<p>i'm interested in english, history, psychology and the humanities in general...</p>
<p>what masters/phd programs would help me touch on all these fields?</p>
<p>Graduate school isn’t for dabblers. You can be a lifelong learner just by using the public library.</p>
<p>but i also need a job…and i dont want to dwell in the world of business…</p>
<p>ideally i see myself becoming a teacher or maybe a professor…</p>
<p>Haha… I know exactly what you mean…</p>
<p>I would concentrate in one, but be good in a lot of other things…For instance I’m about to take some french and wine classes at a CC… </p>
<p>If thats what you mean.</p>
<p>Sociology? Usually those who read for a masters know what they want to do; have a passion for it.</p>
<p>From what I understand, getting a job as a Professor is extremely difficult. You will need to be at the top of your game. </p>
<p>The people who go to PhD’s usually do it for undying interest in a specific area in a specific field.</p>
<p>University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought. I don’t know if they’ve taken any new students recently though. But they combine Philosophy, Sociology, History, English, etc.</p>
<p>interdisciplinary programs are hard to find at the PhD level, and even harder to use to get a job as a professor. most interdisciplinary programs that offer masters degrees employ a historian, a literary theorist, a sociologist, a philosopher. they don’t actually hire people with PhDs in “general humanities.”</p>
<p>if you want to work as a professor, pick one discipline, do that for 5 years. on your dissertation committee, you can have a few people from other disciplines serve, you can take a handful of classes outside of your department, and your final product can be considered interdisciplinary, but you should want to get a PhD in “____ literature” or “history” or “anthropology.” some programs (not all, though) encourage interdisciplinary study, but they don’t actually grant interdisciplinary degrees. you’ll need to decide which one you want to do in grad school.</p>
<p>i am by no means an authority, but on this forum and elsewhere all i’ve ever heard is that interdisciplinary/general studies masters degrees are useless. they won’t get you work in the business world and they won’t serve you well into getting into PhD programs either. they’re cash-grab programs for universities, or at least that’s the rep i’ve seen for many of them.</p>
<p>and getting a job as a prof is extremely difficult. it is NOT a matter of being at the top of your game, because all of these newly minted PhDs from competitive programs are at the tops of their games too. it is about luck. 1 in 10 humanities students will get a tenure-track job as a professor. 1 in 10 will get a job at a liberal arts or community college (where you won’t have time to do your own research because your teaching load will be that much greater). you don’t just fall into professorships once you get your PhD.</p>
<p>i remember reading an article on nicaraguan history that i thought was brilliant. the sort of article that changes the game, that impacts the entire (sub)field. the author was working on a book that expanded upon the article. i searched for the book… never written, or written and never published. that happens. i searched for the professor, hoping to apply to whatever school he was teaching at so i could work under him. couldn’t find him in any faculty. had a job for a short while, possibly as an adjunct, and most recently wrote part of an encyclopedia. i found a contact number which i plan on using during the course of my own research, but he ain’t working in academia anymore. that was astounding to me, and to my colleagues and professors who had also read and discussed his article with me. he got his PhD from michigan. how that guy isn’t tenured somewhere is beyond me. and i’m sure that happens hundreds of times across disciplines in the humanities. getting a PhD is not a guarantee to any sort of future employment in academia, and even less so if you go the interdisciplinary route.</p>
<p>so what are the prospects of all the qualified people then??? </p>
<p>I currently work in a profession many people would jump at, have made decent money, don’t have to work hard… I just hate it and unfulfilling… Have considered many career changes but one is to teach and do a phd in philosophy because I love the stuff. I hate the corporate world…
My other option was doing an MPA…but most people with this make less money than I made years ago in IT.
