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v3a2k8
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
Are Ivy league universities worth it? Do they have that much higher quality education than less famous universities? Does the reputation do justice to these uni's education or the main reason they are famous is because of their history? *What* makes their education high quality, what is high education in general?
|
iax9bwe
|
iaykbnh
| 1,654,184,601 | 1,654,204,756 | 4 | 15 |
My grad school program in stem did not accept ugrads from ivy's. They showed up as victims of grade inflation. The program accepted students from big r1s only with lab experience and a good letter from their lab research supervisor. Mostly mit, u mich, u wisc Madison, Penn State, ut... Anyone who got through those schools with good grades had survived a Darwinian process that Princeton and Harvard undergrads had been protected from. (Unless they had a paper or lots of lab experience.). This was a long time ago, but I suspect there's still a deal where undergrads from big schools and can't cut it get weeded out, while ugrads from certain Ivys are passed along with B's
|
I know of no parent who, if they had the means, wouldn't wish to send their child to an elite institution. So there's something. Historically, the benefits of the Ivy League (and other elite institutions--MIT, Caltech, Stanford, etc.) were peer group, connections, name recognition, perceived level of rigor, quality of academic research programs, and the not-so-insignificant fact that the socioeconomic status of students tended toward the wealthy end of the spectrum, which would have been a strong guarantor of success even if you were to control for quality of schools. Today, several factors skew the Ivy League and other elite schools away from a being a strict meritocracy. With acceptance rates in the sub-10% range, they're little more than a lottery for most applicants. It's extremely common to hear of students with perfect GPAs, perfect test scores, tons of extracurriculars, national awards, standout athlete and musician statuses, and genuine academic research... who are summarily turned down to every Ivy League school to which they apply. They apparently didn't satisfy some set of nebulous, "holistic" admissions criteria that nobody can define nor convincingly defend. That said, the "elite institution" education has been criticized of late and some have argued that it squanders the potential of some of our best minds, turning them into middling options traders or management consultants.
| 0 | 20,155 | 3.75 |
v3a2k8
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
Are Ivy league universities worth it? Do they have that much higher quality education than less famous universities? Does the reputation do justice to these uni's education or the main reason they are famous is because of their history? *What* makes their education high quality, what is high education in general?
|
iaykbnh
|
iaxb1mi
| 1,654,204,756 | 1,654,185,335 | 15 | 5 |
I know of no parent who, if they had the means, wouldn't wish to send their child to an elite institution. So there's something. Historically, the benefits of the Ivy League (and other elite institutions--MIT, Caltech, Stanford, etc.) were peer group, connections, name recognition, perceived level of rigor, quality of academic research programs, and the not-so-insignificant fact that the socioeconomic status of students tended toward the wealthy end of the spectrum, which would have been a strong guarantor of success even if you were to control for quality of schools. Today, several factors skew the Ivy League and other elite schools away from a being a strict meritocracy. With acceptance rates in the sub-10% range, they're little more than a lottery for most applicants. It's extremely common to hear of students with perfect GPAs, perfect test scores, tons of extracurriculars, national awards, standout athlete and musician statuses, and genuine academic research... who are summarily turned down to every Ivy League school to which they apply. They apparently didn't satisfy some set of nebulous, "holistic" admissions criteria that nobody can define nor convincingly defend. That said, the "elite institution" education has been criticized of late and some have argued that it squanders the potential of some of our best minds, turning them into middling options traders or management consultants.
|
Lots of good comments already about strong peers. One more factor is the access to world-class research opportunities. Most faculty are the leading or lead scholars in their field. Doing cutting-edge science with them is as easy as writing an email and asking, 'Hi I'm an undergrad in your class and found your research interesting. Can I work with you?'
| 1 | 19,421 | 3 |
v3a2k8
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
Are Ivy league universities worth it? Do they have that much higher quality education than less famous universities? Does the reputation do justice to these uni's education or the main reason they are famous is because of their history? *What* makes their education high quality, what is high education in general?
|
iaxt697
|
iaykbnh
| 1,654,192,952 | 1,654,204,756 | 3 | 15 |
I really don't know. I went to a state college that has a good reputation, and was very successful in graduate school. However, I worked hard and dedicated much of my free time to writing - I focused on philosophy as an undergrad, which was relevant to my graduate studies and eventual career. Most people in internships and professional settings had never heard of the college I went to, but were impressed when I described my experience there. I was accepted to one of the most prestigious internships in my field, but that was primarily due to my passion for and engagement in my work, as the schools I went to are not really that well known outside of niche cultures here and there. I'm not sure what Ivy League is like, but if you have the opportunity to attend, you're probably better off doing so, if not for quality of education, then for reputation. In terms of education, I really think what matters is your passion for the subject. There are dumbasses everywhere.
|
I know of no parent who, if they had the means, wouldn't wish to send their child to an elite institution. So there's something. Historically, the benefits of the Ivy League (and other elite institutions--MIT, Caltech, Stanford, etc.) were peer group, connections, name recognition, perceived level of rigor, quality of academic research programs, and the not-so-insignificant fact that the socioeconomic status of students tended toward the wealthy end of the spectrum, which would have been a strong guarantor of success even if you were to control for quality of schools. Today, several factors skew the Ivy League and other elite schools away from a being a strict meritocracy. With acceptance rates in the sub-10% range, they're little more than a lottery for most applicants. It's extremely common to hear of students with perfect GPAs, perfect test scores, tons of extracurriculars, national awards, standout athlete and musician statuses, and genuine academic research... who are summarily turned down to every Ivy League school to which they apply. They apparently didn't satisfy some set of nebulous, "holistic" admissions criteria that nobody can define nor convincingly defend. That said, the "elite institution" education has been criticized of late and some have argued that it squanders the potential of some of our best minds, turning them into middling options traders or management consultants.
| 0 | 11,804 | 5 |
v3a2k8
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
Are Ivy league universities worth it? Do they have that much higher quality education than less famous universities? Does the reputation do justice to these uni's education or the main reason they are famous is because of their history? *What* makes their education high quality, what is high education in general?
|
iaxzyfj
|
iaykbnh
| 1,654,195,840 | 1,654,204,756 | 2 | 15 |
100%. The Ivy League universities have \*international\* reputations for excellence and incredible alumni networks full of people at the very top of their industries/fields (particularly Harvard, Yale, and Princeton). Most of your peers will have dominated their high school class, your professors will be among the best (if not the best) in their area, world-famous individuals will visit the school regularly for talks and events, and you will have access to more resources for research than you are likely to ever see again. Many universities treat their students like children. This is not true of at least the best Ivies, which expect a lot from their students and in turn create environments that allow students to thrive. ​ Source: Three Ivy League degrees, feel very lucky to have had amazing courses and mentors, and cannot believe how many doors these pieces of paper have opened.
|
I know of no parent who, if they had the means, wouldn't wish to send their child to an elite institution. So there's something. Historically, the benefits of the Ivy League (and other elite institutions--MIT, Caltech, Stanford, etc.) were peer group, connections, name recognition, perceived level of rigor, quality of academic research programs, and the not-so-insignificant fact that the socioeconomic status of students tended toward the wealthy end of the spectrum, which would have been a strong guarantor of success even if you were to control for quality of schools. Today, several factors skew the Ivy League and other elite schools away from a being a strict meritocracy. With acceptance rates in the sub-10% range, they're little more than a lottery for most applicants. It's extremely common to hear of students with perfect GPAs, perfect test scores, tons of extracurriculars, national awards, standout athlete and musician statuses, and genuine academic research... who are summarily turned down to every Ivy League school to which they apply. They apparently didn't satisfy some set of nebulous, "holistic" admissions criteria that nobody can define nor convincingly defend. That said, the "elite institution" education has been criticized of late and some have argued that it squanders the potential of some of our best minds, turning them into middling options traders or management consultants.
| 0 | 8,916 | 7.5 |
v3a2k8
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
Are Ivy league universities worth it? Do they have that much higher quality education than less famous universities? Does the reputation do justice to these uni's education or the main reason they are famous is because of their history? *What* makes their education high quality, what is high education in general?
|
iay3bm6
|
iaykbnh
| 1,654,197,303 | 1,654,204,756 | 2 | 15 |
It depends on many different things: are you talking about undergrad or postgrad? What are your priorities when it comes to attending university? I'm a lawyer, I come from South America, I went to the best Law School in my country (according to QS Ranking, among the best 101-150 Law Schools in the world) with an acceptance rate of 10%. I graduated first in the class, and all my friends graduated within the top 10%. All my friends decided to go to Ivies and other top universities (Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Chicago, NYU, Oxford, Cambridge, National University of Singapore) and I decided to go to a much less ranked university in Europe to study social sciences, travel, party, etc. I don't know where you're from, but from my perspective, there is one huge difference between top US/Asian universities and the rest: they're extremely competitive and you can feel capitalism in class, if it makes sense. European universities are much more relaxed, they're not picky at all, and my friends who went to Oxford and Cambridge were mainly bored. In my case, I went to a European university that is currently ranked among the best 45 in the world (THE Ranking) and it was terrible. Since they try to democratize education, the admission rate is 100%, literally. If you have a Bachelor's and you kind of speak English, you literally get admitted to their master's in social sciences, so one of the first things I noticed in class, was that one of my classmates was one of the worst students from my South American university. To be honest, I was a little "mad" because I expected to share class with "the best students of the world" but it wasn't like that, at all. We had some people from Oxford and LSE, but also very random people who weren't interested in the master's at all, and were only there because they won a random scholarship or they just enrolled for residence purposes. If I had to compare, I would say that my South American university (ranked 450° overall by QS and 1000° by THE) was much better in every way than this European university, ranked 70° overall by QS and 45° overall by THE. When it comes to ivies, at Master's level, they differ a lot. For instance, for Law, Harvard has a class composed of 200 people, but Yale has a class of around 30 people. Yale is almost 7 times more competitive than Harvard, and at least for Law, it indeed has the "best lawyers" in the world (especially the ones into academia). But for instance, all my friends who went to Columbia told me that probably 60% were just rich kids who weren't impressive at all (and some of them, even sort of dumb), which surprised me a lot. Actually, 2 of the people I know who didn't even end up in the top 20% of my South American class were accepted for Columbia and they already graduated from it. On the other hand, another friend who went to Chicago told me that the level is very high, things are pretty hard and yeah, most of the students are super smart. If I had to rank top US universities for a master's in Law, I'd say that the "best ones" are 1) Yale, 2) Chicago, 3) Harvard, 4) the rest. Now, from what I've read, getting into Ivies for Bachelor's it's on a whole different level. I read that for the top ones, only 1 of every 5 valedictorians is admitted, and usually valedictorians are 1st out of mmm 300 students? 400? Then, only 1 out of 1500-2000 high school students is able to get admitted to the top Ivies, which makes them extremely competitive. Finally, I don't know where you're from, but in case having a job is a top priority for you, be aware that all my friends who went to Ivies have now $100,000 in debt for a 10-month master's, they didn't find a job in the US, and they are coming back to my South American country to get paid around $1,500 - $ 3,000 per month before taxes (after having a master's at Harvard, having 10 years of working experience, etc), while I managed to get a very good job with the European Union because of some good networking I did (and by the way, my whole master's costed me $950, without any scholarship.) Conclusion: it all depends on what your priorities are, but I wouldn't say "Ivy Leagues" are a thing itself anymore, it depends on what level (bachelors, master's, phd), what department, what programme, what university in concrete, what are you expecting to receive from a university, etc, BUT, they are not as "top" and as I personally thought, however, they're still the "best" in the world.
|
I know of no parent who, if they had the means, wouldn't wish to send their child to an elite institution. So there's something. Historically, the benefits of the Ivy League (and other elite institutions--MIT, Caltech, Stanford, etc.) were peer group, connections, name recognition, perceived level of rigor, quality of academic research programs, and the not-so-insignificant fact that the socioeconomic status of students tended toward the wealthy end of the spectrum, which would have been a strong guarantor of success even if you were to control for quality of schools. Today, several factors skew the Ivy League and other elite schools away from a being a strict meritocracy. With acceptance rates in the sub-10% range, they're little more than a lottery for most applicants. It's extremely common to hear of students with perfect GPAs, perfect test scores, tons of extracurriculars, national awards, standout athlete and musician statuses, and genuine academic research... who are summarily turned down to every Ivy League school to which they apply. They apparently didn't satisfy some set of nebulous, "holistic" admissions criteria that nobody can define nor convincingly defend. That said, the "elite institution" education has been criticized of late and some have argued that it squanders the potential of some of our best minds, turning them into middling options traders or management consultants.
| 0 | 7,453 | 7.5 |
v3a2k8
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
Are Ivy league universities worth it? Do they have that much higher quality education than less famous universities? Does the reputation do justice to these uni's education or the main reason they are famous is because of their history? *What* makes their education high quality, what is high education in general?
|
iaxb1mi
|
iax9bwe
| 1,654,185,335 | 1,654,184,601 | 5 | 4 |
Lots of good comments already about strong peers. One more factor is the access to world-class research opportunities. Most faculty are the leading or lead scholars in their field. Doing cutting-edge science with them is as easy as writing an email and asking, 'Hi I'm an undergrad in your class and found your research interesting. Can I work with you?'
|
My grad school program in stem did not accept ugrads from ivy's. They showed up as victims of grade inflation. The program accepted students from big r1s only with lab experience and a good letter from their lab research supervisor. Mostly mit, u mich, u wisc Madison, Penn State, ut... Anyone who got through those schools with good grades had survived a Darwinian process that Princeton and Harvard undergrads had been protected from. (Unless they had a paper or lots of lab experience.). This was a long time ago, but I suspect there's still a deal where undergrads from big schools and can't cut it get weeded out, while ugrads from certain Ivys are passed along with B's
| 1 | 734 | 1.25 |
v3a2k8
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
Are Ivy league universities worth it? Do they have that much higher quality education than less famous universities? Does the reputation do justice to these uni's education or the main reason they are famous is because of their history? *What* makes their education high quality, what is high education in general?
|
iaxt697
|
iaz8vww
| 1,654,192,952 | 1,654,216,251 | 3 | 4 |
I really don't know. I went to a state college that has a good reputation, and was very successful in graduate school. However, I worked hard and dedicated much of my free time to writing - I focused on philosophy as an undergrad, which was relevant to my graduate studies and eventual career. Most people in internships and professional settings had never heard of the college I went to, but were impressed when I described my experience there. I was accepted to one of the most prestigious internships in my field, but that was primarily due to my passion for and engagement in my work, as the schools I went to are not really that well known outside of niche cultures here and there. I'm not sure what Ivy League is like, but if you have the opportunity to attend, you're probably better off doing so, if not for quality of education, then for reputation. In terms of education, I really think what matters is your passion for the subject. There are dumbasses everywhere.
|
I think it comes down to three things. 1. Attention. 2. Networking. 3. Resources. I went to undergrad at an Ivy. My experience has been that when it comes to jobs, or really just anything, when it comes up, people treat you a little differently. People pause and fixate on it a little I guess. That attention and extra focus certainly has perks, and would possibly make someone look at your job application a little longer, etc. You’ve already been vetted by one of the most prestigious and gatekeepy places in the nation, and that matters to people sometimes, even if it shouldn’t. I’m not saying that that means state schools aren’t good. They can be just as good as ivies, if not better. But the attention is worth something. I have had coworkers and clients call me my university’s name rather than my own name. As for 2, it’s like a club. It’s gatekeepy. Having that in common with someone means youre part of the “club.” People are more likely to help you out etc. because they’re proud they went there too and probably love talking about it lol. It goes both ways. Whereas at a state school the club is bigger and feels less “special” I guess. Meeting up with someone from a state school of 20k students per year is different and less rare than running into someone from your 3k students per class year uni. As for 3, not all the resources are always better, but let’s just say there’s no shortage of them. To be clear, I think the ivies are bloated and overpriced but I’m grateful I went and it does have perks, and I would do it again
| 0 | 23,299 | 1.333333 |
v3a2k8
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
Are Ivy league universities worth it? Do they have that much higher quality education than less famous universities? Does the reputation do justice to these uni's education or the main reason they are famous is because of their history? *What* makes their education high quality, what is high education in general?
|
iaz8vww
|
iaxzyfj
| 1,654,216,251 | 1,654,195,840 | 4 | 2 |
I think it comes down to three things. 1. Attention. 2. Networking. 3. Resources. I went to undergrad at an Ivy. My experience has been that when it comes to jobs, or really just anything, when it comes up, people treat you a little differently. People pause and fixate on it a little I guess. That attention and extra focus certainly has perks, and would possibly make someone look at your job application a little longer, etc. You’ve already been vetted by one of the most prestigious and gatekeepy places in the nation, and that matters to people sometimes, even if it shouldn’t. I’m not saying that that means state schools aren’t good. They can be just as good as ivies, if not better. But the attention is worth something. I have had coworkers and clients call me my university’s name rather than my own name. As for 2, it’s like a club. It’s gatekeepy. Having that in common with someone means youre part of the “club.” People are more likely to help you out etc. because they’re proud they went there too and probably love talking about it lol. It goes both ways. Whereas at a state school the club is bigger and feels less “special” I guess. Meeting up with someone from a state school of 20k students per year is different and less rare than running into someone from your 3k students per class year uni. As for 3, not all the resources are always better, but let’s just say there’s no shortage of them. To be clear, I think the ivies are bloated and overpriced but I’m grateful I went and it does have perks, and I would do it again
|
100%. The Ivy League universities have \*international\* reputations for excellence and incredible alumni networks full of people at the very top of their industries/fields (particularly Harvard, Yale, and Princeton). Most of your peers will have dominated their high school class, your professors will be among the best (if not the best) in their area, world-famous individuals will visit the school regularly for talks and events, and you will have access to more resources for research than you are likely to ever see again. Many universities treat their students like children. This is not true of at least the best Ivies, which expect a lot from their students and in turn create environments that allow students to thrive. ​ Source: Three Ivy League degrees, feel very lucky to have had amazing courses and mentors, and cannot believe how many doors these pieces of paper have opened.
| 1 | 20,411 | 2 |
v3a2k8
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
Are Ivy league universities worth it? Do they have that much higher quality education than less famous universities? Does the reputation do justice to these uni's education or the main reason they are famous is because of their history? *What* makes their education high quality, what is high education in general?
