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and he has to worry about presenting at conferences/writing papers, because apparently in grad school you have to start building your "academic reputation"...what happened to the idea of being a "student?"
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<p>Well, the truth is, as a PhD "student, you're not really a student at all, or, at least, you're not after you pass all of your qualifying exams to become a PhD candidate. You are basically a (very) junior faculty member. Hence, you will be subjected to the same political pressures as other faculty members are. See below. </p>
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is grad school really that political/stressful/etc, or is my friend's experience atypical? because to be honest i'm kind of scared to go to grad school now. i'm totally psyched about working on interesting problems and stuff, but i hate the idea of worrying about where my name is on some author list or how much some professor likes me. it's like you have to publish ten papers while you're in grad school or you're "not a good student"
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<p>Well, to be honest, if you think that's stressful, just consider how stressful it is to be a new PhD graduate or postdoc who's on the job market trying to place as an assistant prof, or being said assistant prof who is fighting for tenure. At the top schools, the vast majority of incoming assistant profs will not get tenure, which then unsurprisingly spurs a tremendous amount of political jockeying. I know one (former) Harvard assistant prof who said that he far prefers socializing with tenured Harvard faculty - even those from other departments or even completely different universities - rather than assistant profs from his own department, because in the latter situation, the conversation inevitably and quickly degenerates into a squalid whinefest regarding whose crappy paper got published in a top journal and whose top paper got undeservingly rejected, which conference do they need to present at in order to optimally enhance their academic reputation, </p>
<p>...at MIT, on the other hand, only one-third of the men and women on the tenure track will be invited to make their permanent intellectual home at the Institute.</p>
<p>Women</a> and Tenure at the Institute - MIT News Office</p>
<p>*But with a Harvard Ph.D. and three years of teaching experience, he is familiar with the culture of junior faculty. “It’s a research institute. The reality is that’s what they tenure on. It’s definitely demoralizing for junior faculty that there is a 70-80 percent chance that they will be fired,” he says. “Harvard defines its tenure process as getting the best in the world...</p>
<p>Going up for tenure at Harvard is a painful and cruel process. This is according to someone who emerged triumphant. “The whole system is still quite terrible and dangerous,” says professor Alyssa A. Goodman, who received tenure in the Astronomy department in 1999...</p>
<p>Another complaint Goodman shares with junior faculty is that the secrecy of the process and unrealistically high expectations breed departmental strife. The most prominent allegations against the secrecy of the process come from former government professor Peter Berkowitz, who claimed in a suit against Harvard that procedural impropriety and backroom dealmaking derailed his shot at tenure. The case is currently pending in Massachusetts appellate court...*</p>
<p>The</a> Harvard Crimson :: Magazine :: Just the Tenured of Us</p>
<p>*“Over the last 25 years, about 40 percent of the assistant professors who come to Stanford earn tenure... Etchemendy pointed to a lack of internal promotion within Harvard’s tenure system.</p>
<p>“Virtually no assistant professors hired by Harvard end up getting tenure,” he said. “So the only tenured faculty at Harvard are basically those who are hired from the outside as senior faculty.
*</p>
<p>Tenure</a> policy to remain despite debate at Harvard - The Stanford Daily Online</p>
<p>*For some junior professors, coming to Yale is a Faustian bargain.</p>
<p>The scholarly resources are boundless, academic heavyweights fill the faculty offices, and the students are among the world's best. But the downsides, many professors say, are the difficulty of earning tenure at the University and the potentially dire consequences of failing to do so.</p>
<p>Receiving tenure is a scholar's ultimate goal and guarantees academic freedom and job security. But unlike most universities, Yale has a labyrinthine, imperfect and -- in some cases -- infuriating tenure process, professors say.</p>
<p>Critics say departments wield too much power, with senior faculty deciding in concert whether junior professors are worthy of tenure, and the administration only "rubber-stamps" departmental decisions. After nearly a decade of service, many talented juniors leave the University without a job.</p>
<p>For some, leaving Yale means stepping into a professional desert -- they are too old for other junior positions, yet not tenurable at top institutions. Several academics are vexed that a tenure denial can be career ending.</p>
<p>...many professors still grumble about the back-room political logrolling they claim plays a major role in the tenure process at Yale. One professor said senior faculty have been known to make controversial decisions "in the dark of night with lightning speed."</p>
<p>Cathy Trower, a tenure expert from Harvard, said politics are part of tenure decisions at nearly all institutions, not just at top-tier schools like Yale.</p>
<p>"Obviously everyone will tell you there are politics," Trower said. "When I talk to junior faculty, I really encourage them to think as much politically as they do about their research and really being proactive in forging coalitions on campus and being a likeable colleague."</p>
<p>"Because of the obvious unlikelihood of junior faculty at Yale getting tenure, the process of going through it has been crude and unattractive and in some cases just plain rude and disrespectful," the professor, who asked not to be named, said.*</p>
<p>Yale</a> Daily News - Delving into the complex tenure system</p>
<p>Now, to be fair, obviously the life of a PhD student is not as political as that of being a tenure-track assistant prof. Nevertheless, the truth is, the world of academia is highly political, especially at the top schools.</p>