Grad School: Weighing the Options

For a pointed response to their dreams of higher education, undergraduates need look no farther than the Office of Career Services homepage. Long before extolling any benefits of a master’s or Ph.D., OCS challenges students with questions like, “Are you aware of the marketability of your degree and the job prospects following completion?” and “Are you considering graduate school as an exciting intellectual and professional challenge or is it a way to delay entering the ‘Real World’ or avoid a job search?” While these questions might seem aggressive, they address two very real concerns held by Harvard students considering advanced degrees: employability and one’s conviction in the enterprise.        

For many students at Harvard, this conviction began with a deep interest in academia. Adam B. Kern ’13, a philosophy concentrator who will attend a two-year graduate program at Oxford next year, originally considered pursuing an advanced degree when first introduced to philosophical texts. “I remember just reading these things,” he said, “and thinking the most wonderful thing I could do with my life would be to write one of these.”

The importance of this confidence is consistent across disciplines, as both students and professors can attest. Associate Professor Ethan C. Garner, whose research intersects cellular imaging and biophysics, noted, “If you’re going to go into research science, you really have to love it. It has to be something you really enjoy, something you thirst after, something you love. It’s not a job—it’s an entire obsession.”

Kern responded similarly, citing his choice to pursue a two-year program rather than a Ph.D. because he was only 80 or 90 percent confident that he wanted to follow a career path in philosophy.

That such a high level of assurance is required might seem extreme, until contextualized within the long, thorny journey of a Ph.D. candidate. Even after obtaining a doctorate, a student faces a series of difficult obstacles: acquiring a postdoctoral position, then finding a tenure-track faculty spot, and finally obtaining tenure itself. “You have to be on your game for really about 15 years continuously,” Kern said, speaking to the system’s arduous and prolonged nature.        

Yet not all view entrance into graduate school as demanding such an extreme level of certainty. Antonia M.R. Peacocke ’12, a former Crimson Arts Chair, was a philosophy concentrator and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in the subject at UC Berkeley. Peacocke claimed that “trying out” graduate school isn’t as risky as some might think, particularly if students are able to benefit from scholarships. That is not to say that she made the choice on a whim. “Essentially,” she said, “my attitude was that, if I hated it, there were other options for me. I wasn’t locking myself down, but I was very serious about it.” Flexibility and escape routes remain.

Indeed, although Peacocke and other students interviewed for this piece said that the vast majority of their doctoral classmates wanted to enter academia, they also noted that it was not uncommon for these viewpoints to change over time. One of the OCS’s guides to pursuing a Ph.D. references research that shows half of doctoral students never complete their program. Even those who receive degrees can diverge from an academic route.        

For certain advanced degree holders, such as those in the sciences, this process is relatively more streamlined. Careers in biotechnology companies, scientific consulting, and patent law are all examples of alternative professions facilitated by a master’s or doctorate. Christina C. Saak and Leonardo M.R. Ferreira, second-year Molecular and Cellular Biology graduate students, became interested in pursuing a graduate degree while performing laboratory research. Neither has seriously considered paths other than a Ph.D. program.

Saak addressed the range of opportunities available to those who pursue a graduate degree in the sciences saying, “It’s not that the jobs are limited; it’s just that a lot of people have this narrow-minded thinking that once you’re in grad school, you have to be on the faculty track.” She herself remains unsure of whether she will pursue academia.

The ease of changing routes, and the utility of an advanced degree outside of academia, is a common difference cited between the sciences and humanities. Many believe that those engaged in the humanities have no other option than to seek an academic position. Peacocke countered this argument, however, saying, “I don’t think it’s fair to say when you enter a philosophy Ph.D. program you’re narrowing yourself.”

“It requires skills that are required in so many areas, like very clear writing, an ability to express yourself, a talent of keeping judicious when choosing to confront those who are more experienced than you,” she continued. Citing individuals like David Foster Wallace and Terence Malick who temporarily pursued philosophy degrees, Peacocke contended that while her studies may not seem directly suited for other vocations, they offer these kinds of key, implicit advantages.

None of these benefits, however, negates the challenging prospect of uncertain employment, regardless of discipline. A dearth of employment options for those holding Ph.D.s may contribute to a relative lack of interest among many undergraduates in entering into academia. There are certainly more info sesions for consulting firms than for Ph.D. programs in English or History.

Kern links the difficulties inherent in obtaining a Ph.D. and aquiring a job to his belief in the high level of conviction and determination necessary to pursue that path. “Given the state of the job market, and this is what professors have told me, you should only go for a Ph.D. if there’s nothing else you can do that would make you happy. It’s the same advice actors give to aspiring young actors,” he said. While such a comment might sound cynical, it addresses perhaps the central motivating factor for those attending graduate school: a community of like-minded, scholarly individuals that they couldn’t imagine living without.

It is perhaps for this reason that all those interviewed said their families and friends reacted with universal positivity to their choices to attend graduate school. Regardless of employment qualms or arduous 15-year paths, these supporters understood that continued academic work would fulfill these undergrads in a way private sector careers, for example, could not.

Professor Garner responded to this point. “I can’t imagine not being around people where my mind isn’t blown daily,” he said. “Once you start feeling that, it’s so completely addictive.”