|
iay3bm6
|
iaz8vww
| 1,654,197,303 | 1,654,216,251 | 2 | 4 |
It depends on many different things: are you talking about undergrad or postgrad? What are your priorities when it comes to attending university? I'm a lawyer, I come from South America, I went to the best Law School in my country (according to QS Ranking, among the best 101-150 Law Schools in the world) with an acceptance rate of 10%. I graduated first in the class, and all my friends graduated within the top 10%. All my friends decided to go to Ivies and other top universities (Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Chicago, NYU, Oxford, Cambridge, National University of Singapore) and I decided to go to a much less ranked university in Europe to study social sciences, travel, party, etc. I don't know where you're from, but from my perspective, there is one huge difference between top US/Asian universities and the rest: they're extremely competitive and you can feel capitalism in class, if it makes sense. European universities are much more relaxed, they're not picky at all, and my friends who went to Oxford and Cambridge were mainly bored. In my case, I went to a European university that is currently ranked among the best 45 in the world (THE Ranking) and it was terrible. Since they try to democratize education, the admission rate is 100%, literally. If you have a Bachelor's and you kind of speak English, you literally get admitted to their master's in social sciences, so one of the first things I noticed in class, was that one of my classmates was one of the worst students from my South American university. To be honest, I was a little "mad" because I expected to share class with "the best students of the world" but it wasn't like that, at all. We had some people from Oxford and LSE, but also very random people who weren't interested in the master's at all, and were only there because they won a random scholarship or they just enrolled for residence purposes. If I had to compare, I would say that my South American university (ranked 450° overall by QS and 1000° by THE) was much better in every way than this European university, ranked 70° overall by QS and 45° overall by THE. When it comes to ivies, at Master's level, they differ a lot. For instance, for Law, Harvard has a class composed of 200 people, but Yale has a class of around 30 people. Yale is almost 7 times more competitive than Harvard, and at least for Law, it indeed has the "best lawyers" in the world (especially the ones into academia). But for instance, all my friends who went to Columbia told me that probably 60% were just rich kids who weren't impressive at all (and some of them, even sort of dumb), which surprised me a lot. Actually, 2 of the people I know who didn't even end up in the top 20% of my South American class were accepted for Columbia and they already graduated from it. On the other hand, another friend who went to Chicago told me that the level is very high, things are pretty hard and yeah, most of the students are super smart. If I had to rank top US universities for a master's in Law, I'd say that the "best ones" are 1) Yale, 2) Chicago, 3) Harvard, 4) the rest. Now, from what I've read, getting into Ivies for Bachelor's it's on a whole different level. I read that for the top ones, only 1 of every 5 valedictorians is admitted, and usually valedictorians are 1st out of mmm 300 students? 400? Then, only 1 out of 1500-2000 high school students is able to get admitted to the top Ivies, which makes them extremely competitive. Finally, I don't know where you're from, but in case having a job is a top priority for you, be aware that all my friends who went to Ivies have now $100,000 in debt for a 10-month master's, they didn't find a job in the US, and they are coming back to my South American country to get paid around $1,500 - $ 3,000 per month before taxes (after having a master's at Harvard, having 10 years of working experience, etc), while I managed to get a very good job with the European Union because of some good networking I did (and by the way, my whole master's costed me $950, without any scholarship.) Conclusion: it all depends on what your priorities are, but I wouldn't say "Ivy Leagues" are a thing itself anymore, it depends on what level (bachelors, master's, phd), what department, what programme, what university in concrete, what are you expecting to receive from a university, etc, BUT, they are not as "top" and as I personally thought, however, they're still the "best" in the world.
|
I think it comes down to three things. 1. Attention. 2. Networking. 3. Resources. I went to undergrad at an Ivy. My experience has been that when it comes to jobs, or really just anything, when it comes up, people treat you a little differently. People pause and fixate on it a little I guess. That attention and extra focus certainly has perks, and would possibly make someone look at your job application a little longer, etc. You’ve already been vetted by one of the most prestigious and gatekeepy places in the nation, and that matters to people sometimes, even if it shouldn’t. I’m not saying that that means state schools aren’t good. They can be just as good as ivies, if not better. But the attention is worth something. I have had coworkers and clients call me my university’s name rather than my own name. As for 2, it’s like a club. It’s gatekeepy. Having that in common with someone means youre part of the “club.” People are more likely to help you out etc. because they’re proud they went there too and probably love talking about it lol. It goes both ways. Whereas at a state school the club is bigger and feels less “special” I guess. Meeting up with someone from a state school of 20k students per year is different and less rare than running into someone from your 3k students per class year uni. As for 3, not all the resources are always better, but let’s just say there’s no shortage of them. To be clear, I think the ivies are bloated and overpriced but I’m grateful I went and it does have perks, and I would do it again
| 0 | 18,948 | 2 |
v3a2k8
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
Are Ivy league universities worth it? Do they have that much higher quality education than less famous universities? Does the reputation do justice to these uni's education or the main reason they are famous is because of their history? *What* makes their education high quality, what is high education in general?
|
iaz2z9y
|
iaz8vww
| 1,654,213,336 | 1,654,216,251 | 3 | 4 |
I think one thing that's missing here is that universities are not monoliths: there are pockets of mediocrity at any university, including Harvard (from personal experience) and any other. That can mean mediocre departments, classes, faculty, whatever, that have persisted in part from complacency, and though their coffers may be deep, that doesn't necessarily mean a poor performing department can just turn around. On the flip side, there are areas of true excellence at non-Ivies: excellent departments, excellent faculty, excellent labs, and excellent opportunities for students. The best opportunities at "merely good" universities outshine mediocre ones at elite institutions. This isn't to discount the general sentiment that more university resources and more university prestige is better than less. Elite universities generally have more option value in case your interests change or span multiple fields, as their strengths overall are generally quite broad and deep. But there's still real variation even within institutions.
|
I think it comes down to three things. 1. Attention. 2. Networking. 3. Resources. I went to undergrad at an Ivy. My experience has been that when it comes to jobs, or really just anything, when it comes up, people treat you a little differently. People pause and fixate on it a little I guess. That attention and extra focus certainly has perks, and would possibly make someone look at your job application a little longer, etc. You’ve already been vetted by one of the most prestigious and gatekeepy places in the nation, and that matters to people sometimes, even if it shouldn’t. I’m not saying that that means state schools aren’t good. They can be just as good as ivies, if not better. But the attention is worth something. I have had coworkers and clients call me my university’s name rather than my own name. As for 2, it’s like a club. It’s gatekeepy. Having that in common with someone means youre part of the “club.” People are more likely to help you out etc. because they’re proud they went there too and probably love talking about it lol. It goes both ways. Whereas at a state school the club is bigger and feels less “special” I guess. Meeting up with someone from a state school of 20k students per year is different and less rare than running into someone from your 3k students per class year uni. As for 3, not all the resources are always better, but let’s just say there’s no shortage of them. To be clear, I think the ivies are bloated and overpriced but I’m grateful I went and it does have perks, and I would do it again
| 0 | 2,915 | 1.333333 |
v3a2k8
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
Are Ivy league universities worth it? Do they have that much higher quality education than less famous universities? Does the reputation do justice to these uni's education or the main reason they are famous is because of their history? *What* makes their education high quality, what is high education in general?
|
iaxzyfj
|
iaz2z9y
| 1,654,195,840 | 1,654,213,336 | 2 | 3 |
100%. The Ivy League universities have \*international\* reputations for excellence and incredible alumni networks full of people at the very top of their industries/fields (particularly Harvard, Yale, and Princeton). Most of your peers will have dominated their high school class, your professors will be among the best (if not the best) in their area, world-famous individuals will visit the school regularly for talks and events, and you will have access to more resources for research than you are likely to ever see again. Many universities treat their students like children. This is not true of at least the best Ivies, which expect a lot from their students and in turn create environments that allow students to thrive. ​ Source: Three Ivy League degrees, feel very lucky to have had amazing courses and mentors, and cannot believe how many doors these pieces of paper have opened.
|
I think one thing that's missing here is that universities are not monoliths: there are pockets of mediocrity at any university, including Harvard (from personal experience) and any other. That can mean mediocre departments, classes, faculty, whatever, that have persisted in part from complacency, and though their coffers may be deep, that doesn't necessarily mean a poor performing department can just turn around. On the flip side, there are areas of true excellence at non-Ivies: excellent departments, excellent faculty, excellent labs, and excellent opportunities for students. The best opportunities at "merely good" universities outshine mediocre ones at elite institutions. This isn't to discount the general sentiment that more university resources and more university prestige is better than less. Elite universities generally have more option value in case your interests change or span multiple fields, as their strengths overall are generally quite broad and deep. But there's still real variation even within institutions.
| 0 | 17,496 | 1.5 |
v3a2k8
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
Are Ivy league universities worth it? Do they have that much higher quality education than less famous universities? Does the reputation do justice to these uni's education or the main reason they are famous is because of their history? *What* makes their education high quality, what is high education in general?
|
iaz2z9y
|
iay3bm6
| 1,654,213,336 | 1,654,197,303 | 3 | 2 |
I think one thing that's missing here is that universities are not monoliths: there are pockets of mediocrity at any university, including Harvard (from personal experience) and any other. That can mean mediocre departments, classes, faculty, whatever, that have persisted in part from complacency, and though their coffers may be deep, that doesn't necessarily mean a poor performing department can just turn around. On the flip side, there are areas of true excellence at non-Ivies: excellent departments, excellent faculty, excellent labs, and excellent opportunities for students. The best opportunities at "merely good" universities outshine mediocre ones at elite institutions. This isn't to discount the general sentiment that more university resources and more university prestige is better than less. Elite universities generally have more option value in case your interests change or span multiple fields, as their strengths overall are generally quite broad and deep. But there's still real variation even within institutions.
|
It depends on many different things: are you talking about undergrad or postgrad? What are your priorities when it comes to attending university? I'm a lawyer, I come from South America, I went to the best Law School in my country (according to QS Ranking, among the best 101-150 Law Schools in the world) with an acceptance rate of 10%. I graduated first in the class, and all my friends graduated within the top 10%. All my friends decided to go to Ivies and other top universities (Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Chicago, NYU, Oxford, Cambridge, National University of Singapore) and I decided to go to a much less ranked university in Europe to study social sciences, travel, party, etc. I don't know where you're from, but from my perspective, there is one huge difference between top US/Asian universities and the rest: they're extremely competitive and you can feel capitalism in class, if it makes sense. European universities are much more relaxed, they're not picky at all, and my friends who went to Oxford and Cambridge were mainly bored. In my case, I went to a European university that is currently ranked among the best 45 in the world (THE Ranking) and it was terrible. Since they try to democratize education, the admission rate is 100%, literally. If you have a Bachelor's and you kind of speak English, you literally get admitted to their master's in social sciences, so one of the first things I noticed in class, was that one of my classmates was one of the worst students from my South American university. To be honest, I was a little "mad" because I expected to share class with "the best students of the world" but it wasn't like that, at all. We had some people from Oxford and LSE, but also very random people who weren't interested in the master's at all, and were only there because they won a random scholarship or they just enrolled for residence purposes. If I had to compare, I would say that my South American university (ranked 450° overall by QS and 1000° by THE) was much better in every way than this European university, ranked 70° overall by QS and 45° overall by THE. When it comes to ivies, at Master's level, they differ a lot. For instance, for Law, Harvard has a class composed of 200 people, but Yale has a class of around 30 people. Yale is almost 7 times more competitive than Harvard, and at least for Law, it indeed has the "best lawyers" in the world (especially the ones into academia). But for instance, all my friends who went to Columbia told me that probably 60% were just rich kids who weren't impressive at all (and some of them, even sort of dumb), which surprised me a lot. Actually, 2 of the people I know who didn't even end up in the top 20% of my South American class were accepted for Columbia and they already graduated from it. On the other hand, another friend who went to Chicago told me that the level is very high, things are pretty hard and yeah, most of the students are super smart. If I had to rank top US universities for a master's in Law, I'd say that the "best ones" are 1) Yale, 2) Chicago, 3) Harvard, 4) the rest. Now, from what I've read, getting into Ivies for Bachelor's it's on a whole different level. I read that for the top ones, only 1 of every 5 valedictorians is admitted, and usually valedictorians are 1st out of mmm 300 students? 400? Then, only 1 out of 1500-2000 high school students is able to get admitted to the top Ivies, which makes them extremely competitive. Finally, I don't know where you're from, but in case having a job is a top priority for you, be aware that all my friends who went to Ivies have now $100,000 in debt for a 10-month master's, they didn't find a job in the US, and they are coming back to my South American country to get paid around $1,500 - $ 3,000 per month before taxes (after having a master's at Harvard, having 10 years of working experience, etc), while I managed to get a very good job with the European Union because of some good networking I did (and by the way, my whole master's costed me $950, without any scholarship.) Conclusion: it all depends on what your priorities are, but I wouldn't say "Ivy Leagues" are a thing itself anymore, it depends on what level (bachelors, master's, phd), what department, what programme, what university in concrete, what are you expecting to receive from a university, etc, BUT, they are not as "top" and as I personally thought, however, they're still the "best" in the world.
| 1 | 16,033 | 1.5 |
j133te
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
I recently graduated from my university with a doctorate degree, and because I am no longer a current student they have removed my access to the library databases. What do I do? I have already sent an email to the library asking what I can do to reestablish my library privileges. I am currently in the middle of writing a manuscript, and of course I was conducting my literature research using my university’s library system. I graduated with my doctorate in August and just yesterday I found out that my privileges have been removed since I am no longer a current student. What in the world do I do if the university does not allow me access to the library system? I am currently working in a public high school, so right now I am not affiliated with any university. Please help!
|
g6ww0ep
|
g6x61us
| 1,601,258,638 | 1,601,264,823 | 111 | 265 |
Some universities allow for community & alumni accounts who may have some (but not necessarily all) privileges that faculty/staff/students have. It might be worth looking into what your university can offer.
|
https://sci-hub.se/ It’s a website that allows to you to view every paper for free. Just copy and paste the doi link.
| 0 | 6,185 | 2.387387 |
j133te
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
I recently graduated from my university with a doctorate degree, and because I am no longer a current student they have removed my access to the library databases. What do I do? I have already sent an email to the library asking what I can do to reestablish my library privileges. I am currently in the middle of writing a manuscript, and of course I was conducting my literature research using my university’s library system. I graduated with my doctorate in August and just yesterday I found out that my privileges have been removed since I am no longer a current student. What in the world do I do if the university does not allow me access to the library system? I am currently working in a public high school, so right now I am not affiliated with any university. Please help!
|
g6x61us
|
g6wttb3
| 1,601,264,823 | 1,601,257,455 | 265 | 95 |
https://sci-hub.se/ It’s a website that allows to you to view every paper for free. Just copy and paste the doi link.
|
Most universities have some sort of courtesy appointment that they can give to affiliated researchers that provides library access and a few other privileges. Ask your advisor to get you one of those appointments. They generally come with zero pay and no real obligations. It is expected that you will collaborate with someone at some point and perhaps interact with some of the grad students, otherwise you bring no value to the university, but as they are not paying you this is not a heavy obligation. Usually, these appointments need only be signed by the Dean.
| 1 | 7,368 | 2.789474 |
j133te
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
I recently graduated from my university with a doctorate degree, and because I am no longer a current student they have removed my access to the library databases. What do I do? I have already sent an email to the library asking what I can do to reestablish my library privileges. I am currently in the middle of writing a manuscript, and of course I was conducting my literature research using my university’s library system. I graduated with my doctorate in August and just yesterday I found out that my privileges have been removed since I am no longer a current student. What in the world do I do if the university does not allow me access to the library system? I am currently working in a public high school, so right now I am not affiliated with any university. Please help!
|
g6wuwx7
|
g6x61us
| 1,601,258,050 | 1,601,264,823 | 31 | 265 |
Local Public library card?
|
https://sci-hub.se/ It’s a website that allows to you to view every paper for free. Just copy and paste the doi link.
| 0 | 6,773 | 8.548387 |
j133te
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
I recently graduated from my university with a doctorate degree, and because I am no longer a current student they have removed my access to the library databases. What do I do? I have already sent an email to the library asking what I can do to reestablish my library privileges. I am currently in the middle of writing a manuscript, and of course I was conducting my literature research using my university’s library system. I graduated with my doctorate in August and just yesterday I found out that my privileges have been removed since I am no longer a current student. What in the world do I do if the university does not allow me access to the library system? I am currently working in a public high school, so right now I am not affiliated with any university. Please help!
|
g6wy3jr
|
g6x61us
| 1,601,259,827 | 1,601,264,823 | 30 | 265 |
If you know what papers or books you want, ask a current grad student or your advisor if they can get you the PDF copies of them. You can also email the authors for a copy since some will send you it themselves.
|
https://sci-hub.se/ It’s a website that allows to you to view every paper for free. Just copy and paste the doi link.
| 0 | 4,996 | 8.833333 |
j133te
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
I recently graduated from my university with a doctorate degree, and because I am no longer a current student they have removed my access to the library databases. What do I do? I have already sent an email to the library asking what I can do to reestablish my library privileges. I am currently in the middle of writing a manuscript, and of course I was conducting my literature research using my university’s library system. I graduated with my doctorate in August and just yesterday I found out that my privileges have been removed since I am no longer a current student. What in the world do I do if the university does not allow me access to the library system? I am currently working in a public high school, so right now I am not affiliated with any university. Please help!
|
g6x61us
|
g6x3g4m
| 1,601,264,823 | 1,601,263,091 | 265 | 15 |
https://sci-hub.se/ It’s a website that allows to you to view every paper for free. Just copy and paste the doi link.
|
Go to a university library and use the databases or stacks there. It is also possible to access some academic articles from home; check google scholar. Join academia.edu as a lot of researchers post their publications there. Check out CVs of the authors you want to read- sometimes they link papers. You can get some academic books on goofle for free. Jstor lets you sign up for 5 free journal articles. You can always contact authors to ask for a copy. Peer review papers if asked, and sometimes they will give journal access as a perk ( SAGE does that).
| 1 | 1,732 | 17.666667 |
j133te
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
I recently graduated from my university with a doctorate degree, and because I am no longer a current student they have removed my access to the library databases. What do I do? I have already sent an email to the library asking what I can do to reestablish my library privileges. I am currently in the middle of writing a manuscript, and of course I was conducting my literature research using my university’s library system. I graduated with my doctorate in August and just yesterday I found out that my privileges have been removed since I am no longer a current student. What in the world do I do if the university does not allow me access to the library system? I am currently working in a public high school, so right now I am not affiliated with any university. Please help!
|
g6ww0ep
|
g6wttb3
| 1,601,258,638 | 1,601,257,455 | 111 | 95 |
Some universities allow for community & alumni accounts who may have some (but not necessarily all) privileges that faculty/staff/students have. It might be worth looking into what your university can offer.
|
Most universities have some sort of courtesy appointment that they can give to affiliated researchers that provides library access and a few other privileges. Ask your advisor to get you one of those appointments. They generally come with zero pay and no real obligations. It is expected that you will collaborate with someone at some point and perhaps interact with some of the grad students, otherwise you bring no value to the university, but as they are not paying you this is not a heavy obligation. Usually, these appointments need only be signed by the Dean.
| 1 | 1,183 | 1.168421 |
j133te
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
I recently graduated from my university with a doctorate degree, and because I am no longer a current student they have removed my access to the library databases. What do I do? I have already sent an email to the library asking what I can do to reestablish my library privileges. I am currently in the middle of writing a manuscript, and of course I was conducting my literature research using my university’s library system. I graduated with my doctorate in August and just yesterday I found out that my privileges have been removed since I am no longer a current student. What in the world do I do if the university does not allow me access to the library system? I am currently working in a public high school, so right now I am not affiliated with any university. Please help!
|
g6ww0ep
|
g6wuwx7
| 1,601,258,638 | 1,601,258,050 | 111 | 31 |
Some universities allow for community & alumni accounts who may have some (but not necessarily all) privileges that faculty/staff/students have. It might be worth looking into what your university can offer.
