Graduate school for history: not a good idea

Graduate School in the Humanities: Just Don't Go. Previously linked in this blog. "It's hard to tell young people that universities recognize that their idealism and energy — and lack of information — are an exploitable resource."

Letters about the article above. "...it was without a doubt the most destructive four years of my life. The introduction to academic politics and political correctness was shattering."

Just Don't Go, Part 2. "What good is professional training for a job that you are not likely to get, after a decade of discipline, debt, and deferred opportunity?"

Neither a Trap nor a Lie. "The kind of middle-class success that was assumed to come with graduate school in the humanities quite often cannot be achieved with a tenure-track salary, let alone adjunct wages."

The Big Lie About the 'Life of the Mind.' "Graduate school in the humanities is a trap. It is designed that way. It is structurally based on limiting the options of students and socializing them into believing that it is shameful to abandon "the life of the mind."

A series of articles from the Chronicle of Higher Education. For the law school side of the same coin, see Temporary Attorney. Interestingly, Sotheby's trains its own experts. There are some interesting possibilities beyond art history in that model.