Knowledge! Power! The sharing of desks!

After two full weeks as a bona fide graduate student, I can confidently say I’ve learned everything there is to know about this whole grad school thing. Here are just a few tidbits of wisdom for ya:

1. Time and effort are not the same thing.
2. A proper academic book review is supposed to include a summary of the book, not just critique. Anything less is “not adequate” (whoops).
3. Teaching is something I might someday learn to enjoy. I hope. I’ll reserve judgment on that one.
4. Knowing lots of random historical facts is not actually that important.
5. Pennsylvania is hellishly humid. But there’s an abundance of good produce. So it almost evens out.
6. Books should be thoroughly skimmed, not read. My advisor told me this, and everyone else seems to agree.
7. Long-long-distance relationships: not for the faint of heart, and generally kind of a bummer. But totally worth it.
8. History is actually still a rather male-dominated field, especially here.
9. Being a grad student does feel slightly more bad-ass than being an undergrad. So that’s a plus, I guess.

The Grad School Dilemma

Image from the recent student protests in London (via SomeDriftwood).

Note: I hope I don’t get in trouble for posting this. If you are on an admission committee and reading this, please remember that this is my own musings on the alleged state of academia, and not an indictment of anything or anyone. As a new grad, I’m just trying to sort out all of the conflicting information into something coherent.

Whenever someone asks me what I am doing during my year off after undergrad, I usually tell them that I’m taking care of my ill father full-time and “trying to figure out grad school stuff.”

The first part is definitely true, but much of my grad school research has consisted of reading depressing articles about why I should not go to law school (excessive student loans, soul-killing, etc.), why I shouldn’t go for a PhD in the humanities (the end of tenure-track jobs, becoming the university’s slave, yadda yadda), and why I should probably just give up now on ever having a career that is both emotionally fulfilling and pays enough money to keep me living indoors. But I still want to become an overeducated intellectual snob, because that sounds fun too.

Last night I stumbled upon the work of Thomas H. Benton (a pseudonym) in the Chronicle of Higher Education, a well respected publication on all things academic. Benton essentially says that doctoral programs in the humanities are often more harmful than beneficial, and that the “life of the mind” is essentially a big fat lie. I’d suggest reading all of this article, especially if you’re in need of a good cry.