|
Local Public library card?
| 1 | 588 | 3.580645 |
j133te
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
I recently graduated from my university with a doctorate degree, and because I am no longer a current student they have removed my access to the library databases. What do I do? I have already sent an email to the library asking what I can do to reestablish my library privileges. I am currently in the middle of writing a manuscript, and of course I was conducting my literature research using my university’s library system. I graduated with my doctorate in August and just yesterday I found out that my privileges have been removed since I am no longer a current student. What in the world do I do if the university does not allow me access to the library system? I am currently working in a public high school, so right now I am not affiliated with any university. Please help!
|
g6x3g4m
|
g6x82y7
| 1,601,263,091 | 1,601,266,283 | 15 | 21 |
Go to a university library and use the databases or stacks there. It is also possible to access some academic articles from home; check google scholar. Join academia.edu as a lot of researchers post their publications there. Check out CVs of the authors you want to read- sometimes they link papers. You can get some academic books on goofle for free. Jstor lets you sign up for 5 free journal articles. You can always contact authors to ask for a copy. Peer review papers if asked, and sometimes they will give journal access as a perk ( SAGE does that).
|
Three ways: 1. wait for their answers, hoping they will give you the access back; 2. piracy, as they already suggested (for books, LibraryGenesis); 3. try to see if people on ResearchGate uploaded the papers/chapters you wish to have, or ask them by mailing/PMing the researchers (you can PM them in ResearchGate).
| 0 | 3,192 | 1.4 |
j133te
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
I recently graduated from my university with a doctorate degree, and because I am no longer a current student they have removed my access to the library databases. What do I do? I have already sent an email to the library asking what I can do to reestablish my library privileges. I am currently in the middle of writing a manuscript, and of course I was conducting my literature research using my university’s library system. I graduated with my doctorate in August and just yesterday I found out that my privileges have been removed since I am no longer a current student. What in the world do I do if the university does not allow me access to the library system? I am currently working in a public high school, so right now I am not affiliated with any university. Please help!
|
g6x6dw8
|
g6x82y7
| 1,601,265,055 | 1,601,266,283 | 9 | 21 |
This has happened to me in the past. I’ve been able to access papers that I needed through Sci-Hub (sci-hub.st) pretty reliably. Just paste in the DOI from the publisher’s webpage.
|
Three ways: 1. wait for their answers, hoping they will give you the access back; 2. piracy, as they already suggested (for books, LibraryGenesis); 3. try to see if people on ResearchGate uploaded the papers/chapters you wish to have, or ask them by mailing/PMing the researchers (you can PM them in ResearchGate).
| 0 | 1,228 | 2.333333 |
j133te
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
I recently graduated from my university with a doctorate degree, and because I am no longer a current student they have removed my access to the library databases. What do I do? I have already sent an email to the library asking what I can do to reestablish my library privileges. I am currently in the middle of writing a manuscript, and of course I was conducting my literature research using my university’s library system. I graduated with my doctorate in August and just yesterday I found out that my privileges have been removed since I am no longer a current student. What in the world do I do if the university does not allow me access to the library system? I am currently working in a public high school, so right now I am not affiliated with any university. Please help!
|
g6x7let
|
g6x82y7
| 1,601,265,924 | 1,601,266,283 | 8 | 21 |
Check your field's professional society. Ours offers access to a curated list of journals for $50 a year for members.
|
Three ways: 1. wait for their answers, hoping they will give you the access back; 2. piracy, as they already suggested (for books, LibraryGenesis); 3. try to see if people on ResearchGate uploaded the papers/chapters you wish to have, or ask them by mailing/PMing the researchers (you can PM them in ResearchGate).
| 0 | 359 | 2.625 |
j133te
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
I recently graduated from my university with a doctorate degree, and because I am no longer a current student they have removed my access to the library databases. What do I do? I have already sent an email to the library asking what I can do to reestablish my library privileges. I am currently in the middle of writing a manuscript, and of course I was conducting my literature research using my university’s library system. I graduated with my doctorate in August and just yesterday I found out that my privileges have been removed since I am no longer a current student. What in the world do I do if the university does not allow me access to the library system? I am currently working in a public high school, so right now I am not affiliated with any university. Please help!
|
g6x6dw8
|
g6xx5x9
| 1,601,265,055 | 1,601,292,005 | 9 | 14 |
This has happened to me in the past. I’ve been able to access papers that I needed through Sci-Hub (sci-hub.st) pretty reliably. Just paste in the DOI from the publisher’s webpage.
|
Here's the deal, in the US, for many university libraries. Access to most databases is on a # of potential users (i.e. enrollment) basis. The more users (or potential users) there are, the more cost goes up. Costs for databases are already enormous, and go up every year. At the same time that costs go up, our budgets don't typically increase, so with a flat budget and increased costs, we have essentially a budget cut. If we opened up access to alumni, even those who are just members of the alumni association, the cost increase would be huge. One place I worked, the friends of the library paid for alumni access to 2 or 3 databases, and IIRC the cost approached $1 million - a decade ago. That's not an option for my current workplace (larger school, significantly more alumni, etc). On top of that, some databases won't license their content for alumni access. This is more often true for business and natural science databases. They want to sell their content to corporate and lab businesses as well as universities, and if alumni have access through their university, they may lose those (sometimes more lucrative) subscriptions. What can you do? * As you've done, ask. Chances are the answer will be no. It's not about you, it's about these licenses and their cost. * Use something like Google Scholar to find articles you want - sometimes they'll actually be freely available. And if they're not, often your local public library will have an interlibrary loan service and can get (some) of them for you (this won't always be free at the public library level, but I don't know their ins and outs well enough to to tell you whether it's likely to be or not). * Figure out what you need, find out if you can physically go to the library as a guest just now (COVID has our policies more restrictive - don't just show up) to access that. Most licensing agreements allow for walk-in access. * Look for the author's work in disciplinary or institutional repositories. You can find out if the university has one by googling, say "sonoma state univeristy" "institutional repository" (fwiw, that is not where I work), and you may find they have one. Authors may post their publications in there (the version may not be the final published version, fwiw), and then they're typically be freely available. * Advocate for more scholarship to be open. Learn about your rights as an author and make what you can available through repositories. Learn about open access and why it doesn't mean bad scholarship. (Yes, there are predatory journals out there. Just because something's OA doesn't mean it's predatory). (Edit because words are hard before coffee)
| 0 | 26,950 | 1.555556 |
j133te
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
I recently graduated from my university with a doctorate degree, and because I am no longer a current student they have removed my access to the library databases. What do I do? I have already sent an email to the library asking what I can do to reestablish my library privileges. I am currently in the middle of writing a manuscript, and of course I was conducting my literature research using my university’s library system. I graduated with my doctorate in August and just yesterday I found out that my privileges have been removed since I am no longer a current student. What in the world do I do if the university does not allow me access to the library system? I am currently working in a public high school, so right now I am not affiliated with any university. Please help!
|
g6xx5x9
|
g6x7let
| 1,601,292,005 | 1,601,265,924 | 14 | 8 |
Here's the deal, in the US, for many university libraries. Access to most databases is on a # of potential users (i.e. enrollment) basis. The more users (or potential users) there are, the more cost goes up. Costs for databases are already enormous, and go up every year. At the same time that costs go up, our budgets don't typically increase, so with a flat budget and increased costs, we have essentially a budget cut. If we opened up access to alumni, even those who are just members of the alumni association, the cost increase would be huge. One place I worked, the friends of the library paid for alumni access to 2 or 3 databases, and IIRC the cost approached $1 million - a decade ago. That's not an option for my current workplace (larger school, significantly more alumni, etc). On top of that, some databases won't license their content for alumni access. This is more often true for business and natural science databases. They want to sell their content to corporate and lab businesses as well as universities, and if alumni have access through their university, they may lose those (sometimes more lucrative) subscriptions. What can you do? * As you've done, ask. Chances are the answer will be no. It's not about you, it's about these licenses and their cost. * Use something like Google Scholar to find articles you want - sometimes they'll actually be freely available. And if they're not, often your local public library will have an interlibrary loan service and can get (some) of them for you (this won't always be free at the public library level, but I don't know their ins and outs well enough to to tell you whether it's likely to be or not). * Figure out what you need, find out if you can physically go to the library as a guest just now (COVID has our policies more restrictive - don't just show up) to access that. Most licensing agreements allow for walk-in access. * Look for the author's work in disciplinary or institutional repositories. You can find out if the university has one by googling, say "sonoma state univeristy" "institutional repository" (fwiw, that is not where I work), and you may find they have one. Authors may post their publications in there (the version may not be the final published version, fwiw), and then they're typically be freely available. * Advocate for more scholarship to be open. Learn about your rights as an author and make what you can available through repositories. Learn about open access and why it doesn't mean bad scholarship. (Yes, there are predatory journals out there. Just because something's OA doesn't mean it's predatory). (Edit because words are hard before coffee)
|
Check your field's professional society. Ours offers access to a curated list of journals for $50 a year for members.
| 1 | 26,081 | 1.75 |
j133te
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
I recently graduated from my university with a doctorate degree, and because I am no longer a current student they have removed my access to the library databases. What do I do? I have already sent an email to the library asking what I can do to reestablish my library privileges. I am currently in the middle of writing a manuscript, and of course I was conducting my literature research using my university’s library system. I graduated with my doctorate in August and just yesterday I found out that my privileges have been removed since I am no longer a current student. What in the world do I do if the university does not allow me access to the library system? I am currently working in a public high school, so right now I am not affiliated with any university. Please help!
|
g6xx5x9
|
g6xkqir
| 1,601,292,005 | 1,601,277,708 | 14 | 4 |
Here's the deal, in the US, for many university libraries. Access to most databases is on a # of potential users (i.e. enrollment) basis. The more users (or potential users) there are, the more cost goes up. Costs for databases are already enormous, and go up every year. At the same time that costs go up, our budgets don't typically increase, so with a flat budget and increased costs, we have essentially a budget cut. If we opened up access to alumni, even those who are just members of the alumni association, the cost increase would be huge. One place I worked, the friends of the library paid for alumni access to 2 or 3 databases, and IIRC the cost approached $1 million - a decade ago. That's not an option for my current workplace (larger school, significantly more alumni, etc). On top of that, some databases won't license their content for alumni access. This is more often true for business and natural science databases. They want to sell their content to corporate and lab businesses as well as universities, and if alumni have access through their university, they may lose those (sometimes more lucrative) subscriptions. What can you do? * As you've done, ask. Chances are the answer will be no. It's not about you, it's about these licenses and their cost. * Use something like Google Scholar to find articles you want - sometimes they'll actually be freely available. And if they're not, often your local public library will have an interlibrary loan service and can get (some) of them for you (this won't always be free at the public library level, but I don't know their ins and outs well enough to to tell you whether it's likely to be or not). * Figure out what you need, find out if you can physically go to the library as a guest just now (COVID has our policies more restrictive - don't just show up) to access that. Most licensing agreements allow for walk-in access. * Look for the author's work in disciplinary or institutional repositories. You can find out if the university has one by googling, say "sonoma state univeristy" "institutional repository" (fwiw, that is not where I work), and you may find they have one. Authors may post their publications in there (the version may not be the final published version, fwiw), and then they're typically be freely available. * Advocate for more scholarship to be open. Learn about your rights as an author and make what you can available through repositories. Learn about open access and why it doesn't mean bad scholarship. (Yes, there are predatory journals out there. Just because something's OA doesn't mean it's predatory). (Edit because words are hard before coffee)
|
Honestly just use sci hub tw. Act like knowledge is free and one day maybe it will be.
| 1 | 14,297 | 3.5 |
j133te
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
I recently graduated from my university with a doctorate degree, and because I am no longer a current student they have removed my access to the library databases. What do I do? I have already sent an email to the library asking what I can do to reestablish my library privileges. I am currently in the middle of writing a manuscript, and of course I was conducting my literature research using my university’s library system. I graduated with my doctorate in August and just yesterday I found out that my privileges have been removed since I am no longer a current student. What in the world do I do if the university does not allow me access to the library system? I am currently working in a public high school, so right now I am not affiliated with any university. Please help!
|
g6xcfa4
|
g6xx5x9
| 1,601,269,764 | 1,601,292,005 | 4 | 14 |
Check out Internet Archive, they are an on line resource that lends books for a definite period of time. I'll also be redundant and suggest the use of libgen and sci-hub. I had a similar situation when I was writing my BA dissertation, they provided most my bibliography.
|
Here's the deal, in the US, for many university libraries. Access to most databases is on a # of potential users (i.e. enrollment) basis. The more users (or potential users) there are, the more cost goes up. Costs for databases are already enormous, and go up every year. At the same time that costs go up, our budgets don't typically increase, so with a flat budget and increased costs, we have essentially a budget cut. If we opened up access to alumni, even those who are just members of the alumni association, the cost increase would be huge. One place I worked, the friends of the library paid for alumni access to 2 or 3 databases, and IIRC the cost approached $1 million - a decade ago. That's not an option for my current workplace (larger school, significantly more alumni, etc). On top of that, some databases won't license their content for alumni access. This is more often true for business and natural science databases. They want to sell their content to corporate and lab businesses as well as universities, and if alumni have access through their university, they may lose those (sometimes more lucrative) subscriptions. What can you do? * As you've done, ask. Chances are the answer will be no. It's not about you, it's about these licenses and their cost. * Use something like Google Scholar to find articles you want - sometimes they'll actually be freely available. And if they're not, often your local public library will have an interlibrary loan service and can get (some) of them for you (this won't always be free at the public library level, but I don't know their ins and outs well enough to to tell you whether it's likely to be or not). * Figure out what you need, find out if you can physically go to the library as a guest just now (COVID has our policies more restrictive - don't just show up) to access that. Most licensing agreements allow for walk-in access. * Look for the author's work in disciplinary or institutional repositories. You can find out if the university has one by googling, say "sonoma state univeristy" "institutional repository" (fwiw, that is not where I work), and you may find they have one. Authors may post their publications in there (the version may not be the final published version, fwiw), and then they're typically be freely available. * Advocate for more scholarship to be open. Learn about your rights as an author and make what you can available through repositories. Learn about open access and why it doesn't mean bad scholarship. (Yes, there are predatory journals out there. Just because something's OA doesn't mean it's predatory). (Edit because words are hard before coffee)
| 0 | 22,241 | 3.5 |
j133te
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
I recently graduated from my university with a doctorate degree, and because I am no longer a current student they have removed my access to the library databases. What do I do? I have already sent an email to the library asking what I can do to reestablish my library privileges. I am currently in the middle of writing a manuscript, and of course I was conducting my literature research using my university’s library system. I graduated with my doctorate in August and just yesterday I found out that my privileges have been removed since I am no longer a current student. What in the world do I do if the university does not allow me access to the library system? I am currently working in a public high school, so right now I am not affiliated with any university. Please help!
|
g6xlcu7
|
g6xx5x9
| 1,601,278,344 | 1,601,292,005 | 4 | 14 |
Some universities will allow alumni to have access to their library resources after joining the alumni association. It might be worth it to see if that is an option.
|
Here's the deal, in the US, for many university libraries. Access to most databases is on a # of potential users (i.e. enrollment) basis. The more users (or potential users) there are, the more cost goes up. Costs for databases are already enormous, and go up every year. At the same time that costs go up, our budgets don't typically increase, so with a flat budget and increased costs, we have essentially a budget cut. If we opened up access to alumni, even those who are just members of the alumni association, the cost increase would be huge. One place I worked, the friends of the library paid for alumni access to 2 or 3 databases, and IIRC the cost approached $1 million - a decade ago. That's not an option for my current workplace (larger school, significantly more alumni, etc). On top of that, some databases won't license their content for alumni access. This is more often true for business and natural science databases. They want to sell their content to corporate and lab businesses as well as universities, and if alumni have access through their university, they may lose those (sometimes more lucrative) subscriptions. What can you do? * As you've done, ask. Chances are the answer will be no. It's not about you, it's about these licenses and their cost. * Use something like Google Scholar to find articles you want - sometimes they'll actually be freely available. And if they're not, often your local public library will have an interlibrary loan service and can get (some) of them for you (this won't always be free at the public library level, but I don't know their ins and outs well enough to to tell you whether it's likely to be or not). * Figure out what you need, find out if you can physically go to the library as a guest just now (COVID has our policies more restrictive - don't just show up) to access that. Most licensing agreements allow for walk-in access. * Look for the author's work in disciplinary or institutional repositories. You can find out if the university has one by googling, say "sonoma state univeristy" "institutional repository" (fwiw, that is not where I work), and you may find they have one. Authors may post their publications in there (the version may not be the final published version, fwiw), and then they're typically be freely available. * Advocate for more scholarship to be open. Learn about your rights as an author and make what you can available through repositories. Learn about open access and why it doesn't mean bad scholarship. (Yes, there are predatory journals out there. Just because something's OA doesn't mean it's predatory). (Edit because words are hard before coffee)
| 0 | 13,661 | 3.5 |
j133te
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
I recently graduated from my university with a doctorate degree, and because I am no longer a current student they have removed my access to the library databases. What do I do? I have already sent an email to the library asking what I can do to reestablish my library privileges. I am currently in the middle of writing a manuscript, and of course I was conducting my literature research using my university’s library system. I graduated with my doctorate in August and just yesterday I found out that my privileges have been removed since I am no longer a current student. What in the world do I do if the university does not allow me access to the library system? I am currently working in a public high school, so right now I am not affiliated with any university. Please help!
|
g6xx5x9
|
g6x8owc
| 1,601,292,005 | 1,601,266,742 | 14 | 2 |
Here's the deal, in the US, for many university libraries. Access to most databases is on a # of potential users (i.e. enrollment) basis. The more users (or potential users) there are, the more cost goes up. Costs for databases are already enormous, and go up every year. At the same time that costs go up, our budgets don't typically increase, so with a flat budget and increased costs, we have essentially a budget cut. If we opened up access to alumni, even those who are just members of the alumni association, the cost increase would be huge. One place I worked, the friends of the library paid for alumni access to 2 or 3 databases, and IIRC the cost approached $1 million - a decade ago. That's not an option for my current workplace (larger school, significantly more alumni, etc). On top of that, some databases won't license their content for alumni access. This is more often true for business and natural science databases. They want to sell their content to corporate and lab businesses as well as universities, and if alumni have access through their university, they may lose those (sometimes more lucrative) subscriptions. What can you do? * As you've done, ask. Chances are the answer will be no. It's not about you, it's about these licenses and their cost. * Use something like Google Scholar to find articles you want - sometimes they'll actually be freely available. And if they're not, often your local public library will have an interlibrary loan service and can get (some) of them for you (this won't always be free at the public library level, but I don't know their ins and outs well enough to to tell you whether it's likely to be or not). * Figure out what you need, find out if you can physically go to the library as a guest just now (COVID has our policies more restrictive - don't just show up) to access that. Most licensing agreements allow for walk-in access. * Look for the author's work in disciplinary or institutional repositories. You can find out if the university has one by googling, say "sonoma state univeristy" "institutional repository" (fwiw, that is not where I work), and you may find they have one. Authors may post their publications in there (the version may not be the final published version, fwiw), and then they're typically be freely available. * Advocate for more scholarship to be open. Learn about your rights as an author and make what you can available through repositories. Learn about open access and why it doesn't mean bad scholarship. (Yes, there are predatory journals out there. Just because something's OA doesn't mean it's predatory). (Edit because words are hard before coffee)
|
There might be a alumni association that you can join for a nominal fee that will provide access for you. That's what I do.
