nakia said:
Dude, I just got a real job after living as a grad student for 8 years. Give some time for the finances to catch up!
You noticed that? You are sharp
!
nakia said:
The hard, cold truth:
I am all for adults returning to college and for Old One following his dream. But here's the problem -- it's REALLY hard to find a job with a liberal arts PhD. Even those folks who are doing it as their primary career have a hard time finding a job, and their first job is often at Podunk University. That's factor one. Factor two is that you may get treated as some "pretender student" by other students and professors who see your foray into history PhD work as a hobby, not "serious scholarship." Professors are more likely to expend their time and engery on the "serious" students (full timers) both during the process and helping them get jobs. You don't get jobs without your advisors help. Period.
Good to know (and confirms some of the other things I have heard) going in. Expending energy on "full-timers" wouldn't have anything to do with them being able to spend more time teaching your classes, would it
? As far as how I would be treated, I hadn't thought about that angle...but I would probably try to leverage my military academy contacts in academia to smooth that out a bit...and to try and match up with someone who knew what I was about.
nakia said:
Questions to ask yourself:
1. Am I willing to move (for PhD and/or job after PhD)?
2. What sort of place do I want to teach/work at?
3. Am I willing to take a lot of crap (cause PhD work is an exercise in crap taking just as much as it is anything else)?
4. What sort of history do you want to focus on? This will determine choice of school and/or advisor.
Let's see...
(1) I would probably be more willing to move after than before. The concentration of schools in the DC metro area (hopefully) should yield enough choices to work something out.
(2) Somewhere easy
. Seriously, I don't think I would be aiming for a big, prestigious university...I would be looking more for a place that I could be comfortable in where I could teach, write some and do a bit of grant work. Having big pressure to bring in grant/study dollars or expectations of prolific publication are not really the way I want to go.
(3) I am an expert at "crap taking"
! You don't go through a military academy, the military, corporate America, small business ownership and the non-profit world for 25 years without developing a pretty thick skin. I have been f'ed with by the best of them...so that I am not too worried about.
(4) Ancient/Early medieval are my prime interest areas (specifically, the development of the Norman Kingdoms of Normandy and Sicily and their impact on the early medieval world), although most things that fall into the Western Civ/military history area would qualify.
nakia said:
Now, it's not all craptastic. You can find a professor/advisor who believes in you and what you are doing, and half the battle will be one. If you are willing to teach adjunct/part time/at community colleges then your odds of employment increase significantly. Since you are doing this as a retirement job, income won't matter so much (I'm assuming), so part time or adjunct may be the way to go.
I gots lots more, if you want.
Correct. I am not looking at this as a major money-making scheme
, but something that I can do from 55-60 to 70-75+ that is fun, engaging, etc. I might even maintain a small financial planning practice if I do adjunct/part-time work.
I am just on the cusp of my "long-range planning" on this, so any thoughts you have on good schools for my area of interest and other tips of the trade would be most welcome.
Thanks, Nakia!
~ OO
