<p>I'm interested in a PhD in political science (IR, thank god I didn't say theory right?). I know the job market is horrible but I've also read that if you go to a good school (harvard. stanford, chicago, etc.) you have an easier time. My main concern is age and admissions. I'll be 45 when I start. Will these elite schools still take me? If I finish at 50 will my age be a barrier to getting a job? </p>
<p>Would you be leaving a career in the field? There is no easy time anywhere as far as an academic career.</p>
<p>Well I’m currently a Physician so I’ll be leaving a career in a different field. </p>
<p>I doubt that your age will be a barrier to being admitted, but it might be a barrier to getting a tenure-track job.</p>
<p>Age discrimination is technically illegal, of course. And communicating with other academics, I’ve heard stories of people past their mid-40s getting tenure-track jobs in academia, so it’s not impossible. At 50 even if you retired at 67 on the dot that’s still a good 17 years of productivity, and many professors continue teaching well into their 70s. But it’s not untrue to say that many departments are looking for those 30- or 40-something professors who they believe they can get 30-40 years out of - if not in the department itself, then in the field in general. Sometimes they use year of college graduation as their key (although that’s silly - if they did that, then </p>
<p>I guess I didn’t finish my complete thought! I meant that using graduation year is silly because non-traditional students buck this trend.</p>
<p>Either way, what I also meant to add was don’t assume that you will be 50 when you finish; statistically speaking, you are likely to be older. I think the current average time to degree, according to the NSF, is about 8 years. I think it is most common these days for political scientists to take 6-7 years to finish.</p>
<p>Jesus. So basically if you’re going to finish after 45 it’s a bad idea? </p>