I was excited about doing a doctoral program … but, lot of negative slant towards it the more I read.</p>
<p>I empathize that not all aspects of the business world are attractive, but that is not true of all aspects. It can be very challenging, intellectually engaging, and socially responsive. I suspect you probably have little real exposure to the business world.</p>
<p>You don’t seem to have a defined interest or focus, apart from “humanities”. Usually, someone going into a graduate program has an area that he/she wishes to research and has some passion about that area. Graduate training, especially at the doctoral level, is very specialized training desired to turn out professional scholars. A lack of focus and passion for your little “corner” of your discipline will not sustain you through the long years of training. As you do appear to want to “dabble” (as one poster pointed out), and possibly to avoid the business world, I assume you haven’t developed those research interests, or the scholarly inclinations, necessary for a graduate study.</p>
<p>I also assume that your education in various humanities fields has equipped you with various transferrable skills, e.g., writing, textual analysis, problem formulation, etc. I would recommend talking to your college career center to help you determine how you might highlight those skills and/or where you might put them to use.</p>
<p>I agree with the other posters that academic jobs in the traditional humanities disciplines are extremely difficult to obtain, even for very well qualified candidates. Many such persons will have to seek jobs related to their fields outside the academic world. In that arena, interdisciplinary training, internships, etc. may be the relevant background. Some will need to define and create their own opportunities. Potential jobs along these lines might involve applied bioethics, corporate ethics, and so on, to cite some possibilities in philosophy-related areas. </p>
<p>Some other thoughts:
Library science is often a field that appeals to those with wide-ranging interests in history, English, etc. Jobs don’t always pay well, and may be difficult to obtain without some specialized training outside library science, e.g., a master’s in a foreign language, or computer science, etc. </p>
<p>Those who enter into ministerial programs often find that the coursework combines the various interests you mentioned. (I’m assuming you don’t have the “call” to this vocation, however. The pay also isn’t great, and there may not be a shortage of would-be clerics, except possibly among Catholic priests.)</p>
<p>You don’t mention what areas interest you in history, literature, etc. If you have any language background, one possibility is getting into a masters program in a critical language area. You’d have to make up some missing prerequisites, which would require undergraduate courses including intensive elementary and intermediate courses and/or summer study, but it could be done. The area studies involved might incorporate some of the humanities interests, but you’d be well advised to do some coursework in an applied area like business, communications, law, etc. It will take you longer since you’re catching up but not longer than a doctorate. You may very well end up in the business world, but it world draw on linguistic and cultural knowledge as well.</p>
<p>I’m not entirely sure where psychology fits into your array of humanities interests as it’s a specialized scientific discipline these days. </p>
<p>Finally, I would hope (though I know it’s not the case) that any liberal arts graduate has become a lifelong learner. Many people will change fields many times in their career or change their focus within their field, and this will require re-tooling each time. </p>
<p>Those are just some late night random thoughts off the top of my head. </p>
<p>Keep talking to people and eventually you’ll figure out what works for you.</p>
<p>so what are the prospects of all the qualified people then???</p>
<p>out of 10 people that enter PhD programs in the humanities, one will get a tenure-track job as a prof at a research institution (usually 2-3 courses per semester, leaving enough time for independent research and publishing). one will get a tenure-track job at a liberal arts or community college (5-6 courses per semester, little to no time for research).</p>
<p>2 out of 10 will take work as adjuncts. they get paid, on average, about $3000 per course they teach. no benefits. usually have to commute to several different universities, teaching 4-6 courses a semester, just to pull in a salary under $30K a year, before taxes, with no benefits and no job security. in many parts of the country, the pay per course is even worse and they’re hard positions to come by anyway, so you’re likely looking at a yearly salary of $20K. after 5-7 years of grad school, some people might want to start making money they can actually live off of.</p>
<p>many people who start out as adjuncts don’t stay that way. sometimes they find tenure-track jobs in a few years after graduation, and other times they simply leave academia and find jobs in <em>gasp</em> the business world. back to square one, huh?</p>
<p>6 out of 10 people that enter PhD programs in humanities don’t get their degrees. they drop out, get better job offers outside of academia, don’t pass their qualifying exams, or any number of reasons.</p>
<p>the idea that you can get a PhD in 5 years and then get a nice, secure job (in a place you’d actually want to live in) as a professor afterward is a myth.</p>
<p>so why do people do it anyway? they love what they study and are willing to sacrifice and work too hard for less than minimum wage in order to continue studying it, or no one ever told them what their prospects really were before they started grad school.</p>
<p>Very nice post by StrangeLight. It should be required reading for anyone considering applying for a PhD program in the humanities.</p>
<p>As it stands, the OP does not have the requisite focus for a doctoral program.</p>
<p>I concur with several of the posters responding to the OP. Don’t use graduate school to defer making a “serious” career decision. </p>
<p>Being an academic researcher (PhD tenured prof), requires an absolute passion for your subject and 24/7 dedication. If you only enjoy and are not compelled to do research, you will not be competitive! and the average prof salary does not compensate for the amount of effort required to be competitive. however, if you are passionate about your subject, and are compelled to think nearly 24/7 about it, then this is a fabulous career choice!</p>
<p>Consider a Master’s of Liberal Studies, or something similar.</p>
<p>Aren’t the Master’s degree in Liberal Studies just money-makers for colleges?</p>
<p>^ Yes. And they’re worthless.</p>
<p>If he wants to learn broadly, it’s probably his/her best option for a master’s degree. For a Ph.D, possibly American Studies.</p>
<p>If op wants to learn broadly… but if op wants to do anything later on besides attend class, then op should pick a slightly more narrow topic.</p>
<p>if the OP is independently wealthy and just wants the degree because he/she is interested, then liberal studies is a good option. and i’m not knocking that route, a colleague of mine who worked as a professional journalist for decades is getting a PhD simply because she wants the personal challenge and can afford it. but that’s not the case for everyone…</p>
<p>if the OP wants a job as a professor, area studies degrees aren’t the strongest, and liberal studies will essentially guarantee that he/she won’t find work in academia.</p>