I've been following this thread with great interest. I've found many of the
comments to be on par with my own graduate school experiences. My graduate
school experience has been a mixed bag of positive and negative experiences.
However, I've found that overall the graduate school experience has not been
everything that I hoped it would be. When I originally made the decision to go
to graduate school I did so because I was interested in pursing an academic
career (teaching/research). Personally, I am still on the fence about a
research versus teaching position but giving the saturation of the job market
the choice may be made for me (at the least at the entry level). However, in
many ways I feel that graduate school has not prepared me as well as it could
to become a professor.
For instance opportunities to gain teaching experience are limited. TA's often
do not provide lecture or lesson development opportunities and tend to be
structured in advance. Some graduate students seem to enjoy this as it reduces
their work load and provides time for research, which is certainly important,
but it does seem to reduce opportunities for active engagement in teaching and
development of teaching skills by graduate students. I was fortunate to partake
in NSF GK-12 program which at least provided some of this experience albeit at
the 7th grade level which may count for very little when it comes to acquiring
a job.
On the flip side looking at research I also find the graduate school experience
failing to provide opportunities to help develop the skills I need to do
research or one day run my own lab. Reduced library and departmental budgets
make ready access to literature and software challenging. Additionally, I've
been fortunate enough to write and secure my own fellowships and grants.
However, being "only" a graduate student I am afforded little opportunity to
actively engage in the management of those research funds. Managing large
grants and fellowship funds seems like a rather useful skill to possess when
exiting school with PhD. Instead much of the financial matters take place
behind a veil of administration and bureaucracy until one day someone tell you
that your out of $$.
A former graduate student in the same department as mine once referred to
graduate students as the "illegal immigrant workforce of the academic world."
In many ways I think he is right. Many, but not all, graduate students work
tremendously hard and long hours for little pay. Of course the pay doesn't
bother me as much as some of the other issues. For one I find the level of
healthcare coverage provided to graduate students to be ridiculously poor. I
know of many graduate students that have suffered through pain simply because
of the poor level of health care coverage or the hassle that low quality health
care providers cause with each claim. Additionally, graduate students have very
little rights within the university. I've known others and myself who have
appealed to the Ombudsum or other intra-university avenues for legal advice and
the general consensus is that we graduate students should just grin and bear
whatever difficulties we are having with administration, advisors, or other
faculty. We are after all ephemeral and if you can just deal with it for
another couple years you can go away. It seems that there is an unfair conflict
of interest when a graduate students wishes to bring a complaint against a
university when the only avenues to do so are a part of the university system
itself. It seems in the best interest of the university to protect itself
rather than deal with an ephemeral graduate student's issues.
Not to focus entirely on the glum. One opportunity graduate school has provided
for me is the opportunity to work with a variety of governmental agencies and
ngo's on natural resource issues. I've found that experience to extremely
rewarding. So much so that I am considering working for an agency or
organization such USFWS, USGS, or TNC upon graduating (if any positions
exist!). Prior to graduate school I would have never considered a science based
management or research position within the government. Whether or not all the
time I have dedicated to working on applied natural resource management
questions (e.g. reports and consultation) rather than producing copious amounts
of publications will come back to haunt me remains to be seen.
I will finish by saying that my comments are based primarily on my experience
at my institution. Other people have had very different experiences at other
institutions and even at my own. Every graduate student has different
expectations of what they expect from graduate school. I realize they can't
make everyone happy but I do feel that universities could do a little better.
Cheers,
Tyler L Hicks
PhD Student
Washington State University - Vancouver
E-mail: tyler_hi...@wsu.edu
Website: www.thingswithwings.org
"Back off man, I'm a scientist!" - Bill Murray, Ghostbusters
