Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - Anyone know which grad degrees are most useful?

PyramidsofMars · 03-09-2010, 09:30 PM

I'm quickly realizing my fantasies of walking hallowed halls and spending my days discussing literary theory are just that: fantasies. However, I've really always been realistic about this sort of thing. Unless you do business or IT or certain sciences, there is really no field that isn't hard to get into. I'm a simple guy, though, probably won't get married, definitely don't want kids. Don't need a six-figure salary to be happy. I guess what I'm asking about are degrees that are somewhat more viable than going the academic route in Literature. Believe it or not, English is NOT easy. It's easy enough to pass, sure, maybe, but it's incredibly hard to excel in. To get into a good MA program and work with a good scholar is very tough. To get into a good PhD program is tougher. To produce a good PhD thesis and gain placement is near impossible. The only university in Canada that has a somewhat decent placement record is the University of Toronto, and even that is not much more than 40%. Even McGill places very few of its PhD's. English academia contains some of the most unbelievably bright minds I've encountered, but it's soul-crushing, not enhancing. Not educational. It used to be different. We are asked to be in the top 2% of undergrads, then the top 2% of Masters grads, then the top 2% of PhD's. Then, to actually get tenure, the top 2% of people employed with English PhD's.

the job market for my generation is screwed, anyway, in so many respects. It used to be that a law degree would guarantee you good employment and a good salary. Now that's not really the case anymore. People keep saying to me, if you work hard enough you'll go places. I don't believe that. I've heard stories of people who graduated from Ivy League schools, have published whole books and countless articles, who, when desperate to supplement their barely existing income from awful sessional jobs with some other form of employment, have to leave all their hard work off their resume just to get a call back.

I think a Master of Counselling might be a good option. It seems like a reasonable job market, all in all.

Yes, I know somebody's going to tell me to google it. That's all well and good, sure, but I already have. And there's a lot of people who don't know what they're talking about, can't write a basic sentence of English, and are generally contradictory. I find CP usually rises above that level of discourse, so I hope I can get some decent responses, if not many.

03-09-2010, 09:30 PM	#1
PyramidsofMars Scoring Winger Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Calgary Exp:	Anyone know which grad degrees are most useful? I'm quickly realizing my fantasies of walking hallowed halls and spending my days discussing literary theory are just that: fantasies. However, I've really always been realistic about this sort of thing. Unless you do business or IT or certain sciences, there is really no field that isn't hard to get into. I'm a simple guy, though, probably won't get married, definitely don't want kids. Don't need a six-figure salary to be happy. I guess what I'm asking about are degrees that are somewhat more viable than going the academic route in Literature. Believe it or not, English is NOT easy. It's easy enough to pass, sure, maybe, but it's incredibly hard to excel in. To get into a good MA program and work with a good scholar is very tough. To get into a good PhD program is tougher. To produce a good PhD thesis and gain placement is near impossible. The only university in Canada that has a somewhat decent placement record is the University of Toronto, and even that is not much more than 40%. Even McGill places very few of its PhD's. English academia contains some of the most unbelievably bright minds I've encountered, but it's soul-crushing, not enhancing. Not educational. It used to be different. We are asked to be in the top 2% of undergrads, then the top 2% of Masters grads, then the top 2% of PhD's. Then, to actually get tenure, the top 2% of people employed with English PhD's. the job market for my generation is screwed, anyway, in so many respects. It used to be that a law degree would guarantee you good employment and a good salary. Now that's not really the case anymore. People keep saying to me, if you work hard enough you'll go places. I don't believe that. I've heard stories of people who graduated from Ivy League schools, have published whole books and countless articles, who, when desperate to supplement their barely existing income from awful sessional jobs with some other form of employment, have to leave all their hard work off their resume just to get a call back. I think a Master of Counselling might be a good option. It seems like a reasonable job market, all in all. Yes, I know somebody's going to tell me to google it. That's all well and good, sure, but I already have. And there's a lot of people who don't know what they're talking about, can't write a basic sentence of English, and are generally contradictory. I find CP usually rises above that level of discourse, so I hope I can get some decent responses, if not many.