| 1 | 25,263 | 7 |
j133te
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
I recently graduated from my university with a doctorate degree, and because I am no longer a current student they have removed my access to the library databases. What do I do? I have already sent an email to the library asking what I can do to reestablish my library privileges. I am currently in the middle of writing a manuscript, and of course I was conducting my literature research using my university’s library system. I graduated with my doctorate in August and just yesterday I found out that my privileges have been removed since I am no longer a current student. What in the world do I do if the university does not allow me access to the library system? I am currently working in a public high school, so right now I am not affiliated with any university. Please help!
|
g6xx5x9
|
g6xwo8o
| 1,601,292,005 | 1,601,291,518 | 14 | 2 |
Here's the deal, in the US, for many university libraries. Access to most databases is on a # of potential users (i.e. enrollment) basis. The more users (or potential users) there are, the more cost goes up. Costs for databases are already enormous, and go up every year. At the same time that costs go up, our budgets don't typically increase, so with a flat budget and increased costs, we have essentially a budget cut. If we opened up access to alumni, even those who are just members of the alumni association, the cost increase would be huge. One place I worked, the friends of the library paid for alumni access to 2 or 3 databases, and IIRC the cost approached $1 million - a decade ago. That's not an option for my current workplace (larger school, significantly more alumni, etc). On top of that, some databases won't license their content for alumni access. This is more often true for business and natural science databases. They want to sell their content to corporate and lab businesses as well as universities, and if alumni have access through their university, they may lose those (sometimes more lucrative) subscriptions. What can you do? * As you've done, ask. Chances are the answer will be no. It's not about you, it's about these licenses and their cost. * Use something like Google Scholar to find articles you want - sometimes they'll actually be freely available. And if they're not, often your local public library will have an interlibrary loan service and can get (some) of them for you (this won't always be free at the public library level, but I don't know their ins and outs well enough to to tell you whether it's likely to be or not). * Figure out what you need, find out if you can physically go to the library as a guest just now (COVID has our policies more restrictive - don't just show up) to access that. Most licensing agreements allow for walk-in access. * Look for the author's work in disciplinary or institutional repositories. You can find out if the university has one by googling, say "sonoma state univeristy" "institutional repository" (fwiw, that is not where I work), and you may find they have one. Authors may post their publications in there (the version may not be the final published version, fwiw), and then they're typically be freely available. * Advocate for more scholarship to be open. Learn about your rights as an author and make what you can available through repositories. Learn about open access and why it doesn't mean bad scholarship. (Yes, there are predatory journals out there. Just because something's OA doesn't mean it's predatory). (Edit because words are hard before coffee)
|
You should be able to use all electronic resources if you are accessing them from a computer in the library. You can do your research and download all the articles you need to a usb. Most publishers do not allow alumni access to articles, unless the University is able to pay for it. If you are at an expensive University - it is possible they can afford to pay the fees to provide alumni with access. My University can't afford to pay for alumni access, so we tell people to come to the library and access the resources from our computers.
| 1 | 487 | 7 |
j133te
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
I recently graduated from my university with a doctorate degree, and because I am no longer a current student they have removed my access to the library databases. What do I do? I have already sent an email to the library asking what I can do to reestablish my library privileges. I am currently in the middle of writing a manuscript, and of course I was conducting my literature research using my university’s library system. I graduated with my doctorate in August and just yesterday I found out that my privileges have been removed since I am no longer a current student. What in the world do I do if the university does not allow me access to the library system? I am currently working in a public high school, so right now I am not affiliated with any university. Please help!
|
g6xkqir
|
g6x8owc
| 1,601,277,708 | 1,601,266,742 | 4 | 2 |
Honestly just use sci hub tw. Act like knowledge is free and one day maybe it will be.
|
There might be a alumni association that you can join for a nominal fee that will provide access for you. That's what I do.
| 1 | 10,966 | 2 |
j133te
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
I recently graduated from my university with a doctorate degree, and because I am no longer a current student they have removed my access to the library databases. What do I do? I have already sent an email to the library asking what I can do to reestablish my library privileges. I am currently in the middle of writing a manuscript, and of course I was conducting my literature research using my university’s library system. I graduated with my doctorate in August and just yesterday I found out that my privileges have been removed since I am no longer a current student. What in the world do I do if the university does not allow me access to the library system? I am currently working in a public high school, so right now I am not affiliated with any university. Please help!
|
g6x8owc
|
g6xcfa4
| 1,601,266,742 | 1,601,269,764 | 2 | 4 |
There might be a alumni association that you can join for a nominal fee that will provide access for you. That's what I do.
|
Check out Internet Archive, they are an on line resource that lends books for a definite period of time. I'll also be redundant and suggest the use of libgen and sci-hub. I had a similar situation when I was writing my BA dissertation, they provided most my bibliography.
| 0 | 3,022 | 2 |
j133te
|
askacademia_train
| 0.95 |
I recently graduated from my university with a doctorate degree, and because I am no longer a current student they have removed my access to the library databases. What do I do? I have already sent an email to the library asking what I can do to reestablish my library privileges. I am currently in the middle of writing a manuscript, and of course I was conducting my literature research using my university’s library system. I graduated with my doctorate in August and just yesterday I found out that my privileges have been removed since I am no longer a current student. What in the world do I do if the university does not allow me access to the library system? I am currently working in a public high school, so right now I am not affiliated with any university. Please help!
|
g6xlcu7
|
g6x8owc
| 1,601,278,344 | 1,601,266,742 | 4 | 2 |
Some universities will allow alumni to have access to their library resources after joining the alumni association. It might be worth it to see if that is an option.
|
There might be a alumni association that you can join for a nominal fee that will provide access for you. That's what I do.
| 1 | 11,602 | 2 |
ioy45o
|
askacademia_train
| 0.96 |
Do Professors notice how you name your email attachments? I've been emailing potential PhD mentors with a CV pdf that's titled "Grad School CV". Am I risking shooting myself in the foot?
|
g4glyj1
|
g4glqdi
| 1,599,586,910 | 1,599,586,794 | 436 | 102 |
Yes- please name it something like First-Last-CV_2020-date.pdf
|
Think of it this way: If they're receiving multiple CVs, do they really want to dig through a digital stack of poorly labeled files? Or would it be better if the filename was First-Last-CV or the like?
| 1 | 116 | 4.27451 |
ioy45o
|
askacademia_train
| 0.96 |
Do Professors notice how you name your email attachments? I've been emailing potential PhD mentors with a CV pdf that's titled "Grad School CV". Am I risking shooting myself in the foot?
|
g4gsanz
|
g4gtgyn
| 1,599,590,091 | 1,599,590,673 | 116 | 205 |
I had a student submit an assignment online titled “thebravesplayin5minutesso.” I guess he was telling me why he didn’t do the assignment properly? But your title isn’t a problem, but would be better if your last name was included.
|
Title: Yes. Post: Also yes. As other posters have mentioned, it makes it very difficult to organize and keep track of files if they all have generic names, which will likely darken the mood of any professor reading your attachment. However, you're also shooting yourself in the foot by increasing the chance of a file being lost or unread due to being confused with dozens of other similarly-named files (regrettably, for every person like you who asks, there's a dozen others who assume). As a general rule, any file name should have: your name, some kind of date (year, semester, month-day, etc. depending on what is appropriate), and a short but descriptive name. This lets a professor or any reader know from the file name whose it is, when it's from, and what it is, which tells them all they need to know to figure out if that file is relevant to them.
| 0 | 582 | 1.767241 |
ioy45o
|
askacademia_train
| 0.96 |
Do Professors notice how you name your email attachments? I've been emailing potential PhD mentors with a CV pdf that's titled "Grad School CV". Am I risking shooting myself in the foot?
|
g4gtgyn
|
g4glqdi
| 1,599,590,673 | 1,599,586,794 | 205 | 102 |
Title: Yes. Post: Also yes. As other posters have mentioned, it makes it very difficult to organize and keep track of files if they all have generic names, which will likely darken the mood of any professor reading your attachment. However, you're also shooting yourself in the foot by increasing the chance of a file being lost or unread due to being confused with dozens of other similarly-named files (regrettably, for every person like you who asks, there's a dozen others who assume). As a general rule, any file name should have: your name, some kind of date (year, semester, month-day, etc. depending on what is appropriate), and a short but descriptive name. This lets a professor or any reader know from the file name whose it is, when it's from, and what it is, which tells them all they need to know to figure out if that file is relevant to them.
|
Think of it this way: If they're receiving multiple CVs, do they really want to dig through a digital stack of poorly labeled files? Or would it be better if the filename was First-Last-CV or the like?
| 1 | 3,879 | 2.009804 |
ioy45o
|
askacademia_train
| 0.96 |
Do Professors notice how you name your email attachments? I've been emailing potential PhD mentors with a CV pdf that's titled "Grad School CV". Am I risking shooting myself in the foot?
|
g4gtgyn
|
g4gp6gb
| 1,599,590,673 | 1,599,588,532 | 205 | 24 |
Title: Yes. Post: Also yes. As other posters have mentioned, it makes it very difficult to organize and keep track of files if they all have generic names, which will likely darken the mood of any professor reading your attachment. However, you're also shooting yourself in the foot by increasing the chance of a file being lost or unread due to being confused with dozens of other similarly-named files (regrettably, for every person like you who asks, there's a dozen others who assume). As a general rule, any file name should have: your name, some kind of date (year, semester, month-day, etc. depending on what is appropriate), and a short but descriptive name. This lets a professor or any reader know from the file name whose it is, when it's from, and what it is, which tells them all they need to know to figure out if that file is relevant to them.
|
Please make it as easy as possible for the Prof/Admin team to make it easy for you. My CV is labelled- Name_Curriculium_Vitae My cover letter is- Name_(Project_name/number) The job I currently have had an explicit statement for naming documents which they stated within the application documents. Good luck for your applications.
| 1 | 2,141 | 8.541667 |
ioy45o
|
askacademia_train
| 0.96 |
Do Professors notice how you name your email attachments? I've been emailing potential PhD mentors with a CV pdf that's titled "Grad School CV". Am I risking shooting myself in the foot?
|
g4gsanz
|
g4glqdi
| 1,599,590,091 | 1,599,586,794 | 116 | 102 |
I had a student submit an assignment online titled “thebravesplayin5minutesso.” I guess he was telling me why he didn’t do the assignment properly? But your title isn’t a problem, but would be better if your last name was included.
|
Think of it this way: If they're receiving multiple CVs, do they really want to dig through a digital stack of poorly labeled files? Or would it be better if the filename was First-Last-CV or the like?
| 1 | 3,297 | 1.137255 |
ioy45o
|
askacademia_train
| 0.96 |
Do Professors notice how you name your email attachments? I've been emailing potential PhD mentors with a CV pdf that's titled "Grad School CV". Am I risking shooting myself in the foot?
|
g4gp6gb
|
g4gsanz
| 1,599,588,532 | 1,599,590,091 | 24 | 116 |
Please make it as easy as possible for the Prof/Admin team to make it easy for you. My CV is labelled- Name_Curriculium_Vitae My cover letter is- Name_(Project_name/number) The job I currently have had an explicit statement for naming documents which they stated within the application documents. Good luck for your applications.
|
I had a student submit an assignment online titled “thebravesplayin5minutesso.” I guess he was telling me why he didn’t do the assignment properly? But your title isn’t a problem, but would be better if your last name was included.
| 0 | 1,559 | 4.833333 |
ioy45o
|
askacademia_train
| 0.96 |
Do Professors notice how you name your email attachments? I've been emailing potential PhD mentors with a CV pdf that's titled "Grad School CV". Am I risking shooting myself in the foot?
|
g4gp6gb
|
g4hczk4
| 1,599,588,532 | 1,599,600,286 | 24 | 56 |
Please make it as easy as possible for the Prof/Admin team to make it easy for you. My CV is labelled- Name_Curriculium_Vitae My cover letter is- Name_(Project_name/number) The job I currently have had an explicit statement for naming documents which they stated within the application documents. Good luck for your applications.
|
PSA: no matter who you are, watch what you name your docs. A colleague of mine (we work in curriculum development at a university) recieved a document from a professor he was working with that had the title of "PPRub." Say it out loud. It was a rubric for a PowerPoint assignment but my colleague wasnt sure if he wanted to open it at first.
| 0 | 11,754 | 2.333333 |
ioy45o
|
askacademia_train
| 0.96 |
Do Professors notice how you name your email attachments? I've been emailing potential PhD mentors with a CV pdf that's titled "Grad School CV". Am I risking shooting myself in the foot?
|
g4hczk4
|
g4h1rvq
| 1,599,600,286 | 1,599,594,804 | 56 | 18 |
PSA: no matter who you are, watch what you name your docs. A colleague of mine (we work in curriculum development at a university) recieved a document from a professor he was working with that had the title of "PPRub." Say it out loud. It was a rubric for a PowerPoint assignment but my colleague wasnt sure if he wanted to open it at first.
|
If it's for serious, and others will be mailing this person, I'd rename it with my last name, at least. It will help the recipient if they are getting multiple things titled "CV." "gratefuluwu-CV" would be much easier for them to locate later.
| 1 | 5,482 | 3.111111 |
ioy45o
|
askacademia_train
| 0.96 |
Do Professors notice how you name your email attachments? I've been emailing potential PhD mentors with a CV pdf that's titled "Grad School CV". Am I risking shooting myself in the foot?
|
g4hczk4
|
g4h9afw
| 1,599,600,286 | 1,599,598,547 | 56 | 6 |
PSA: no matter who you are, watch what you name your docs. A colleague of mine (we work in curriculum development at a university) recieved a document from a professor he was working with that had the title of "PPRub." Say it out loud. It was a rubric for a PowerPoint assignment but my colleague wasnt sure if he wanted to open it at first.
|
Other are right that first-last-cv\_date.pdf is probably the way to go, but I just wanna point out that the content of the CV are gonna be way more important than how you name it. I think mine was just cv.pdf and I was fine with my apps.
| 1 | 1,739 | 9.333333 |
ioy45o
|
askacademia_train
| 0.96 |
Do Professors notice how you name your email attachments? I've been emailing potential PhD mentors with a CV pdf that's titled "Grad School CV". Am I risking shooting myself in the foot?
|
g4hczk4
|
g4hb3fo
| 1,599,600,286 | 1,599,599,476 | 56 | 3 |
PSA: no matter who you are, watch what you name your docs. A colleague of mine (we work in curriculum development at a university) recieved a document from a professor he was working with that had the title of "PPRub." Say it out loud. It was a rubric for a PowerPoint assignment but my colleague wasnt sure if he wanted to open it at first.
|
I do. And yes, I will tease students about it. ;-)
| 1 | 810 | 18.666667 |
ioy45o
|
askacademia_train
| 0.96 |
Do Professors notice how you name your email attachments? I've been emailing potential PhD mentors with a CV pdf that's titled "Grad School CV". Am I risking shooting myself in the foot?
|
g4h9afw
|
g4himpn
| 1,599,598,547 | 1,599,602,773 | 6 | 14 |
Other are right that first-last-cv\_date.pdf is probably the way to go, but I just wanna point out that the content of the CV are gonna be way more important than how you name it. I think mine was just cv.pdf and I was fine with my apps.
|
If you've ever graded and attempted to handle grading 200+ papers all titled "response 1", I think you'd know the answer here :P
| 0 | 4,226 | 2.333333 |
ioy45o
|
askacademia_train
| 0.96 |
Do Professors notice how you name your email attachments? I've been emailing potential PhD mentors with a CV pdf that's titled "Grad School CV". Am I risking shooting myself in the foot?
|
g4hb3fo
|
g4himpn
| 1,599,599,476 | 1,599,602,773 | 3 | 14 |
I do. And yes, I will tease students about it. ;-)
|
If you've ever graded and attempted to handle grading 200+ papers all titled "response 1", I think you'd know the answer here :P
| 0 | 3,297 | 4.666667 |
ioy45o
|
askacademia_train
| 0.96 |
Do Professors notice how you name your email attachments? I've been emailing potential PhD mentors with a CV pdf that's titled "Grad School CV". Am I risking shooting myself in the foot?
|
g4hklcw
|
g4h9afw
| 1,599,603,773 | 1,599,598,547 | 7 | 6 |
As others have said you should put your name, "CV" (or "letter" or "statement" or whatever) maybe the year. But I thought I'd point out it's not really about them noticing or professionalism or anything (though that's worth considering) but really about not causing any irritation to the people evaluating you. It might not seem like much but you don't want anyone reading your docs to be in a worse mood than they need to be.
|
Other are right that first-last-cv\_date.pdf is probably the way to go, but I just wanna point out that the content of the CV are gonna be way more important than how you name it. I think mine was just cv.pdf and I was fine with my apps.
| 1 | 5,226 | 1.166667 |
ioy45o
|
askacademia_train
| 0.96 |
Do Professors notice how you name your email attachments? I've been emailing potential PhD mentors with a CV pdf that's titled "Grad School CV". Am I risking shooting myself in the foot?
|
g4hb3fo
|
g4hklcw
| 1,599,599,476 | 1,599,603,773 | 3 | 7 |
I do. And yes, I will tease students about it. ;-)
|
As others have said you should put your name, "CV" (or "letter" or "statement" or whatever) maybe the year. But I thought I'd point out it's not really about them noticing or professionalism or anything (though that's worth considering) but really about not causing any irritation to the people evaluating you. It might not seem like much but you don't want anyone reading your docs to be in a worse mood than they need to be.
| 0 | 4,297 | 2.333333 |
ioy45o
|
askacademia_train
| 0.96 |
Do Professors notice how you name your email attachments? I've been emailing potential PhD mentors with a CV pdf that's titled "Grad School CV". Am I risking shooting myself in the foot?
|
g4iarmt
|
g4io84t
| 1,599,618,181 | 1,599,626,782 | 2 | 3 |
You know how on tumblr, people will make a post with 1 sentence and then 65 passive-aggressive tags? Don't make your file name sound like those tags.
|
Last-first-cv, or at least last-cv. I don't have time to glare at a nondescript file and try and guess what it is.
| 0 | 8,601 | 1.5 |
ioy45o
|
askacademia_train
| 0.96 |
Do Professors notice how you name your email attachments? I've been emailing potential PhD mentors with a CV pdf that's titled "Grad School CV". Am I risking shooting myself in the foot?
|
g4io84t
|
g4iggaq
| 1,599,626,782 | 1,599,621,573 | 3 | 2 |
Last-first-cv, or at least last-cv. I don't have time to glare at a nondescript file and try and guess what it is.
