If I go there will be trouble…but if I stay it will be double. So, you’ve gotta let me know, should I stay or should I go?
In all seriousness, I am a current Communication MA student with my sights set on a career in academia. I will have around 6 publications and a solid academic record by the time I’m done with my master’s, which should set me up pretty well for PhD applications. However, it’s not so much the getting in part of the process that’s freaking me out, it’s the descent-into-madness-cuts-and-freezes-everywhere thing that’s happening right now in America.
I’m an American and I’ve never lived abroad. But boy oh boy, stuff is looking really bad right now. I could not have picked a worse career path for myself, so it seems. However, I know that pivoting industry will make me die a slow death from the inside out. I will do anything to teach and to research, there’s no question about it.
So, be straight up with me. Should I be pursuing a PhD and/or an academic career abroad? Do you think there is hope for academia in the United Stares given everything that is happening right now? What are you advising your students / advisees to do who find themselves in similar positions? Did you ever participate in a brain drain, and do you like how your life turned out?
Any and all thoughts are welcome. I am just looking for advice from people with different perspectives.
Comments
Age?
This indecision’s bugging me.
One idea while you are making your decision is to think about the types of institutions you would be happy teaching at. We are hearing about the president’s fights with universities, but he is fighting with 10 of them and there are over 2,000 in the US.
Are you familiar with colleges that don’t offer degrees past the masters level? Would that suit you or would you really want to supervise graduate students?
Are you familiar with community colleges? Some of the best professors I’ve ever met from an instructional perspective teach at community colleges. There seems to be strong collegiality (though I’m sure that varies) and depending on which state, the benefits can be very good.
In other words, I recommend that you try to define what a “career in academia” means to you. The broadest definition will make it more possible since you would be willing to teach at all types of institutions. However, if it only means one particular kind of career, then you will have to think about it in another way.
Go. findaphd.com will find you something in the UK. Tons of other resources. I did it – moved to Scotland when Bush 2 came into office, 2007. It was probably the best experience of my life, despite the cold and the fact that Scots is not English. I went for a 2nd master’s and stayed for a PhD, wish I’d never come home.
It’s an adjustment. You’ll get adjusted, though, and would probably enjoy it immensely. Rather than paying to come “home,” we paid for friends to come visit us. It was phenomenal, being able to spend quality time with people, seeing awesome things.
Germany’s PhD programs are largely free. Spain’s are as well (if you’re looking at a reputable school). The Netherlands’ programs pay salaries.
Just do your research – Russell Group universities, e.g., and what the language requirement is. Some programs will give you time to come up to speed (Germany, for example, has had a few programs that’ll pay you to spend a year learning German, before starting).
You’ll be lonely. But you may have our experience: four groups of friends came and stayed with us, our first year, spending a week or two each. We got more quality time with our best friends than we’d gotten in years and years, all told.
You’ll be cold (or maybe hot). And you’ll adjust in a year or two, and find coming back to be a bit odd, as you laugh at the rain (literally: I laughed at California rain, hard). But you’ll get used to it.
Your accent will be forever changed (I’ve spent 13 years, 6 of those with a voice coach, trying to get rid of my Scottish “U” vowel … but put me next to a Scot and all progress is lost).
Your expectations of housing will be forever altered.
Your body language will change (e.g. guys don’t meet other guys’ eyes, in Scotland, or it’s seen as threatening … so eye contact is still weird for me, 13 years out).
Academically, you may be far better off anyway, regardless of the academic conditions in the US, etc.
My department in Glasgow, Scotland, explained to me and my cohort: PhDs in the EU are Research PhDs. In the US, many PhDs are Teaching PhDs. To the EU, a Teaching PhD is just a beefed-up Master’s – for a lecturer, or an expert in knowing the field. A Research PhD knows how to structure, lead, and execute research. An EU PhD is for a tenure-track position, perhaps running a lab, receiving grants. Teaching PhDs are just that: for teaching, not tenure-track.
So, from that standpoint, anything you do in the EU will be geared toward you moving into academia.
In Scotland, your PhD takes 3 years. That’s the tuition you pay: 3 years. They’re fairly laid back about you taking a 4th year for writing up. You can appeal to the university if you need a 5th year … and they may just give you a master’s and throw you out. If you don’t finish it by the 5th year, you’re done, take your master’s and go home.
Funding. If you find a funded PhD at a semi-decent university, you may want to take that one over an unfunded one at a top university, even though the tuition (depending on your field^(1)) may be a joke. Reason: in the UK, let’s say the Arts and Humanities Research Council pays for you to do some research (I knew a guy who studied blogging vs victorian journaling). If they’ve paid for that study, they’ve said that your department is administering that grant, meaning that the department has picked the student & given them the resources to finish. If the student doesn’t finish, they regard it as the fault of the department … and decline to fund them any more. So, the department is hugely invested in doing anything they can to help that student finish and be successful, including finding and funding conferences, helping with tutors (friend of mine spent a year in Berlin, learning German, so he could read WWII docs in the original).
The best friends I have in the world came from there (well, I dragged my wife along, but the others are from Glasgow).
Don’t haul a lot of junk with you. Hah! 95% or so of Scottish flat rentals? Furnished. Down to towels, dishes, cutlery. Maybe bring a good bike, though, as they’re expensive, but we sold ours because it was disgustingly rainy & it took forever for me to park & change out of my gear, compared to walking the 1/4 mile to campus.
I hope you make it.
My wife has told me I may not have another PhD, even though there’s a nice one in AI in Barcelona. It’s painful, getting old.
^(1)If you’re doing an arts degree, you’ll pay far lower tuition than a science, for example. Why? Because they prorate based upon expected lifetime earnings. A history PhD isn’t going to earn what a Chemistry one is.
I think you should use that communication Master’s to run, not walk, in another direction.
My first inclination is to advise you to GTFO. But this may vary depending on your sub-field w/in communication.