History PhD or Second Bachelor's in Comp Sci (IIT vs. RIT vs. Stevens IoT)?

Graduate School
1

<p>I am in a bit of conundrum. Please bear with me as I give some background. I completed my bachelor’s degree in Philosophy back in 2010 from one of the Little Ivies. I did very well, graduated with Latin honors, held numerous leadership roles in student govt and organizations and all that jazz. I interned in government (DC), not-for-profit (development) and consulting companies during each of my summers. When I first started in college in 2006, I was almost certain I wanted to attend law school after completion of my first degree. But, with the financial crisis, recession and subsequent contraction of the legal market, by 2010 I could not justify to myself making such a huge investment in a JD. Even looking into the future, law did not look like robust field to enter (and it still doesn’t). </p>

<p>After college in 2010, I worked as a research assistant for a law professor (go figure) and also worked briefly in executive search. I then had an amazing opportunity to work with an amazing non-profit in a major West African capital and, obviously, I jumped on it. In the meantime, I had applied to do a one-year master’s degree in History at a university in London (mainly out of intellectual interest). I was in Africa until about August 2011 when I then moved to London. I completed my master’s in September 2012, and then moved back to the States. I have been job-hunting since then to no avail. I have sent out hundreds of applications in all kinds of sectors, tapped into some of my prior contacts and nothing approaching long-term sustainability as turned up. I have gotten a couple of temp jobs to pay the bills and have created my own projects to keep myself busy, etc. but it appears I am either over- or under-qualified for virtually all positions that are hiring. I know lots of other folks are going through the same crap. </p>

<p>Anyways, I have three options facing me at the moment. </p>

<p>(1) PhD in History. With the grades from my master’s and some of my experiences, I know I could get into a decent program. I would also likely do a short course/certificate in GIS prior to aid in my research interests and, hopefully, make myself a more attractive job candidate for university teaching positions at the end of the degree. I know its a BIG risk but with the PHD fully funded, I figure I can position myself in a good place by the end of the program even if it means teaching 3rd graders (which I would actually LOVE).</p>

<p>(2) Do a second bachelor’s degree in Comp Sci. I know that IT is an exploding field and I am willing to put in the work to be successful at it. I’ve already looked at some fancy-looking accelerated master’s programs in IT but I sense that, with my background, its better to just do a first degree where I will be with other students like me and have, most probably, more supportive professors. The bonus is that I could attend the following three schools TUITION-FREE provided I am full-time: (a) Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) (b) Rochester Institute of Technology and (c) Stevens Institute of Technology. I would need loans for my living expenses but I am currently debt-free.</p>

<p>(3) Continue hunting for jobs and hold out hope that something will come through. My concern with this option is that I really don’t want to reach 30 and not have a relatively stable career. </p>

<p>I live a really simple life - just looking for some security. The over 5 months that I have been unemployed has been HELL not to mention precarious. I never imagined I would end up this low. I really commiserate with anyone else going through something similar.</p>

<p>So long story short:</p>

<p>Do you have any advice for me regarding what I should do - PhD History or Second Bachelor’s?</p>

<p>If Second Bachelor’s in Comp Sci, can you give me a sense IIT, RIT and Stevens’ reputation? Is one program preferable over the other? I’m cool with Chicago, Rochester or Hoboken/NYC - no lifestyle preference there. Is one of those cities better for tech internships? Would a potential employer frown at all the other stuff I did before the second bachelor’s or the fact that I would be in my late 20s seeking an entry-level position?</p>

<p>Whatever I’m doing, I need to act relatively quickly so any advice you can provide would be MUCHO appreciated. Am I not taking any factors into consideration that I ought to? Thanks so much for your help in advance! Sorry that was so long…</p>

<p>-QUIDPROQUO10</p>

2

<p>First of all, you should never go back to graduate school solely to escape a bad job market. The only reason you should return is if you’re hitting a wall getting to do the kind of work you want to do because you need another degree to get to those positions. So if you are considering returning to grad school only because you can’t find a job - and would not go to graduate school otherwise - then drop the idea and just continue to try to job hunt. The market is not going to get any easier for you just because you have another piece of paper.</p>

