Is there any point?

sschoe2
Sun, 02 Jan 2011 10:53:09 +0000

A bit more on the possibility of tenure track professorship.

It requires a Ph. D. Roughly 50% of people who start a doctorate complete it. The plus side is you do not have to pay for it and you get about a 15k stipend. However, your fate is entirely dependent on finding a PI that has a genuine interest in your success and mentors you. A lot of PI’s are in it for themselves. They use grad students as cheap/free technicians to run their labs and the college desperately needs english speaking TA’s to teach undergrad chemistry to all the premed and prepharm students. You will be spending sometimes 12 hours a day and many weekends in the lab with teaching and grading interfering with your research. Graduation can take 5 to 7.5 years.

Once you graduate, however, you will be post-docing. You will be moving all over the country for a 35k a year without benefits post-doc. This is kind of like a limbo that barely sustains you while you conduct your job search which can take many years. Finally, the vast majority of tenure-hopefuls have their careers dead end at this stage around age 40 and need a career change. There is about 1 tenure position available for every 10 hopefuls possibly worse depending on your specific field.

This article sums it up nicely
[Women in Science](Women in Science)