Anyone get a PhD from Columbia

A doctorate in what?

I know the publication certificate is well regarded, but when it comes to Ph.Ds in English, it depends a lot on the specialization you're planning on. I'd look at the current graduate guide or whatever Columbia calls their version, and see:

1. Do alums get hired?
2. What and where do they publish?
3. What and where do the faculty in your areas of interest publish?

If they still look good, you want to find about about support for grads, how much and how long and what sorts of funding, and, particularly, determine if you can see possible faculty who will genuinely mentor you during the dissertation phase.

Lisa, you scare me with your brains.

BTW, I almost had a Phd from Columbia, but she suddenly developed a nasty migraine...

Rich said:

Lisa, you scare me with your brains.

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Heh. That's not brains, that's hard-won experience and battle-scars.

BTW, I almost had a Phd from Columbia, but she suddenly developed a nasty migraine...

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Ba-dum-bah

What Medievalist said.

I am not familiar with the Columbia English program, but there are some general things you need to consider.

The most important is, do you really want to do this? A Ph.D is a long process, 6 or more years. Even if you have a burning love for your subject, you will change your mind many times during these years. For one's emotional continuity, it is often better not to start the process at all than to quit half-way (IMHO).

If you are dead set on a Ph.D, please make sure your future advisor is not a complete ass. You need to scout the departments for potential advisors (read what they publish, see if you like it). Then check out the departmental website, and write a nice email to a couple of graduate students to get a feel about the program and the faculty members.

Two real-life examples of bad matches.

A certain professor is famous, funny, and a great writer. Every year the dept. admits a number of students who want to work with this professor. Unfortunately, they find out soon enough that s/he has absolutely no interest in mentoring, and that her/his students take twice as long to finish as anybody else.

Another professor offers great support to students, but when job-hunting time rolls around these students find that their mentor quarreled with everybody else in the profession.

English is a big field with many jobs, but there are many great candidates, and from what I understand the job search is a bloodbath. This is something you should probably consider.

Hope this helped,
Rose

The most critical thing in a PhD program is do you match up with the program Philosophically? I was in a program with the University of Texas (Good match) but we had to move for family reasons and I started up again at the University of Maryland (bad match). You may think you can fake a love for a program's philosophy but six years is a long time to pretend to agree to get a piece of paper. If you match up, then start looking at your advisor. You are going to be spending a lot of time with them, read their stuff to see if it is a good match for your goals with a PhD. Good Luck!

MDSchafer said:

Still, having a PhD means a stable day job, if not at the college level then at the high school level.

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Err. . . .no. Stop. Pull yourself back a bit.

Look, more than half the people who attempt a Ph.D. in English don't pass their first set of qualifying exams.

Most Ph.D. programs have two sets of exams, typically one is at least partly oral and is seen as prep for a dissertation topic. There are usually at least two languages required, more if you're a medievalist or renaissance specialist. Then there's the dissertation.

Six years is the ideal time; the average is somewhere around ten.

It's not cheap either.

And of those who make it all the way to filing, a heck of a lot aren't any more employable than they would be with an M.A. or a B.A. and six or ten years of work experience.

There's no guarantee of getting a tenure track job in higher ed; most don't. And there aren't too many high schools who want Ph.D.s, and those who do, want them with teaching experience, and certifications, for k-12, or a degree in business, admin, management, or education. Not English.

MDSchafer:

Listen to Lisa. A tenure-track job is indeed very nice, but very few get that far. Lots and lots of people drop out. The dissertation process is extremely tough. And to top it all off, the job search is a nightmare, trust me on this. Few are the people who get jobs, and even fewer are the people who get jobs in desirable locations.

If your goal is a stable job, Ph.D is not the right way to go. It takes too long, and the results are not guaranteed.

You should check out chronicle.com/forums for more advice and opinions.

Best of luck!
Rose

I got my PhD in engineering, a field that likely has a wider range of non-academic positions available than does English.

While I was there, my advisor headed the faculty search committee for a year.

They had one position to fill.

1200 people applied for that position.

I was on a search committee at a community college. We had two hundred applicants, more than a dozen with PhDs apply for the position. We hired someone without a PhD because she had ten more years teaching experience.

At the University level, a PhD is the minimum requirement. What you have done after the PhD is what usually gets you jobs.