|
Totally not relevant to the answer you want but I accidentally named one of my files “fuckthisbullshit” a few years back. My oh my the explaining I had to do 😂 The fuckthisbullshit file was supposed to be the name to my personal finance file, not my assignment 😂😩🤦🏼♀️
| 1 | 5,209 | 1.5 |
a18yyv
|
askacademia_train
| 0.97 |
PSA for Students: Talk to your faculty! I've seen a lot of people on here ask questions that they should really be asking their advisors/professors because those are the people that you're working with/ being evaluated by. I'm not saying this because I think you're asking the wrong questions, I'm saying this because you might be getting good answers that still don't work for your situation. It's also good for you. Especially in Grad school or those looking to enter grad school, you need to learn to build relationships with the faculty and communicate about what the expectations for projects, comps, publishing, etc. I've seen students struggle because they failed to ask the important questions of their advisors and then did things incorrectly. Don't let that be you! Always manage your expectations with the faculty you're working with.
|
eanv985
|
eante4b
| 1,543,434,734 | 1,543,433,149 | 77 | 17 |
I did an experiment one semester: a 5-10 minute office hours visit could count for a few points of credit. Talk about class, life, cats, anything; just come by. About 2/3 of the class took me up on it. Had a lot of conversations about life and cats that semester, and a few great ones about random interesting psychology stuff that wasn't part of the class. Final average for the whole class (not counting the extra credit) was significantly higher than prior semesters. There are so many little questions students forget to ask, or think aren't worth asking, but they will if they're in my office anyway. Sometimes it's one of those hand on the doorknob "oh, and one other thing..." Come by just to say hello and you will end up getting more out of it than you expected.
|
Fair point, but my advisor is incredibly busy and reaching him can often be difficult, even when he’s in the country
| 1 | 1,585 | 4.529412 |
a18yyv
|
askacademia_train
| 0.97 |
PSA for Students: Talk to your faculty! I've seen a lot of people on here ask questions that they should really be asking their advisors/professors because those are the people that you're working with/ being evaluated by. I'm not saying this because I think you're asking the wrong questions, I'm saying this because you might be getting good answers that still don't work for your situation. It's also good for you. Especially in Grad school or those looking to enter grad school, you need to learn to build relationships with the faculty and communicate about what the expectations for projects, comps, publishing, etc. I've seen students struggle because they failed to ask the important questions of their advisors and then did things incorrectly. Don't let that be you! Always manage your expectations with the faculty you're working with.
|
eante4b
|
eao2qtz
| 1,543,433,149 | 1,543,439,833 | 17 | 33 |
Fair point, but my advisor is incredibly busy and reaching him can often be difficult, even when he’s in the country
|
As a current Master student I cannot STRESS how important this advice is. I know literally every faculty member in my department and have built positive relationships with them, even those whom I’ve never had class with. This is not an exaggeration, EVERY SINGLE opportunity I have been give is solely because of the faculty in my department and the rapport I have with them. They are the reason I’m a Master student right now. And if I do end up in a PhD program, I know they will be the reason I’m there. So little of what I’ve got on my CV, I feel, is because I’ve done anything particularly spectacular. Rather, the opportunities and mentorship I’ve received from the amazing faculty have given me the skills and know-how to navigate and obtain opportunities and CV-builders. No one knows this stuff coming into school. It’s the educators who help you. So I urge any students reading this to not be afraid to ask for help, say hi, and build rapport. Even if you don’t have strong rapport, if you have questions about the field, ask the professor who’s class you’re taking! They already have office hours for their students, use that time!
| 0 | 6,684 | 1.941176 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0dq7t3
|
j0dng3w
| 1,671,142,336 | 1,671,141,209 | 207 | 89 |
I’m in a similar situation to your BF. My wife and I have been together since the end of my undergrad (we moved for my grad school, postdoc, and expect to move for a faculty/industry position afterwards). My wife has a great job who supports her ability to work fully remotely. The compromise to the “trailing partner” dilemma we’ve had is that I’ve made her an important part of every decision to move based on her preferences. I had multiple grad school offers and postdoc offers, in a number of different locations. As long as I was happy with my shortlist of choices, I made sure she had a significant say in where we ended up. I think this way has given her some agency in deciding where to live, even if the list of options had to be compatible for my career. When the time comes for me to decide between faculty and industry, if and where I get faculty options will matter. Because even though it’s my slight preference, a faculty job offer at a university located somewhere she doesn’t want to live in will mean I either keep looking or move to industry (where the hubs are all in mostly nice metropolitan areas she would agree to live in). Long story short, I think if someone on the academic career path is serious about their partner they should consider their preferences even if it means sacrificing your absolute “top” choice from a career aspect.
|
It would be helpful for you to be able to articulate to him how open vs restrictive your geographic preferences are since that's what this boils down to. If your no-go list is longer than your acceptable list, things may not work out for you two. But if your list of places you don't want to end up isn't very long and doesn't include the top areas for his work, this could turn out to be a relationship-strengthening conversation about how you are both willing to compromise to make the relationship with.
| 1 | 1,127 | 2.325843 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0dq7t3
|
j0dne47
| 1,671,142,336 | 1,671,141,187 | 207 | 72 |
I’m in a similar situation to your BF. My wife and I have been together since the end of my undergrad (we moved for my grad school, postdoc, and expect to move for a faculty/industry position afterwards). My wife has a great job who supports her ability to work fully remotely. The compromise to the “trailing partner” dilemma we’ve had is that I’ve made her an important part of every decision to move based on her preferences. I had multiple grad school offers and postdoc offers, in a number of different locations. As long as I was happy with my shortlist of choices, I made sure she had a significant say in where we ended up. I think this way has given her some agency in deciding where to live, even if the list of options had to be compatible for my career. When the time comes for me to decide between faculty and industry, if and where I get faculty options will matter. Because even though it’s my slight preference, a faculty job offer at a university located somewhere she doesn’t want to live in will mean I either keep looking or move to industry (where the hubs are all in mostly nice metropolitan areas she would agree to live in). Long story short, I think if someone on the academic career path is serious about their partner they should consider their preferences even if it means sacrificing your absolute “top” choice from a career aspect.
|
I think you need to have a chat about your respective expectations and priorities. Will he prioritize any job or is he willing to be selective about where he applies? For you: would you be willing to move with him to this really nice place even if it's just for a few years or is your priority to settle down? You might be able to find some middle ground or you might find your expectations are too far apart. In my case my DH followed me when I got a postdoc in an exciting place, he was happy to come along for the adventure. In return, I've only applied for permanent posts in locations that are acceptable to him. Finally, if you're a woman and have a desire to have kids at some point, then I think it is really important to have this conversation sooner rather than later. If you come to the conclusion that your long term plans are incompatible, then it's better to find out now, then when you're 39 and desperate for a baby.
| 1 | 1,149 | 2.875 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0dq5zs
|
j0dq7t3
| 1,671,142,315 | 1,671,142,336 | 16 | 207 |
Yeah, you really need to have this conversation with your partner and both be open and honest about it. The reality of an academic career is he's likely to wind up where he winds up and probably won't get to be too picky (and it may take 5-10 years of bouncing around before winding up there). Granted academic careers aren't the be all and end all and he may be willing to make career sacrifices for you but only he can answer that.
|
I’m in a similar situation to your BF. My wife and I have been together since the end of my undergrad (we moved for my grad school, postdoc, and expect to move for a faculty/industry position afterwards). My wife has a great job who supports her ability to work fully remotely. The compromise to the “trailing partner” dilemma we’ve had is that I’ve made her an important part of every decision to move based on her preferences. I had multiple grad school offers and postdoc offers, in a number of different locations. As long as I was happy with my shortlist of choices, I made sure she had a significant say in where we ended up. I think this way has given her some agency in deciding where to live, even if the list of options had to be compatible for my career. When the time comes for me to decide between faculty and industry, if and where I get faculty options will matter. Because even though it’s my slight preference, a faculty job offer at a university located somewhere she doesn’t want to live in will mean I either keep looking or move to industry (where the hubs are all in mostly nice metropolitan areas she would agree to live in). Long story short, I think if someone on the academic career path is serious about their partner they should consider their preferences even if it means sacrificing your absolute “top” choice from a career aspect.
| 0 | 21 | 12.9375 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0dne47
|
j0dng3w
| 1,671,141,187 | 1,671,141,209 | 72 | 89 |
I think you need to have a chat about your respective expectations and priorities. Will he prioritize any job or is he willing to be selective about where he applies? For you: would you be willing to move with him to this really nice place even if it's just for a few years or is your priority to settle down? You might be able to find some middle ground or you might find your expectations are too far apart. In my case my DH followed me when I got a postdoc in an exciting place, he was happy to come along for the adventure. In return, I've only applied for permanent posts in locations that are acceptable to him. Finally, if you're a woman and have a desire to have kids at some point, then I think it is really important to have this conversation sooner rather than later. If you come to the conclusion that your long term plans are incompatible, then it's better to find out now, then when you're 39 and desperate for a baby.
|
It would be helpful for you to be able to articulate to him how open vs restrictive your geographic preferences are since that's what this boils down to. If your no-go list is longer than your acceptable list, things may not work out for you two. But if your list of places you don't want to end up isn't very long and doesn't include the top areas for his work, this could turn out to be a relationship-strengthening conversation about how you are both willing to compromise to make the relationship with.
| 0 | 22 | 1.236111 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0ducu8
|
j0dne47
| 1,671,143,986 | 1,671,141,187 | 77 | 72 |
I’m the academic, my partner is the trailing partner. It’s a similar situation: he has worked remotely since the mid 2010’s, when I was still in grad school. We have lived in three different countries. Ever since I accepted my postdoc, then my lectureship, I have made it clear: he always, ALWAYS has a kill switch. If he wants out, to move back to our original country, whatever, he says so, and we make it work. I’m lucky in that a shift to industry would be trivial, and I’m pretty sure I’d be competitive in most mid-tier academic markets. It doesn’t matter though: he still has that wild card. He’s never used it. He is happy where we are, I am happy, we are happy together. Will it stay that way? I hope so. That said, we have talked openly about this ever since I had the idea of moving overseas for a postdoc. Communication is key. Good luck!
|
I think you need to have a chat about your respective expectations and priorities. Will he prioritize any job or is he willing to be selective about where he applies? For you: would you be willing to move with him to this really nice place even if it's just for a few years or is your priority to settle down? You might be able to find some middle ground or you might find your expectations are too far apart. In my case my DH followed me when I got a postdoc in an exciting place, he was happy to come along for the adventure. In return, I've only applied for permanent posts in locations that are acceptable to him. Finally, if you're a woman and have a desire to have kids at some point, then I think it is really important to have this conversation sooner rather than later. If you come to the conclusion that your long term plans are incompatible, then it's better to find out now, then when you're 39 and desperate for a baby.
| 1 | 2,799 | 1.069444 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0ducu8
|
j0dq5zs
| 1,671,143,986 | 1,671,142,315 | 77 | 16 |
I’m the academic, my partner is the trailing partner. It’s a similar situation: he has worked remotely since the mid 2010’s, when I was still in grad school. We have lived in three different countries. Ever since I accepted my postdoc, then my lectureship, I have made it clear: he always, ALWAYS has a kill switch. If he wants out, to move back to our original country, whatever, he says so, and we make it work. I’m lucky in that a shift to industry would be trivial, and I’m pretty sure I’d be competitive in most mid-tier academic markets. It doesn’t matter though: he still has that wild card. He’s never used it. He is happy where we are, I am happy, we are happy together. Will it stay that way? I hope so. That said, we have talked openly about this ever since I had the idea of moving overseas for a postdoc. Communication is key. Good luck!
|
Yeah, you really need to have this conversation with your partner and both be open and honest about it. The reality of an academic career is he's likely to wind up where he winds up and probably won't get to be too picky (and it may take 5-10 years of bouncing around before winding up there). Granted academic careers aren't the be all and end all and he may be willing to make career sacrifices for you but only he can answer that.
| 1 | 1,671 | 4.8125 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0dqrye
|
j0ducu8
| 1,671,142,551 | 1,671,143,986 | 14 | 77 |
I had a similar discussion with my SO when in academia. However, I was the postdoc and SO the trailing partner. He has a job that can more easily move around. I'm not. However when I was looking for a postdoc after grad school, we had a discussion about the area we are comfortable moving to with good work for him while giving me good opportunities. We came with a large geographic region (Midwest for those USA folks) that I focused on while applying. I'd have many more opportunities if I looked at the coasts but knew my SO wouldn't be happy there. So the geographic region was a good compromise. We ended up settling down more in the area I got my postdoc because a good industry position opened up and I have no interest in following the professor track. But even if my current position hadn't happened, we would be having that discussion again about our future because I would need to potentially move and where would he be okay going. For academia and becoming a professor, it's a lot harder to stay in a specific geographic location. Simply because there are few openings every year and most are looking for people to come in and focus on a specific general research area that fits with that department. However, you can move after being a professor for awhile (and getting promotions) to a different university but that takes time. To stay in academia can be a gamble location wise. As well as the time commitment it takes to start a successful lab. For a conversation, you can have to think about what are each of your long term goals. And what's reasonably going to happen (professorships are hard to get in reality). Are there some boundaries you have location wise? What locations are best for your partner job wise? What locations is your partner thinking about? It's important to not take anything too person and be calm. It's not easy. But can be done. And it may take a few different talks (like he's okay with a longer commute if it means you can live in a nearby town that's more in line with your ideal living area) to find those solutions. Some that more depends on what your partner is thinking as well. Do you look at areas with lots of industry or go full force with academia search. I also don't know how much time is left for their postdoc. It is possible to stay at that university as a research professor or scientist. It doesn't come with tenure typically but gives more time to figure out next steps. But if they want to be a professor, they really need to look for that as a postdoc.
|
I’m the academic, my partner is the trailing partner. It’s a similar situation: he has worked remotely since the mid 2010’s, when I was still in grad school. We have lived in three different countries. Ever since I accepted my postdoc, then my lectureship, I have made it clear: he always, ALWAYS has a kill switch. If he wants out, to move back to our original country, whatever, he says so, and we make it work. I’m lucky in that a shift to industry would be trivial, and I’m pretty sure I’d be competitive in most mid-tier academic markets. It doesn’t matter though: he still has that wild card. He’s never used it. He is happy where we are, I am happy, we are happy together. Will it stay that way? I hope so. That said, we have talked openly about this ever since I had the idea of moving overseas for a postdoc. Communication is key. Good luck!
| 0 | 1,435 | 5.5 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0ev60u
|
j0faf7f
| 1,671,160,264 | 1,671,168,159 | 6 | 11 |
I'm the trailing partner. We met in grad school and both have PhDs. I knew early I didn't want to be faculty, but wasn't sure where I'd end up. He knew he wanted to be faculty, or something like that. We had many conversations about this early on which I think laid a good groundwork for us that had paid out. We ended up moving for his postdoc, and I made it work. He was more important to me than my job, and I knew I'd figure something out. He's now a researcher with the federal government (just like faculty, but none of the teaching). Same conversation for this move. He managed to find a place where it's harder for me to find work. I'll still figure it out. He's still more important to me than my job. And it's been a fun adventure. I wouldn't trade it. I too would suggest having that conversation early. Know what you're OK with, what you're not, and where you're still not sure.
|
As people are saying, it's important to hash this out now and with complete openness. Reality is that for the vast majority of academics a single tenure-track opportunity is all they can hope for in their careers: it might be in Manhattan, it might be in Mississippi, it might be in Maine, it might be in Miami (of Ohio). You never know. People who limit themselves geographically limit their careers. I know a *lot* of couples that split up after one or the other took a job in some place that ultimately wasn't a good fit for the partner: too rural, too urban, too South, too East, too hot, too cold, no jobs, not the right jobs, too far from family, to close to family, you name it. So if you have specific requirements/expectations about where you will be OK living long term it's vital to talk those out now. Because I've also seen couples torn apart when one decides no, they aren't willing to relocate from the Bay Area to Hattiesburg, MS, even if their partner got a TT job offer there (and there only). It's a tough situation for couples. I was married before finishing grad school and got my TT offer in a place we'd never imagined living, about 1,500 miles from both of our families. We've been here 25+ years now and that geographic isolation is my one major regret in life-- we would have been happier in another part of the country. But we stuck it out. Many couples do not.
| 0 | 7,895 | 1.833333 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0faf7f
|
j0esac1
| 1,671,168,159 | 1,671,158,940 | 11 | 3 |
As people are saying, it's important to hash this out now and with complete openness. Reality is that for the vast majority of academics a single tenure-track opportunity is all they can hope for in their careers: it might be in Manhattan, it might be in Mississippi, it might be in Maine, it might be in Miami (of Ohio). You never know. People who limit themselves geographically limit their careers. I know a *lot* of couples that split up after one or the other took a job in some place that ultimately wasn't a good fit for the partner: too rural, too urban, too South, too East, too hot, too cold, no jobs, not the right jobs, too far from family, to close to family, you name it. So if you have specific requirements/expectations about where you will be OK living long term it's vital to talk those out now. Because I've also seen couples torn apart when one decides no, they aren't willing to relocate from the Bay Area to Hattiesburg, MS, even if their partner got a TT job offer there (and there only). It's a tough situation for couples. I was married before finishing grad school and got my TT offer in a place we'd never imagined living, about 1,500 miles from both of our families. We've been here 25+ years now and that geographic isolation is my one major regret in life-- we would have been happier in another part of the country. But we stuck it out. Many couples do not.
|
As the academic with a trailing spouse... We made the decision jointly. For each place that had an opening, if it was a complete "no" for my partner (could not see themselves able to live there) I didn't apply. For places where it was an "it depends" (not high on their list, but might work out) I applied and we put off the decision until we had a concrete offer and were able to visit. While faculty jobs are hard to completely geographically control (i.e., target a specific city in a specific state) you can have some geographical preferences and still make it work. The yearly check-ins and the "kill switch" veto options discussed in other comments are also good considerations. Basically, both of you need to decide if this is an "if it works while we both do our things" or "we're going to do what works for the relationship and make the other stuff work out" case.
| 1 | 9,219 | 3.666667 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0faf7f
|
j0ef952
| 1,671,168,159 | 1,671,152,954 | 11 | 4 |
As people are saying, it's important to hash this out now and with complete openness. Reality is that for the vast majority of academics a single tenure-track opportunity is all they can hope for in their careers: it might be in Manhattan, it might be in Mississippi, it might be in Maine, it might be in Miami (of Ohio). You never know. People who limit themselves geographically limit their careers. I know a *lot* of couples that split up after one or the other took a job in some place that ultimately wasn't a good fit for the partner: too rural, too urban, too South, too East, too hot, too cold, no jobs, not the right jobs, too far from family, to close to family, you name it. So if you have specific requirements/expectations about where you will be OK living long term it's vital to talk those out now. Because I've also seen couples torn apart when one decides no, they aren't willing to relocate from the Bay Area to Hattiesburg, MS, even if their partner got a TT job offer there (and there only). It's a tough situation for couples. I was married before finishing grad school and got my TT offer in a place we'd never imagined living, about 1,500 miles from both of our families. We've been here 25+ years now and that geographic isolation is my one major regret in life-- we would have been happier in another part of the country. But we stuck it out. Many couples do not.