<p>Now for specifics:</p>

<p>1) You said you want to have a stable career by the time you are 30. While I think that is an odd goal to have anyway, do realize that a PhD in history is the exact opposite of that? First of all, about half the people who begin a PhD in history do not finish it, usually because they realize that it is not aligned with their goals. Secondly, the time to degree averages 9.5 years now. I’m assuming that you are older than 20. Thirdly, the vast majority of people who get PhDs in history have jobs that do not require the PhD in history. Only a very small proportion actually get tenure-track jobs as assistant professors at any kind of university or college. A larger proportion are hired as contingent labor on contracts - either visiting assistant professors (who have full-time jobs with benefits and an office, but are typically only paid around $40K a year and are on contracts for 1-3 years, after which they must find another employment) or adjunct professors (who get paid an average of $3,000 per course and have no benefits and no job security). The job market in history is absolutely abysmal.</p>

<p>You should only get a PhD in history if you are SO passionate about history that you a) do not mind studying some obscure corner of it for 8-10 years straight, including learning 2 or 3 languages well enough to pass written exams in them and b) you do not mind that, at the end of it, you may not do anything remotely related to the PhD. In other words, you should pursue the PhD for the PhD’s sake on it’s own, without thinking of any promise of a job at the end, especially not one teaching undergraduates as a tenure-track university professor.</p>

<p>2) It sounds to me that you want to do a second BA in computer science just because you think IT is a lucrative field. First of all, I can think of a couple fields in which jobs are much easier to find and keep than CS where a second bachelor’s or a master’s degree can be useful. Nursing, statistics, actuarial science/risk management and accounting are some of those. If you can go to RIT full-time for free, I actually recommend the applied statistics MS, as there is a pretty big demand for applied statisticians who can speak social science/regular people language instead of math.</p>

<p>But getting back to your original point, I completely disagree that doing a first degree is better. Getting a master’s in CS or IT or something like that will almost certainly be more useful than getting a second bachelor’s in CS. But I don’t advocate getting a degree in something that you aren’t particularly interested in. They usually lead to jobs in which you will be doing something that you are not particularly interested in, either.</p>

<p>Honestly, I advocate doing 3. Or perhaps a fourth option, which is figuring out what it is you really want to do and targeting yourself towards that thing. Really, a PhD in history and a bachelor’s in CS are so completely different from each other that I get the sense that you have no idea what you really want to do, and you’re just trying to hurry up and figure something out by some arbitrary deadline of age 30. That’s a terrible way to go about it, IMO. These days it’s okay to spend your 20s figuring out what you want to do and getting the training that you need. No, employers will not frown upon people in their late-20s seeking entry level positions since that is increasingly common now. People switch careers all the time; something you do now won’t lock you in for the rest of your career.</p>

<p>If you would love teaching 3rd graders, why don’t you apply for Teach for America? I mean, the deadlines have passed for this year, but there’s next year. It also seems that you like doing international development work, so there’s also the Peace Corps.</p>

3

<p>Yeah, what juillet said. ;-)</p>

<p>Sounds to me like you still need to figure out what you want to be when you grow up. </p>

<p>You’re young. I suggest you go to Hawaii, surf in the morning and wait tables the rest of the day. Or go do some other mindless thing for a a year or so… somewhere nice where life isn’t such a grind. You need time to find yourself. Do it now while you’re still young. You don’t want to be in your 30’s and still lost.</p>

4

<p>If you would LOVE teaching 3rd graders, just get a teaching certificate. I know my state has plenty of programs that are less than a year for “career changers”. Note: sub in a school first and make sure it’s really what you want to do. You’ll get to try out different grades and make a little money too.</p>

5

<p>I agree with the others. only do the Ph.D. if you are passionate about it.</p>

<p>As for a B.S. in Computer Science, I would also not recommend it. A professional Masters in CS would be much better. I know that at IIT, we admit students from all sorts of Bachelor’s degree backgrounds in the CS program. These students need to take the Software “Boot Camp” courses which get them up to speed and ready to take the graduate courses. </p>

<p>IIT, RIT and Stevens are all part of the <a href=“http://theaitu.org%5B/url%5D”>http://theaitu.org</a> and are pretty much similar (I have my own bias, of course…).</p>

<p>Good Luck!</p>