously. What did you study? [Doctorate in Manga Studies](http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110607/ap_en_ot/as_japan_manga_doctorate) What possible use could there be for it? Are there any career options at all? Did the school board get drunk at a kegger one weekend and decide to see if they could come up with a degree program more useless than a major in liberal arts? The jokes are writing themselves here when David Letterman get’s a heads up about it. ---
**Author:** ![Electric\_Warrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-got-your-doctorate-in-what/584713/2 "2011-06-08T06:44:27Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > What possible use could there be for it? Are there any career options at all? Teaching it, while you write journal articles/books? It’s like a literature degree but more specialized, AFAICT. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-got-your-doctorate-in-what/584713/3 "2011-06-08T11:16:25Z")
I went to college for Film Studies - took a ton of classes with professors with doctorates in Film Studies. Don’t see much difference. No, there will not be a lot of jobs. But there are some doctorates that really aren’t about jobs. You teach, you write, you curate…that’s about it for jobs. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-got-your-doctorate-in-what/584713/4 "2011-06-08T11:23:43Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > What possible use could there be for it? Are there any career options at all? Why does there have to be a use for it? Why does a career have to come in to it? ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-got-your-doctorate-in-what/584713/5 "2011-06-08T11:28:48Z")
Manga is a multi million dollar industry. Besides, career options are not the problem of the university. Attracting students is. From the Universitie’s POV, a manga study is smart business. ---
**Author:** ![elninost0rm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ed655f/32.png) [@elninost0rm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elninost0rm)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-got-your-doctorate-in-what/584713/6 "2011-06-08T12:05:29Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > Why does there have to be a use for it? Why does a career have to come in to it? Pretty much this. I studied poli sci because I enjoyed it. My career will likely be pretty generalized, but that doesn’t bother me at all. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-got-your-doctorate-in-what/584713/7 "2011-06-08T16:25:15Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > Why does there have to be a use for it? Why does a career have to come in to it? Because landlords and grocers have very little interest in academic articles ---
**Author:** ![elninost0rm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ed655f/32.png) [@elninost0rm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elninost0rm)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-got-your-doctorate-in-what/584713/8 "2011-06-08T16:29:40Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > Because landlords and grocers have very little interest in academic articles :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Electric\_Warrior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@Electric\_Warrior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electric_Warrior)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2011, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-got-your-doctorate-in-what/584713/9 "2011-06-08T19:55:38Z")
> [@elninost0rm](#): > > :dubious: I.E., journal articles won’t pay your rent / feed your children Which is only somewhat true. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-got-your-doctorate-in-what/584713/10 "2011-06-09T02:21:18Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > Why does there have to be a use for it? Why does a career have to come in to it? I don’t guess there _has_ to be a use for it. But the last time I checked, doctorates of any stripe don’t come cheap. So unless someone already has all the money they want, a doctorate is usually an investment against future income. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-got-your-doctorate-in-what/584713/11 "2011-06-09T04:08:04Z")
Oh, I get it. It’s lame because manga is lame. Oh, those silly otaku. Haha. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-got-your-doctorate-in-what/584713/12 "2011-06-09T05:09:58Z")
> [@Autolycus](#): > > Oh, I get it. It’s lame because manga is lame. Oh, those silly otaku. Haha. Well manga _is_ lame, but that’s besides the point. I don’t know the situation in Japan, but here, humanities Ph.D’s are a dime dozen. How likely is it that someone with a doctorate in manga studies will really be able to get a teaching position or research grant? I’d really be amazed if anybody with this degree ended up doing something other than becoming the Japanese version of Comic Book Guy. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-got-your-doctorate-in-what/584713/13 "2011-06-09T05:39:38Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > I’d really be amazed if anybody with this degree ended up doing something other than becoming the Japanese version of Comic Book Guy. I had a friend that was doing his PhD in English, but it was actually about pictures, too. He ended up producing the _Best_ Picture of 2005. PhDs aren’t only about how they can directly link you to some kind of professor-track employment in some obvious way. They also serve the general purpose of letting you demonstrate an ability to think differently and originally in a rigorously “refereed” setting. While we all know that the majority of the work is the drudgery of jumping through academic hoops, it requires you to do something that no one else has done before, and there’s value to that that bridges to other things that often aren’t so obvious at first. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-got-your-doctorate-in-what/584713/14 "2011-06-09T05:41:52Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > PhDs aren’t only about how they can directly link you to some kind of professor-track employment in some obvious way. Most faculty would disagree very strongly with this statement. ---
**Author:** ![Animastryfe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Animastryfe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Animastryfe)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-got-your-doctorate-in-what/584713/15 "2011-06-09T12:57:06Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > Most faculty would disagree very strongly with this statement. It seems that self-selection is at work here. Articles with advice to PhD students in journals such as Nature sometimes/often say not to only go to professors for advice if the student wants to get an industry job. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-got-your-doctorate-in-what/584713/16 "2011-06-09T17:09:26Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > Manga is a multi million dollar industry. > > Besides, career options are not the problem of the university. Attracting students is. From the Universitie’s POV, a manga study is smart business. And. fundamentally, the meaning of a PhD is that you are a full scholar in your own right and can research, design curricula, or lead a school all on your own, right? Isn’t that the theory? ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-got-your-doctorate-in-what/584713/17 "2011-06-09T17:10:28Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Well manga _is_ lame, but that’s besides the point. I don’t know the situation in Japan, but here, humanities Ph.D’s are a dime dozen. How likely is it that someone with a doctorate in manga studies will really be able to get a teaching position or research grant? I’d really be amazed if anybody with this degree ended up doing something other than becoming the Japanese version of Comic Book Guy. Doesn’t the Comic Book Guy have an MA? Or am I misremembering? ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-got-your-doctorate-in-what/584713/18 "2011-06-09T17:22:34Z")
> [@Animastryfe](#): > > It seems that self-selection is at work here. Articles with advice to PhD students in journals such as Nature sometimes/often say not to only go to professors for advice if the student wants to get an industry job. How many humanists are reading Nature? ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-got-your-doctorate-in-what/584713/19 "2011-06-09T17:28:50Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > And. fundamentally, the meaning of a PhD is that you are a full scholar in your own right and can research, design curricula, or lead a school all on your own, right? Isn’t that the theory? If that were the case, there would be no need for the tenure track. Having a PhD means that you’ve completed at least one research project. Over the course of an academic career, you’ll write the equivalent of thirty dissertations (at least in my field). ---
**Author:** ![Animastryfe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Animastryfe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Animastryfe)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-got-your-doctorate-in-what/584713/20 "2011-06-12T19:04:40Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > How many humanists are reading Nature? I did not interpret your post, and the post that you quoted, as referring specifically to Humanities and otherwise non-science PhDs and professors. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-got-your-doctorate-in-what/584713.md?page=2)