|
My wife was the trailing partner. We usually try to touch base annually, which I think is important since preferences and goals change. While we originally were pretty committed to pursuing the academia lifestyle of following the job, over the past year we’ve decided to commit to our current area. We have great community here, we’re both very politically involved, and what I realized as I continued in my program is that teaching and mentorship are what I care most about. From a money/time perspective too, it’s just not worth asking her to give her career up (full remote’s not an option for her employer), or ask her to move somewhere where she isn’t treated as a full human being with agency over her own body. I can adjunct or lecture here, pick up clinical practice again, and be perfectly happy. And we’ll both have plenty of time to spend together without that tenure clock grind. All that to say, goals and preferences change and the PhD is a slog. Just touch base frequently. Have the initial conversation; if you decide to follow, you’ll at least have 5ish years of growth and communication to figure out what comes next.
| 1 | 15,205 | 2.75 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0faf7f
|
j0eha0y
| 1,671,168,159 | 1,671,153,909 | 11 | 3 |
As people are saying, it's important to hash this out now and with complete openness. Reality is that for the vast majority of academics a single tenure-track opportunity is all they can hope for in their careers: it might be in Manhattan, it might be in Mississippi, it might be in Maine, it might be in Miami (of Ohio). You never know. People who limit themselves geographically limit their careers. I know a *lot* of couples that split up after one or the other took a job in some place that ultimately wasn't a good fit for the partner: too rural, too urban, too South, too East, too hot, too cold, no jobs, not the right jobs, too far from family, to close to family, you name it. So if you have specific requirements/expectations about where you will be OK living long term it's vital to talk those out now. Because I've also seen couples torn apart when one decides no, they aren't willing to relocate from the Bay Area to Hattiesburg, MS, even if their partner got a TT job offer there (and there only). It's a tough situation for couples. I was married before finishing grad school and got my TT offer in a place we'd never imagined living, about 1,500 miles from both of our families. We've been here 25+ years now and that geographic isolation is my one major regret in life-- we would have been happier in another part of the country. But we stuck it out. Many couples do not.
|
I think this really depends on the person. For me I got my first job after my PhD and refused to move from this city for any reason as my partner had found a job in this city and was really happy. I’m in clinical psychology so when I got a job and realized how little they were paying me what I was worth right out of my PhD I found a new job in 6 months and then eventually opened up my own business 9 months from there. I always go to who pays me the highest, but I’m no longer willing to move due to my partner now being settled. Even after I wanted more money I decided to go only look for jobs in the general vicinity of the city we were in because that was a big priority for me. Obvi not everyone shares that priority though- and if I am being honest a lot of the academics I have been friends with tended to favor work over other priorities (whereas for me family was higher and so I didn’t give a shit if I was using my PhD- as long as I made good money and my family was happy I am happy).
| 1 | 14,250 | 3.666667 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0faf7f
|
j0ekprz
| 1,671,168,159 | 1,671,155,479 | 11 | 2 |
As people are saying, it's important to hash this out now and with complete openness. Reality is that for the vast majority of academics a single tenure-track opportunity is all they can hope for in their careers: it might be in Manhattan, it might be in Mississippi, it might be in Maine, it might be in Miami (of Ohio). You never know. People who limit themselves geographically limit their careers. I know a *lot* of couples that split up after one or the other took a job in some place that ultimately wasn't a good fit for the partner: too rural, too urban, too South, too East, too hot, too cold, no jobs, not the right jobs, too far from family, to close to family, you name it. So if you have specific requirements/expectations about where you will be OK living long term it's vital to talk those out now. Because I've also seen couples torn apart when one decides no, they aren't willing to relocate from the Bay Area to Hattiesburg, MS, even if their partner got a TT job offer there (and there only). It's a tough situation for couples. I was married before finishing grad school and got my TT offer in a place we'd never imagined living, about 1,500 miles from both of our families. We've been here 25+ years now and that geographic isolation is my one major regret in life-- we would have been happier in another part of the country. But we stuck it out. Many couples do not.
|
Since you say it's a 'small-ish field', maybe he knows all the universities and/or companies that he could potentially end up at. If he's able to give an overview of what locations these are, you may be better able to think about moving with him. And, just in my view, 'trailing partner' seems like a needlessly negative term. It's pretty great that you have a remote job since you really have the ability to move to wherever he can find a job. It's a really difficult thing for couples where one or both of them are in academia. Kinda jealous!
| 1 | 12,680 | 5.5 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0ev60u
|
j0esac1
| 1,671,160,264 | 1,671,158,940 | 6 | 3 |
I'm the trailing partner. We met in grad school and both have PhDs. I knew early I didn't want to be faculty, but wasn't sure where I'd end up. He knew he wanted to be faculty, or something like that. We had many conversations about this early on which I think laid a good groundwork for us that had paid out. We ended up moving for his postdoc, and I made it work. He was more important to me than my job, and I knew I'd figure something out. He's now a researcher with the federal government (just like faculty, but none of the teaching). Same conversation for this move. He managed to find a place where it's harder for me to find work. I'll still figure it out. He's still more important to me than my job. And it's been a fun adventure. I wouldn't trade it. I too would suggest having that conversation early. Know what you're OK with, what you're not, and where you're still not sure.
|
As the academic with a trailing spouse... We made the decision jointly. For each place that had an opening, if it was a complete "no" for my partner (could not see themselves able to live there) I didn't apply. For places where it was an "it depends" (not high on their list, but might work out) I applied and we put off the decision until we had a concrete offer and were able to visit. While faculty jobs are hard to completely geographically control (i.e., target a specific city in a specific state) you can have some geographical preferences and still make it work. The yearly check-ins and the "kill switch" veto options discussed in other comments are also good considerations. Basically, both of you need to decide if this is an "if it works while we both do our things" or "we're going to do what works for the relationship and make the other stuff work out" case.
| 1 | 1,324 | 2 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0ef952
|
j0ev60u
| 1,671,152,954 | 1,671,160,264 | 4 | 6 |
My wife was the trailing partner. We usually try to touch base annually, which I think is important since preferences and goals change. While we originally were pretty committed to pursuing the academia lifestyle of following the job, over the past year we’ve decided to commit to our current area. We have great community here, we’re both very politically involved, and what I realized as I continued in my program is that teaching and mentorship are what I care most about. From a money/time perspective too, it’s just not worth asking her to give her career up (full remote’s not an option for her employer), or ask her to move somewhere where she isn’t treated as a full human being with agency over her own body. I can adjunct or lecture here, pick up clinical practice again, and be perfectly happy. And we’ll both have plenty of time to spend together without that tenure clock grind. All that to say, goals and preferences change and the PhD is a slog. Just touch base frequently. Have the initial conversation; if you decide to follow, you’ll at least have 5ish years of growth and communication to figure out what comes next.
|
I'm the trailing partner. We met in grad school and both have PhDs. I knew early I didn't want to be faculty, but wasn't sure where I'd end up. He knew he wanted to be faculty, or something like that. We had many conversations about this early on which I think laid a good groundwork for us that had paid out. We ended up moving for his postdoc, and I made it work. He was more important to me than my job, and I knew I'd figure something out. He's now a researcher with the federal government (just like faculty, but none of the teaching). Same conversation for this move. He managed to find a place where it's harder for me to find work. I'll still figure it out. He's still more important to me than my job. And it's been a fun adventure. I wouldn't trade it. I too would suggest having that conversation early. Know what you're OK with, what you're not, and where you're still not sure.
| 0 | 7,310 | 1.5 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0ev60u
|
j0eha0y
| 1,671,160,264 | 1,671,153,909 | 6 | 3 |
I'm the trailing partner. We met in grad school and both have PhDs. I knew early I didn't want to be faculty, but wasn't sure where I'd end up. He knew he wanted to be faculty, or something like that. We had many conversations about this early on which I think laid a good groundwork for us that had paid out. We ended up moving for his postdoc, and I made it work. He was more important to me than my job, and I knew I'd figure something out. He's now a researcher with the federal government (just like faculty, but none of the teaching). Same conversation for this move. He managed to find a place where it's harder for me to find work. I'll still figure it out. He's still more important to me than my job. And it's been a fun adventure. I wouldn't trade it. I too would suggest having that conversation early. Know what you're OK with, what you're not, and where you're still not sure.
|
I think this really depends on the person. For me I got my first job after my PhD and refused to move from this city for any reason as my partner had found a job in this city and was really happy. I’m in clinical psychology so when I got a job and realized how little they were paying me what I was worth right out of my PhD I found a new job in 6 months and then eventually opened up my own business 9 months from there. I always go to who pays me the highest, but I’m no longer willing to move due to my partner now being settled. Even after I wanted more money I decided to go only look for jobs in the general vicinity of the city we were in because that was a big priority for me. Obvi not everyone shares that priority though- and if I am being honest a lot of the academics I have been friends with tended to favor work over other priorities (whereas for me family was higher and so I didn’t give a shit if I was using my PhD- as long as I made good money and my family was happy I am happy).
| 1 | 6,355 | 2 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
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j0ev60u
|
j0ekprz
| 1,671,160,264 | 1,671,155,479 | 6 | 2 |
I'm the trailing partner. We met in grad school and both have PhDs. I knew early I didn't want to be faculty, but wasn't sure where I'd end up. He knew he wanted to be faculty, or something like that. We had many conversations about this early on which I think laid a good groundwork for us that had paid out. We ended up moving for his postdoc, and I made it work. He was more important to me than my job, and I knew I'd figure something out. He's now a researcher with the federal government (just like faculty, but none of the teaching). Same conversation for this move. He managed to find a place where it's harder for me to find work. I'll still figure it out. He's still more important to me than my job. And it's been a fun adventure. I wouldn't trade it. I too would suggest having that conversation early. Know what you're OK with, what you're not, and where you're still not sure.
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Since you say it's a 'small-ish field', maybe he knows all the universities and/or companies that he could potentially end up at. If he's able to give an overview of what locations these are, you may be better able to think about moving with him. And, just in my view, 'trailing partner' seems like a needlessly negative term. It's pretty great that you have a remote job since you really have the ability to move to wherever he can find a job. It's a really difficult thing for couples where one or both of them are in academia. Kinda jealous!
| 1 | 4,785 | 3 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
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j0fm3un
|
j0esac1
| 1,671,176,278 | 1,671,158,940 | 5 | 3 |
My hubs is the trailing spouse, he works remotely. We agreed that we needed my second income (thanks student loans) and made the decision to go anywhere I got a job (within reason, there were places I decided not even to apply to) *at least for a little while* with the idea that “if you can get one job, you can probably get a second job” in mind. In other words, we decided to go where my academic job market took us, and then use the coming years to selectively apply to places we may like better as the opportunities arose. We may still talk about moving, but I wound up somewhere beautiful and we’re happy to be here. Sometimes it works out. Really, you’re the only ones who can make these decisions after having these conversations.
|
As the academic with a trailing spouse... We made the decision jointly. For each place that had an opening, if it was a complete "no" for my partner (could not see themselves able to live there) I didn't apply. For places where it was an "it depends" (not high on their list, but might work out) I applied and we put off the decision until we had a concrete offer and were able to visit. While faculty jobs are hard to completely geographically control (i.e., target a specific city in a specific state) you can have some geographical preferences and still make it work. The yearly check-ins and the "kill switch" veto options discussed in other comments are also good considerations. Basically, both of you need to decide if this is an "if it works while we both do our things" or "we're going to do what works for the relationship and make the other stuff work out" case.
| 1 | 17,338 | 1.666667 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0ef952
|
j0fm3un
| 1,671,152,954 | 1,671,176,278 | 4 | 5 |
My wife was the trailing partner. We usually try to touch base annually, which I think is important since preferences and goals change. While we originally were pretty committed to pursuing the academia lifestyle of following the job, over the past year we’ve decided to commit to our current area. We have great community here, we’re both very politically involved, and what I realized as I continued in my program is that teaching and mentorship are what I care most about. From a money/time perspective too, it’s just not worth asking her to give her career up (full remote’s not an option for her employer), or ask her to move somewhere where she isn’t treated as a full human being with agency over her own body. I can adjunct or lecture here, pick up clinical practice again, and be perfectly happy. And we’ll both have plenty of time to spend together without that tenure clock grind. All that to say, goals and preferences change and the PhD is a slog. Just touch base frequently. Have the initial conversation; if you decide to follow, you’ll at least have 5ish years of growth and communication to figure out what comes next.
|
My hubs is the trailing spouse, he works remotely. We agreed that we needed my second income (thanks student loans) and made the decision to go anywhere I got a job (within reason, there were places I decided not even to apply to) *at least for a little while* with the idea that “if you can get one job, you can probably get a second job” in mind. In other words, we decided to go where my academic job market took us, and then use the coming years to selectively apply to places we may like better as the opportunities arose. We may still talk about moving, but I wound up somewhere beautiful and we’re happy to be here. Sometimes it works out. Really, you’re the only ones who can make these decisions after having these conversations.
| 0 | 23,324 | 1.25 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0fm3un
|
j0eha0y
| 1,671,176,278 | 1,671,153,909 | 5 | 3 |
My hubs is the trailing spouse, he works remotely. We agreed that we needed my second income (thanks student loans) and made the decision to go anywhere I got a job (within reason, there were places I decided not even to apply to) *at least for a little while* with the idea that “if you can get one job, you can probably get a second job” in mind. In other words, we decided to go where my academic job market took us, and then use the coming years to selectively apply to places we may like better as the opportunities arose. We may still talk about moving, but I wound up somewhere beautiful and we’re happy to be here. Sometimes it works out. Really, you’re the only ones who can make these decisions after having these conversations.
|
I think this really depends on the person. For me I got my first job after my PhD and refused to move from this city for any reason as my partner had found a job in this city and was really happy. I’m in clinical psychology so when I got a job and realized how little they were paying me what I was worth right out of my PhD I found a new job in 6 months and then eventually opened up my own business 9 months from there. I always go to who pays me the highest, but I’m no longer willing to move due to my partner now being settled. Even after I wanted more money I decided to go only look for jobs in the general vicinity of the city we were in because that was a big priority for me. Obvi not everyone shares that priority though- and if I am being honest a lot of the academics I have been friends with tended to favor work over other priorities (whereas for me family was higher and so I didn’t give a shit if I was using my PhD- as long as I made good money and my family was happy I am happy).
| 1 | 22,369 | 1.666667 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0ekprz
|
j0fm3un
| 1,671,155,479 | 1,671,176,278 | 2 | 5 |
Since you say it's a 'small-ish field', maybe he knows all the universities and/or companies that he could potentially end up at. If he's able to give an overview of what locations these are, you may be better able to think about moving with him. And, just in my view, 'trailing partner' seems like a needlessly negative term. It's pretty great that you have a remote job since you really have the ability to move to wherever he can find a job. It's a really difficult thing for couples where one or both of them are in academia. Kinda jealous!
|
My hubs is the trailing spouse, he works remotely. We agreed that we needed my second income (thanks student loans) and made the decision to go anywhere I got a job (within reason, there were places I decided not even to apply to) *at least for a little while* with the idea that “if you can get one job, you can probably get a second job” in mind. In other words, we decided to go where my academic job market took us, and then use the coming years to selectively apply to places we may like better as the opportunities arose. We may still talk about moving, but I wound up somewhere beautiful and we’re happy to be here. Sometimes it works out. Really, you’re the only ones who can make these decisions after having these conversations.
| 0 | 20,799 | 2.5 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0g67j1
|
j0esac1
| 1,671,192,532 | 1,671,158,940 | 5 | 3 |
I was in industry, he’s in academia, but we’re both in the same field (non faculty professional staff) We’ve switched off on relocating for jobs the first 10 years we were together, but then we moved for his advancement. We moved on average every 4-5 years. Even when he was an A. D., he listened to me when I told him the new city we moved to was not working out for us. He’s listened and involved me and the whole family with every job offer/move. It does involve a lot of communication, especially starting out, especially if you want to live together/get married. Sometimes having a mediator/relationship coach/therapist can help. As for vacations, we tag along for conferences and have a great time. My kids have never done Disney, but have been to every major city on the east coast and Midwest. Best of luck to you!
|
As the academic with a trailing spouse... We made the decision jointly. For each place that had an opening, if it was a complete "no" for my partner (could not see themselves able to live there) I didn't apply. For places where it was an "it depends" (not high on their list, but might work out) I applied and we put off the decision until we had a concrete offer and were able to visit. While faculty jobs are hard to completely geographically control (i.e., target a specific city in a specific state) you can have some geographical preferences and still make it work. The yearly check-ins and the "kill switch" veto options discussed in other comments are also good considerations. Basically, both of you need to decide if this is an "if it works while we both do our things" or "we're going to do what works for the relationship and make the other stuff work out" case.
| 1 | 33,592 | 1.666667 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0g67j1
|
j0ef952
| 1,671,192,532 | 1,671,152,954 | 5 | 4 |
I was in industry, he’s in academia, but we’re both in the same field (non faculty professional staff) We’ve switched off on relocating for jobs the first 10 years we were together, but then we moved for his advancement. We moved on average every 4-5 years. Even when he was an A. D., he listened to me when I told him the new city we moved to was not working out for us. He’s listened and involved me and the whole family with every job offer/move. It does involve a lot of communication, especially starting out, especially if you want to live together/get married. Sometimes having a mediator/relationship coach/therapist can help. As for vacations, we tag along for conferences and have a great time. My kids have never done Disney, but have been to every major city on the east coast and Midwest. Best of luck to you!
|
My wife was the trailing partner. We usually try to touch base annually, which I think is important since preferences and goals change. While we originally were pretty committed to pursuing the academia lifestyle of following the job, over the past year we’ve decided to commit to our current area. We have great community here, we’re both very politically involved, and what I realized as I continued in my program is that teaching and mentorship are what I care most about. From a money/time perspective too, it’s just not worth asking her to give her career up (full remote’s not an option for her employer), or ask her to move somewhere where she isn’t treated as a full human being with agency over her own body. I can adjunct or lecture here, pick up clinical practice again, and be perfectly happy. And we’ll both have plenty of time to spend together without that tenure clock grind. All that to say, goals and preferences change and the PhD is a slog. Just touch base frequently. Have the initial conversation; if you decide to follow, you’ll at least have 5ish years of growth and communication to figure out what comes next.
| 1 | 39,578 | 1.25 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0g67j1
|
j0eha0y
| 1,671,192,532 | 1,671,153,909 | 5 | 3 |
I was in industry, he’s in academia, but we’re both in the same field (non faculty professional staff) We’ve switched off on relocating for jobs the first 10 years we were together, but then we moved for his advancement. We moved on average every 4-5 years. Even when he was an A. D., he listened to me when I told him the new city we moved to was not working out for us. He’s listened and involved me and the whole family with every job offer/move. It does involve a lot of communication, especially starting out, especially if you want to live together/get married. Sometimes having a mediator/relationship coach/therapist can help. As for vacations, we tag along for conferences and have a great time. My kids have never done Disney, but have been to every major city on the east coast and Midwest. Best of luck to you!
|
I think this really depends on the person. For me I got my first job after my PhD and refused to move from this city for any reason as my partner had found a job in this city and was really happy. I’m in clinical psychology so when I got a job and realized how little they were paying me what I was worth right out of my PhD I found a new job in 6 months and then eventually opened up my own business 9 months from there. I always go to who pays me the highest, but I’m no longer willing to move due to my partner now being settled. Even after I wanted more money I decided to go only look for jobs in the general vicinity of the city we were in because that was a big priority for me. Obvi not everyone shares that priority though- and if I am being honest a lot of the academics I have been friends with tended to favor work over other priorities (whereas for me family was higher and so I didn’t give a shit if I was using my PhD- as long as I made good money and my family was happy I am happy).
| 1 | 38,623 | 1.666667 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0fzzvz
|
j0g67j1
| 1,671,187,948 | 1,671,192,532 | 2 | 5 |
I am going to be brutally honest with you-- a few years back, male STEM PhDs needed to do an average of two postdocs before they could land a tenure track professorship. This number has since gone up to three. Each postdoc varies from two to three years. In the worst case scenario, you'll be trailing after him for nine years if he has terrible luck, is in a relatively underfunded subfield, or lacks the right connections. You definitely need to talk to him and ask him about his plans-- there's a saying that it's much better to go into industry right after grad school than after a postdoc.
|
I was in industry, he’s in academia, but we’re both in the same field (non faculty professional staff) We’ve switched off on relocating for jobs the first 10 years we were together, but then we moved for his advancement. We moved on average every 4-5 years. Even when he was an A. D., he listened to me when I told him the new city we moved to was not working out for us. He’s listened and involved me and the whole family with every job offer/move. It does involve a lot of communication, especially starting out, especially if you want to live together/get married. Sometimes having a mediator/relationship coach/therapist can help. As for vacations, we tag along for conferences and have a great time. My kids have never done Disney, but have been to every major city on the east coast and Midwest. Best of luck to you!
| 0 | 4,584 | 2.5 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
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j0g67j1
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j0ekprz
| 1,671,192,532 | 1,671,155,479 | 5 | 2 |
I was in industry, he’s in academia, but we’re both in the same field (non faculty professional staff) We’ve switched off on relocating for jobs the first 10 years we were together, but then we moved for his advancement. We moved on average every 4-5 years. Even when he was an A. D., he listened to me when I told him the new city we moved to was not working out for us. He’s listened and involved me and the whole family with every job offer/move. It does involve a lot of communication, especially starting out, especially if you want to live together/get married. Sometimes having a mediator/relationship coach/therapist can help. As for vacations, we tag along for conferences and have a great time. My kids have never done Disney, but have been to every major city on the east coast and Midwest. Best of luck to you!
