Comments on: Lies, damn lies and statistics

By: Sabine Hikel

Sabine Hikel — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 11:57:46 +0000

Angel, thanks for your awesome comment. And thanks for being another example of someone who bailed and survived!

Jo: I TOTALLY want to write a post about the whole “baby before or after grad school?” thing because I’ve got my own thoughts on that and would love to hear others!

MelB: This is totally fascinating information, because I did not know StatsCan was actually doing follow ups. I’m going to do some more poking around to see what they’re doing with that data, because that’s the first inkling I’ve had that StatsCan is actually keeping numbers on PhDs and their employment paths. So thank you so very much for leaving this comment. Plus, it also twigs a memory that they did try to contact me after I finished, and I was too exhausted to respond (which again makes me wonder how many academic leavers do the same).

By: MelB

MelB — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:58:22 +0000

I’m actually part of that cohort – I graduated with a Ph.D. in history in late 2005. I just want to add to your point about things being left unsaid. I remember when Statistics Canada called me for a follow up I was asked if I was working in the field I had trained for (or something along those lines). I answered yes because I was teaching history, but what that answer doesn’t say is that I worked as a TA until I could get hired as a sessional lecturer the following year. I don’t remember being asked if I thought I was underemployed although I definitely was and continue to be (which is one of the reasons why I’ve decided to leave academia). In their follow up StatsCan should take into account graduates’ level of satisfaction with their position in order to paint a more accurate picture.

By: JoVE

JoVE — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:50:19 +0000

I recall looking at some of this data a while ago. completion times vary a lot too and are particularly long for humanities scholars. Quality supervision is pretty important there, too, I suspect. Not least helping you keep the project down to thesis size.

On the marriage stat, I think that is also just that the vast majority of people marry and most do so in their 20s and 30s. so it makes sense that grad students are often married. Same with having kids. Your on the clock for that and if you don’t finish your PhD until you are 30…

I know that some grad students actually make a decision to have their kids while students because they think it will be that much harder when on the tenure-track. Not sure if their logic pans out but would also contribute to that stat.

By: Angel

Angel — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:03:44 +0000

That is a pretty good reading of the report. It caught my eye, and I kept reading in large part because I bailed out myself from a doctoral program, for some of the reasons you list above (and let me add certain academic advisor more interested in weeding people out of the program than keeping them). But more importantly, I think this is the kind of thing that more graduate students and potential graduate students should be reading and take to heart as they make a decision to pursue that doctorate or not. I got lucky. I managed to transfer, get the second masters instead (library science) and get a job. Not all are so lucky. Thank you for writing, and for letting us know that there can be hope outside academia and the “usual” paths.

Best, and keep on blogging.