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Since you say it's a 'small-ish field', maybe he knows all the universities and/or companies that he could potentially end up at. If he's able to give an overview of what locations these are, you may be better able to think about moving with him. And, just in my view, 'trailing partner' seems like a needlessly negative term. It's pretty great that you have a remote job since you really have the ability to move to wherever he can find a job. It's a really difficult thing for couples where one or both of them are in academia. Kinda jealous!
| 1 | 37,053 | 2.5 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
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j0esac1
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j0ekprz
| 1,671,158,940 | 1,671,155,479 | 3 | 2 |
As the academic with a trailing spouse... We made the decision jointly. For each place that had an opening, if it was a complete "no" for my partner (could not see themselves able to live there) I didn't apply. For places where it was an "it depends" (not high on their list, but might work out) I applied and we put off the decision until we had a concrete offer and were able to visit. While faculty jobs are hard to completely geographically control (i.e., target a specific city in a specific state) you can have some geographical preferences and still make it work. The yearly check-ins and the "kill switch" veto options discussed in other comments are also good considerations. Basically, both of you need to decide if this is an "if it works while we both do our things" or "we're going to do what works for the relationship and make the other stuff work out" case.
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Since you say it's a 'small-ish field', maybe he knows all the universities and/or companies that he could potentially end up at. If he's able to give an overview of what locations these are, you may be better able to think about moving with him. And, just in my view, 'trailing partner' seems like a needlessly negative term. It's pretty great that you have a remote job since you really have the ability to move to wherever he can find a job. It's a really difficult thing for couples where one or both of them are in academia. Kinda jealous!
| 1 | 3,461 | 1.5 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
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j0hqgtv
|
j0fzzvz
| 1,671,216,878 | 1,671,187,948 | 3 | 2 |
You're going to get a lot of "you don't deserve to raise these concerns because academia is a noble pursuit that requires all of this" from people itt who are fully captured by academia and its worst, cult-like aspects. Ignore those people. Raise these concerns sooner rather than later. You don't want to end up having this conversation years down the road after multiple moves. Your SO is going to have to balance career aspirations with the rest of his priorities, and it's worth knowing where your concerns fall among them. I don't think there's an easy way to have this conversation, and this is probably more of a relationship/communication thing than it is an academia thing.
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I am going to be brutally honest with you-- a few years back, male STEM PhDs needed to do an average of two postdocs before they could land a tenure track professorship. This number has since gone up to three. Each postdoc varies from two to three years. In the worst case scenario, you'll be trailing after him for nine years if he has terrible luck, is in a relatively underfunded subfield, or lacks the right connections. You definitely need to talk to him and ask him about his plans-- there's a saying that it's much better to go into industry right after grad school than after a postdoc.
| 1 | 28,930 | 1.5 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
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j0hsnfu
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j0fzzvz
| 1,671,217,758 | 1,671,187,948 | 3 | 2 |
You need to have this conversation and you need to have it at every crossroad. If you’re in a healthy relationship, it will be fine, if hard, to discuss these things. If your boyfriend becomes completely unreasonable, that’s a sign of egotistical behaviour that will just become worse and worse the older and more invested you both get in your respective worldviews. So this conversation - now - is very, very important for the future of your relationship. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being the “trailing partner”. I’m kind of one myself. My husband has a high paying STEM job which is very geography dependent. That’s why we live where we live. Moving here in my early 20s made it impossible for me to get a masters, for example. (There were no online options back in the day…) So that’s why I’m doing one now instead. The job market where we are living has always been amazing for his career. Definitely not amazing for mine, although I’ve been steadily employed at an average salary for 20 years, so it’s fine. However, I’m happy with it, and has always been, because it has been beneficial for our household to have his income plus mine. I also enjoy our life here. It feels like home. But was it my first choice back then? Definitely no. It took some time getting used to. We did spend a couple of years abroad for his work when the kids were little. That was nice, as he made really good money and we got to experience living in a different country, a place that had been my dream for a long time. However I did not work when we were there, and I’ve said that that will simply never happen again. I don’t care how great it may be for his career or his job or his personal experience, I’m never going into expat wife life again if I can avoid it. It was great since we had 3 kids in 3 years and I was absolutely DEAD from all of that (I worked full time), but 2 years was pleeeenty. Now the kids are teens, and I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. We still have these conversations as we are interested in moving abroad again at some point. We have 4 citizenships between us, so we have plenty of realistic options. However it always comes down to what we both want. Right now there are a couple of countries that seem interesting (we refuse going to non-democracies). But the one job for the one person is never enough to make a decision that involves the lives of both of us (as well as our kids). So make sure you get into the habit of having these conversations and be firm of what’s negotiable and non-negotiable for you. His career is not your career.
|
I am going to be brutally honest with you-- a few years back, male STEM PhDs needed to do an average of two postdocs before they could land a tenure track professorship. This number has since gone up to three. Each postdoc varies from two to three years. In the worst case scenario, you'll be trailing after him for nine years if he has terrible luck, is in a relatively underfunded subfield, or lacks the right connections. You definitely need to talk to him and ask him about his plans-- there's a saying that it's much better to go into industry right after grad school than after a postdoc.
| 1 | 29,810 | 1.5 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0ekprz
|
j0hqgtv
| 1,671,155,479 | 1,671,216,878 | 2 | 3 |
Since you say it's a 'small-ish field', maybe he knows all the universities and/or companies that he could potentially end up at. If he's able to give an overview of what locations these are, you may be better able to think about moving with him. And, just in my view, 'trailing partner' seems like a needlessly negative term. It's pretty great that you have a remote job since you really have the ability to move to wherever he can find a job. It's a really difficult thing for couples where one or both of them are in academia. Kinda jealous!
|
You're going to get a lot of "you don't deserve to raise these concerns because academia is a noble pursuit that requires all of this" from people itt who are fully captured by academia and its worst, cult-like aspects. Ignore those people. Raise these concerns sooner rather than later. You don't want to end up having this conversation years down the road after multiple moves. Your SO is going to have to balance career aspirations with the rest of his priorities, and it's worth knowing where your concerns fall among them. I don't think there's an easy way to have this conversation, and this is probably more of a relationship/communication thing than it is an academia thing.
| 0 | 61,399 | 1.5 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0gu8r4
|
j0hqgtv
| 1,671,204,353 | 1,671,216,878 | 2 | 3 |
I don’t get the issue. You have the job flexibility to live anywhere. You’re worried that eventually he may move to an area where you won’t want to live. You treat the eventuality of it as a certainty. Why? Why are you worried about something that has not transpired?
|
You're going to get a lot of "you don't deserve to raise these concerns because academia is a noble pursuit that requires all of this" from people itt who are fully captured by academia and its worst, cult-like aspects. Ignore those people. Raise these concerns sooner rather than later. You don't want to end up having this conversation years down the road after multiple moves. Your SO is going to have to balance career aspirations with the rest of his priorities, and it's worth knowing where your concerns fall among them. I don't think there's an easy way to have this conversation, and this is probably more of a relationship/communication thing than it is an academia thing.
| 0 | 12,525 | 1.5 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0hqgtv
|
j0h0a48
| 1,671,216,878 | 1,671,206,748 | 3 | 2 |
You're going to get a lot of "you don't deserve to raise these concerns because academia is a noble pursuit that requires all of this" from people itt who are fully captured by academia and its worst, cult-like aspects. Ignore those people. Raise these concerns sooner rather than later. You don't want to end up having this conversation years down the road after multiple moves. Your SO is going to have to balance career aspirations with the rest of his priorities, and it's worth knowing where your concerns fall among them. I don't think there's an easy way to have this conversation, and this is probably more of a relationship/communication thing than it is an academia thing.
|
It is very unlikely that there will be a faculty opening where one does a postdoc, because the faculty position you'd be qualified for is the one held by your postdoc advisor. Therefore, the very thing that makes the school a great place to postdoc also eliminates the possibility of a suitable faculty opening.
| 1 | 10,130 | 1.5 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0h2h17
|
j0hqgtv
| 1,671,207,571 | 1,671,216,878 | 2 | 3 |
You're putting an awful lot of pressure on him (and yourself) before you have any idea where his offers might be. There are lots of really nice parts of the country. Alternatively, he may get no offers and decide to do industry where he is currently. > And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. First, you are lucky in that your working situation means you'd never have to give up any of your goals. And second, do you really think he'll have to make a choice between Flint, MI and Biloxi, MS? Be more open minded. Wait.
|
You're going to get a lot of "you don't deserve to raise these concerns because academia is a noble pursuit that requires all of this" from people itt who are fully captured by academia and its worst, cult-like aspects. Ignore those people. Raise these concerns sooner rather than later. You don't want to end up having this conversation years down the road after multiple moves. Your SO is going to have to balance career aspirations with the rest of his priorities, and it's worth knowing where your concerns fall among them. I don't think there's an easy way to have this conversation, and this is probably more of a relationship/communication thing than it is an academia thing.
| 0 | 9,307 | 1.5 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0ekprz
|
j0hsnfu
| 1,671,155,479 | 1,671,217,758 | 2 | 3 |
Since you say it's a 'small-ish field', maybe he knows all the universities and/or companies that he could potentially end up at. If he's able to give an overview of what locations these are, you may be better able to think about moving with him. And, just in my view, 'trailing partner' seems like a needlessly negative term. It's pretty great that you have a remote job since you really have the ability to move to wherever he can find a job. It's a really difficult thing for couples where one or both of them are in academia. Kinda jealous!
|
You need to have this conversation and you need to have it at every crossroad. If you’re in a healthy relationship, it will be fine, if hard, to discuss these things. If your boyfriend becomes completely unreasonable, that’s a sign of egotistical behaviour that will just become worse and worse the older and more invested you both get in your respective worldviews. So this conversation - now - is very, very important for the future of your relationship. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being the “trailing partner”. I’m kind of one myself. My husband has a high paying STEM job which is very geography dependent. That’s why we live where we live. Moving here in my early 20s made it impossible for me to get a masters, for example. (There were no online options back in the day…) So that’s why I’m doing one now instead. The job market where we are living has always been amazing for his career. Definitely not amazing for mine, although I’ve been steadily employed at an average salary for 20 years, so it’s fine. However, I’m happy with it, and has always been, because it has been beneficial for our household to have his income plus mine. I also enjoy our life here. It feels like home. But was it my first choice back then? Definitely no. It took some time getting used to. We did spend a couple of years abroad for his work when the kids were little. That was nice, as he made really good money and we got to experience living in a different country, a place that had been my dream for a long time. However I did not work when we were there, and I’ve said that that will simply never happen again. I don’t care how great it may be for his career or his job or his personal experience, I’m never going into expat wife life again if I can avoid it. It was great since we had 3 kids in 3 years and I was absolutely DEAD from all of that (I worked full time), but 2 years was pleeeenty. Now the kids are teens, and I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. We still have these conversations as we are interested in moving abroad again at some point. We have 4 citizenships between us, so we have plenty of realistic options. However it always comes down to what we both want. Right now there are a couple of countries that seem interesting (we refuse going to non-democracies). But the one job for the one person is never enough to make a decision that involves the lives of both of us (as well as our kids). So make sure you get into the habit of having these conversations and be firm of what’s negotiable and non-negotiable for you. His career is not your career.
| 0 | 62,279 | 1.5 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
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j0hsnfu
|
j0gu8r4
| 1,671,217,758 | 1,671,204,353 | 3 | 2 |
You need to have this conversation and you need to have it at every crossroad. If you’re in a healthy relationship, it will be fine, if hard, to discuss these things. If your boyfriend becomes completely unreasonable, that’s a sign of egotistical behaviour that will just become worse and worse the older and more invested you both get in your respective worldviews. So this conversation - now - is very, very important for the future of your relationship. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being the “trailing partner”. I’m kind of one myself. My husband has a high paying STEM job which is very geography dependent. That’s why we live where we live. Moving here in my early 20s made it impossible for me to get a masters, for example. (There were no online options back in the day…) So that’s why I’m doing one now instead. The job market where we are living has always been amazing for his career. Definitely not amazing for mine, although I’ve been steadily employed at an average salary for 20 years, so it’s fine. However, I’m happy with it, and has always been, because it has been beneficial for our household to have his income plus mine. I also enjoy our life here. It feels like home. But was it my first choice back then? Definitely no. It took some time getting used to. We did spend a couple of years abroad for his work when the kids were little. That was nice, as he made really good money and we got to experience living in a different country, a place that had been my dream for a long time. However I did not work when we were there, and I’ve said that that will simply never happen again. I don’t care how great it may be for his career or his job or his personal experience, I’m never going into expat wife life again if I can avoid it. It was great since we had 3 kids in 3 years and I was absolutely DEAD from all of that (I worked full time), but 2 years was pleeeenty. Now the kids are teens, and I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. We still have these conversations as we are interested in moving abroad again at some point. We have 4 citizenships between us, so we have plenty of realistic options. However it always comes down to what we both want. Right now there are a couple of countries that seem interesting (we refuse going to non-democracies). But the one job for the one person is never enough to make a decision that involves the lives of both of us (as well as our kids). So make sure you get into the habit of having these conversations and be firm of what’s negotiable and non-negotiable for you. His career is not your career.
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I don’t get the issue. You have the job flexibility to live anywhere. You’re worried that eventually he may move to an area where you won’t want to live. You treat the eventuality of it as a certainty. Why? Why are you worried about something that has not transpired?
| 1 | 13,405 | 1.5 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0hsnfu
|
j0h0a48
| 1,671,217,758 | 1,671,206,748 | 3 | 2 |
You need to have this conversation and you need to have it at every crossroad. If you’re in a healthy relationship, it will be fine, if hard, to discuss these things. If your boyfriend becomes completely unreasonable, that’s a sign of egotistical behaviour that will just become worse and worse the older and more invested you both get in your respective worldviews. So this conversation - now - is very, very important for the future of your relationship. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being the “trailing partner”. I’m kind of one myself. My husband has a high paying STEM job which is very geography dependent. That’s why we live where we live. Moving here in my early 20s made it impossible for me to get a masters, for example. (There were no online options back in the day…) So that’s why I’m doing one now instead. The job market where we are living has always been amazing for his career. Definitely not amazing for mine, although I’ve been steadily employed at an average salary for 20 years, so it’s fine. However, I’m happy with it, and has always been, because it has been beneficial for our household to have his income plus mine. I also enjoy our life here. It feels like home. But was it my first choice back then? Definitely no. It took some time getting used to. We did spend a couple of years abroad for his work when the kids were little. That was nice, as he made really good money and we got to experience living in a different country, a place that had been my dream for a long time. However I did not work when we were there, and I’ve said that that will simply never happen again. I don’t care how great it may be for his career or his job or his personal experience, I’m never going into expat wife life again if I can avoid it. It was great since we had 3 kids in 3 years and I was absolutely DEAD from all of that (I worked full time), but 2 years was pleeeenty. Now the kids are teens, and I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. We still have these conversations as we are interested in moving abroad again at some point. We have 4 citizenships between us, so we have plenty of realistic options. However it always comes down to what we both want. Right now there are a couple of countries that seem interesting (we refuse going to non-democracies). But the one job for the one person is never enough to make a decision that involves the lives of both of us (as well as our kids). So make sure you get into the habit of having these conversations and be firm of what’s negotiable and non-negotiable for you. His career is not your career.
|
It is very unlikely that there will be a faculty opening where one does a postdoc, because the faculty position you'd be qualified for is the one held by your postdoc advisor. Therefore, the very thing that makes the school a great place to postdoc also eliminates the possibility of a suitable faculty opening.
| 1 | 11,010 | 1.5 |
zmwtax
|
askacademia_train
| 0.94 |
I don’t want to be a trailing partner but I love my academic boyfriend - how do I talk about this productively? Hi — my partner is in academia and recently moved out of state for a post doc. The state he moved to is exceptionally beautiful and somewhere I can see myself living. But, the way he’s explained it to me, is he probably won’t get professorship here and will likely need to just move wherever work is. I don’t really know why, but something about post docs not being accepted to universities they post doc’d at. He’s tossing up between industry and academia at the moment. I’m not in academia and have a remote job. I want to build my work around life and he sees it the other way around. He’ll just go where the work is. Which I get - he doesn’t have a job he can do remotely and it’s a small-ish field. I love him and we work really well together. We have a healthy relationship, probably the first healthy relationship I’ve ever had. And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. I want to find a middle ground - I believe there may be something there if he were to go into industry or work somewhere I’d enjoy living. I have read some helpful things on this sub - I know I should talk to him. I just don’t want it to turn into a “we should break up” conversation. I would love to hear some different perspectives that may offer something I haven’t thought of. Have you found yourself in a similar situation? Or know someone who did? How did you deal? EDIT: I’m sorry this is the wrong flair. Reddit would not let me post this with “interpersonal issue” flair. But he is in STEM if that’s helpful.
|
j0h2h17
|
j0hsnfu
| 1,671,207,571 | 1,671,217,758 | 2 | 3 |
You're putting an awful lot of pressure on him (and yourself) before you have any idea where his offers might be. There are lots of really nice parts of the country. Alternatively, he may get no offers and decide to do industry where he is currently. > And I also don’t want to give up everything, my own goals and dreams, to be a trailing spouse or partner and live somewhere I may hate for his job. First, you are lucky in that your working situation means you'd never have to give up any of your goals. And second, do you really think he'll have to make a choice between Flint, MI and Biloxi, MS? Be more open minded. Wait.
|
You need to have this conversation and you need to have it at every crossroad. If you’re in a healthy relationship, it will be fine, if hard, to discuss these things. If your boyfriend becomes completely unreasonable, that’s a sign of egotistical behaviour that will just become worse and worse the older and more invested you both get in your respective worldviews. So this conversation - now - is very, very important for the future of your relationship. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being the “trailing partner”. I’m kind of one myself. My husband has a high paying STEM job which is very geography dependent. That’s why we live where we live. Moving here in my early 20s made it impossible for me to get a masters, for example. (There were no online options back in the day…) So that’s why I’m doing one now instead. The job market where we are living has always been amazing for his career. Definitely not amazing for mine, although I’ve been steadily employed at an average salary for 20 years, so it’s fine. However, I’m happy with it, and has always been, because it has been beneficial for our household to have his income plus mine. I also enjoy our life here. It feels like home. But was it my first choice back then? Definitely no. It took some time getting used to. We did spend a couple of years abroad for his work when the kids were little. That was nice, as he made really good money and we got to experience living in a different country, a place that had been my dream for a long time. However I did not work when we were there, and I’ve said that that will simply never happen again. I don’t care how great it may be for his career or his job or his personal experience, I’m never going into expat wife life again if I can avoid it. It was great since we had 3 kids in 3 years and I was absolutely DEAD from all of that (I worked full time), but 2 years was pleeeenty. Now the kids are teens, and I wouldn’t know what to do with myself. We still have these conversations as we are interested in moving abroad again at some point. We have 4 citizenships between us, so we have plenty of realistic options. However it always comes down to what we both want. Right now there are a couple of countries that seem interesting (we refuse going to non-democracies). But the one job for the one person is never enough to make a decision that involves the lives of both of us (as well as our kids). So make sure you get into the habit of having these conversations and be firm of what’s negotiable and non-negotiable for you. His career is not your career.
| 0 | 10,187 | 1.5 |
xgvj46
|
askacademia_train
| 0.98 |
Did any other academics end up taking a more blue-collar career path? I graduated from university with a major in Political Science and a minor in History. I do a lot of work as a Tutor (about 10-40 hours a week, depending on the season and how busy I am with other work) and also occasionally write articles. However, while going to school, I worked in construction to help pay the bills. Even after I graduated, I continued to do a lot of construction work and started my own business (and for the right price, occasionally still help out other companies as well, for the right price). I particularly do a lot of roofing, concrete work, and landscaping. Some people are surprised when they learn about my educational background. While my background helps me get a lot of work during the off-season, the bulk of my income remains from construction work. While I don't really mind the desk work, I love construction because it helps me burn off energy, makes me feel like I'm contributing to society, and keeps me in shape.
|
ioubmlm
|
iou69am
| 1,663,447,624 | 1,663,445,287 | 147 | 78 |
I have family that uses a HVAC repair guy that is also a tenured biology professor and does AC work on the side.
|
Abe Tesser is one of the more renowned social psychologists in the world, but when he retired from academia, he went into woodworking. And, OMG, is he good at it. https://tesserfurniture.com/
| 1 | 2,337 | 1.884615 |
xgvj46
|
askacademia_train
| 0.98 |
Did any other academics end up taking a more blue-collar career path? I graduated from university with a major in Political Science and a minor in History. I do a lot of work as a Tutor (about 10-40 hours a week, depending on the season and how busy I am with other work) and also occasionally write articles. However, while going to school, I worked in construction to help pay the bills. Even after I graduated, I continued to do a lot of construction work and started my own business (and for the right price, occasionally still help out other companies as well, for the right price). I particularly do a lot of roofing, concrete work, and landscaping. Some people are surprised when they learn about my educational background. While my background helps me get a lot of work during the off-season, the bulk of my income remains from construction work. While I don't really mind the desk work, I love construction because it helps me burn off energy, makes me feel like I'm contributing to society, and keeps me in shape.
|
ioub5x4
|
ioubmlm
| 1,663,447,423 | 1,663,447,624 | 48 | 147 |
I know a humanities professor who is also a long-haul trucker. He spends summers on the road. Another I know owns a tree farm and does 95% of the work there himself, but that's arguably a hobby.
|
I have family that uses a HVAC repair guy that is also a tenured biology professor and does AC work on the side.
| 0 | 201 | 3.0625 |
xgvj46
|
askacademia_train
| 0.98 |
Did any other academics end up taking a more blue-collar career path? I graduated from university with a major in Political Science and a minor in History. I do a lot of work as a Tutor (about 10-40 hours a week, depending on the season and how busy I am with other work) and also occasionally write articles. However, while going to school, I worked in construction to help pay the bills. Even after I graduated, I continued to do a lot of construction work and started my own business (and for the right price, occasionally still help out other companies as well, for the right price). I particularly do a lot of roofing, concrete work, and landscaping. Some people are surprised when they learn about my educational background. While my background helps me get a lot of work during the off-season, the bulk of my income remains from construction work. While I don't really mind the desk work, I love construction because it helps me burn off energy, makes me feel like I'm contributing to society, and keeps me in shape.
|
iou94ty
|
ioubmlm
| 1,663,446,539 | 1,663,447,624 | 41 | 147 |
I know an anthropologist who quit the biz, got a nursing degree, and is now very happy working as a nurse.
|
I have family that uses a HVAC repair guy that is also a tenured biology professor and does AC work on the side.
| 0 | 1,085 | 3.585366 |
xgvj46
|
askacademia_train
| 0.98 |
Did any other academics end up taking a more blue-collar career path? I graduated from university with a major in Political Science and a minor in History. I do a lot of work as a Tutor (about 10-40 hours a week, depending on the season and how busy I am with other work) and also occasionally write articles. However, while going to school, I worked in construction to help pay the bills. Even after I graduated, I continued to do a lot of construction work and started my own business (and for the right price, occasionally still help out other companies as well, for the right price). I particularly do a lot of roofing, concrete work, and landscaping. Some people are surprised when they learn about my educational background. While my background helps me get a lot of work during the off-season, the bulk of my income remains from construction work. While I don't really mind the desk work, I love construction because it helps me burn off energy, makes me feel like I'm contributing to society, and keeps me in shape.
|
iou94ty
|
ioub5x4
| 1,663,446,539 | 1,663,447,423 | 41 | 48 |
I know an anthropologist who quit the biz, got a nursing degree, and is now very happy working as a nurse.
|
I know a humanities professor who is also a long-haul trucker. He spends summers on the road. Another I know owns a tree farm and does 95% of the work there himself, but that's arguably a hobby.
| 0 | 884 | 1.170732 |
xgvj46
|
askacademia_train
| 0.98 |
Did any other academics end up taking a more blue-collar career path? I graduated from university with a major in Political Science and a minor in History. I do a lot of work as a Tutor (about 10-40 hours a week, depending on the season and how busy I am with other work) and also occasionally write articles. However, while going to school, I worked in construction to help pay the bills. Even after I graduated, I continued to do a lot of construction work and started my own business (and for the right price, occasionally still help out other companies as well, for the right price). I particularly do a lot of roofing, concrete work, and landscaping. Some people are surprised when they learn about my educational background. While my background helps me get a lot of work during the off-season, the bulk of my income remains from construction work. While I don't really mind the desk work, I love construction because it helps me burn off energy, makes me feel like I'm contributing to society, and keeps me in shape.
|
iouq7sv
|
iovdnam
| 1,663,454,011 | 1,663,465,042 | 23 | 37 |
A bud of mine quit their promising academic career and became a carpenter. Is very happy with their decision by the sounds!
|
Linguistics major. I had a tech career by accident. Now I'm a distiller. So, yes.
| 0 | 11,031 | 1.608696 |
xgvj46
|
askacademia_train
| 0.98 |
Did any other academics end up taking a more blue-collar career path? I graduated from university with a major in Political Science and a minor in History. I do a lot of work as a Tutor (about 10-40 hours a week, depending on the season and how busy I am with other work) and also occasionally write articles. However, while going to school, I worked in construction to help pay the bills. Even after I graduated, I continued to do a lot of construction work and started my own business (and for the right price, occasionally still help out other companies as well, for the right price). I particularly do a lot of roofing, concrete work, and landscaping. Some people are surprised when they learn about my educational background. While my background helps me get a lot of work during the off-season, the bulk of my income remains from construction work. While I don't really mind the desk work, I love construction because it helps me burn off energy, makes me feel like I'm contributing to society, and keeps me in shape.
|
iov070c
|
iovdnam
| 1,663,458,667 | 1,663,465,042 | 10 | 37 |
Yep, me. After having two degrees (programming and poltical science) and then working in those careers, I opted to leave them and do business development and be less stressed and more happy.
|
Linguistics major. I had a tech career by accident. Now I'm a distiller. So, yes.
| 0 | 6,375 | 3.7 |
xgvj46
|
askacademia_train
| 0.98 |
Did any other academics end up taking a more blue-collar career path? I graduated from university with a major in Political Science and a minor in History. I do a lot of work as a Tutor (about 10-40 hours a week, depending on the season and how busy I am with other work) and also occasionally write articles. However, while going to school, I worked in construction to help pay the bills. Even after I graduated, I continued to do a lot of construction work and started my own business (and for the right price, occasionally still help out other companies as well, for the right price). I particularly do a lot of roofing, concrete work, and landscaping. Some people are surprised when they learn about my educational background. While my background helps me get a lot of work during the off-season, the bulk of my income remains from construction work. While I don't really mind the desk work, I love construction because it helps me burn off energy, makes me feel like I'm contributing to society, and keeps me in shape.
|
ioumpb6
|
iovdnam
| 1,663,452,436 | 1,663,465,042 | 11 | 37 |
A colleague worked as a contractor between undergrad and grad school. It's great to say 'Hey Paul, can you give me a hand with a thing?' Also Paul rocks...
|
Linguistics major. I had a tech career by accident. Now I'm a distiller. So, yes.
| 0 | 12,606 | 3.363636 |
xgvj46
|
askacademia_train
| 0.98 |
Did any other academics end up taking a more blue-collar career path? I graduated from university with a major in Political Science and a minor in History. I do a lot of work as a Tutor (about 10-40 hours a week, depending on the season and how busy I am with other work) and also occasionally write articles. However, while going to school, I worked in construction to help pay the bills. Even after I graduated, I continued to do a lot of construction work and started my own business (and for the right price, occasionally still help out other companies as well, for the right price). I particularly do a lot of roofing, concrete work, and landscaping. Some people are surprised when they learn about my educational background. While my background helps me get a lot of work during the off-season, the bulk of my income remains from construction work. While I don't really mind the desk work, I love construction because it helps me burn off energy, makes me feel like I'm contributing to society, and keeps me in shape.
|
iov4zte
|
iovdnam
| 1,663,460,949 | 1,663,465,042 | 8 | 37 |
What's a good career for a chap with a bone spur, meaning I suffer severe pain in my foot, and can't walk long distances? Currently I'm a housekeeper at a hospital. I'm considering nursing or radiology, but those entail years of college. Would I be better off getting a business cert?
|
Linguistics major. I had a tech career by accident. Now I'm a distiller. So, yes.
| 0 | 4,093 | 4.625 |
xgvj46
|
askacademia_train
| 0.98 |
Did any other academics end up taking a more blue-collar career path? I graduated from university with a major in Political Science and a minor in History. I do a lot of work as a Tutor (about 10-40 hours a week, depending on the season and how busy I am with other work) and also occasionally write articles. However, while going to school, I worked in construction to help pay the bills. Even after I graduated, I continued to do a lot of construction work and started my own business (and for the right price, occasionally still help out other companies as well, for the right price). I particularly do a lot of roofing, concrete work, and landscaping. Some people are surprised when they learn about my educational background. While my background helps me get a lot of work during the off-season, the bulk of my income remains from construction work. While I don't really mind the desk work, I love construction because it helps me burn off energy, makes me feel like I'm contributing to society, and keeps me in shape.
|
ioumpb6
|
iouq7sv
| 1,663,452,436 | 1,663,454,011 | 11 | 23 |
A colleague worked as a contractor between undergrad and grad school. It's great to say 'Hey Paul, can you give me a hand with a thing?' Also Paul rocks...
|
A bud of mine quit their promising academic career and became a carpenter. Is very happy with their decision by the sounds!
| 0 | 1,575 | 2.090909 |
xgvj46
|
askacademia_train
| 0.98 |
Did any other academics end up taking a more blue-collar career path? I graduated from university with a major in Political Science and a minor in History. I do a lot of work as a Tutor (about 10-40 hours a week, depending on the season and how busy I am with other work) and also occasionally write articles. However, while going to school, I worked in construction to help pay the bills. Even after I graduated, I continued to do a lot of construction work and started my own business (and for the right price, occasionally still help out other companies as well, for the right price). I particularly do a lot of roofing, concrete work, and landscaping. Some people are surprised when they learn about my educational background. While my background helps me get a lot of work during the off-season, the bulk of my income remains from construction work. While I don't really mind the desk work, I love construction because it helps me burn off energy, makes me feel like I'm contributing to society, and keeps me in shape.
|
iovlib0
|
iowwv58
| 1,663,468,814 | 1,663,500,608 | 5 | 7 |
I don't know anybody who actually does this, but one of my labmates used to work in construction and his ultimate goal is running a machine shop, so you're not alone.
|
My brother! A philosophy major, one of the smartest guys I know, reads constantly... but is a carpenter. He loves the work, loves the human interaction (organizing projects, sourcing out used timber for eco projects, etc). Doesn't make a huge amount of money (he's a perfectionist, which clients love, but which cuts into his bottom line) but he makes enough, and is also one of the happiest guys I know. And he teaches classes and gives talks on the side, on various areas of expertise. (carpentry and not)
| 0 | 31,794 | 1.4 |
xgvj46
|
askacademia_train
| 0.98 |
Did any other academics end up taking a more blue-collar career path? I graduated from university with a major in Political Science and a minor in History. I do a lot of work as a Tutor (about 10-40 hours a week, depending on the season and how busy I am with other work) and also occasionally write articles. However, while going to school, I worked in construction to help pay the bills. Even after I graduated, I continued to do a lot of construction work and started my own business (and for the right price, occasionally still help out other companies as well, for the right price). I particularly do a lot of roofing, concrete work, and landscaping. Some people are surprised when they learn about my educational background. While my background helps me get a lot of work during the off-season, the bulk of my income remains from construction work. While I don't really mind the desk work, I love construction because it helps me burn off energy, makes me feel like I'm contributing to society, and keeps me in shape.
|
iowwv58
|
iovhgrb
| 1,663,500,608 | 1,663,466,852 | 7 | 3 |
My brother! A philosophy major, one of the smartest guys I know, reads constantly... but is a carpenter. He loves the work, loves the human interaction (organizing projects, sourcing out used timber for eco projects, etc). Doesn't make a huge amount of money (he's a perfectionist, which clients love, but which cuts into his bottom line) but he makes enough, and is also one of the happiest guys I know. And he teaches classes and gives talks on the side, on various areas of expertise. (carpentry and not)
|
I always say, if I ever leave politics, I'll go back into woodworking.
| 1 | 33,756 | 2.333333 |
xgvj46
|
askacademia_train
| 0.98 |
Did any other academics end up taking a more blue-collar career path? I graduated from university with a major in Political Science and a minor in History. I do a lot of work as a Tutor (about 10-40 hours a week, depending on the season and how busy I am with other work) and also occasionally write articles. However, while going to school, I worked in construction to help pay the bills. Even after I graduated, I continued to do a lot of construction work and started my own business (and for the right price, occasionally still help out other companies as well, for the right price). I particularly do a lot of roofing, concrete work, and landscaping. Some people are surprised when they learn about my educational background. While my background helps me get a lot of work during the off-season, the bulk of my income remains from construction work. While I don't really mind the desk work, I love construction because it helps me burn off energy, makes me feel like I'm contributing to society, and keeps me in shape.
|
iow0rip
|
iowwv58
| 1,663,477,286 | 1,663,500,608 | 2 | 7 |
Will be starting Grad school soon. Background in politics but currently working in IT lol
|
My brother! A philosophy major, one of the smartest guys I know, reads constantly... but is a carpenter. He loves the work, loves the human interaction (organizing projects, sourcing out used timber for eco projects, etc). Doesn't make a huge amount of money (he's a perfectionist, which clients love, but which cuts into his bottom line) but he makes enough, and is also one of the happiest guys I know. And he teaches classes and gives talks on the side, on various areas of expertise. (carpentry and not)
| 0 | 23,322 | 3.5 |
xgvj46
|
askacademia_train
| 0.98 |
Did any other academics end up taking a more blue-collar career path? I graduated from university with a major in Political Science and a minor in History. I do a lot of work as a Tutor (about 10-40 hours a week, depending on the season and how busy I am with other work) and also occasionally write articles. However, while going to school, I worked in construction to help pay the bills. Even after I graduated, I continued to do a lot of construction work and started my own business (and for the right price, occasionally still help out other companies as well, for the right price). I particularly do a lot of roofing, concrete work, and landscaping. Some people are surprised when they learn about my educational background. While my background helps me get a lot of work during the off-season, the bulk of my income remains from construction work. While I don't really mind the desk work, I love construction because it helps me burn off energy, makes me feel like I'm contributing to society, and keeps me in shape.
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iovlib0
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ioxd4in
| 1,663,468,814 | 1,663,508,909 | 5 | 7 |
I don't know anybody who actually does this, but one of my labmates used to work in construction and his ultimate goal is running a machine shop, so you're not alone.
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I have a masters of fine arts and work as an art handler. Twice the money for half the work as adjuncting.
| 0 | 40,095 | 1.4 |
xgvj46
|
askacademia_train
| 0.98 |
Did any other academics end up taking a more blue-collar career path? I graduated from university with a major in Political Science and a minor in History. I do a lot of work as a Tutor (about 10-40 hours a week, depending on the season and how busy I am with other work) and also occasionally write articles. However, while going to school, I worked in construction to help pay the bills. Even after I graduated, I continued to do a lot of construction work and started my own business (and for the right price, occasionally still help out other companies as well, for the right price). I particularly do a lot of roofing, concrete work, and landscaping. Some people are surprised when they learn about my educational background. While my background helps me get a lot of work during the off-season, the bulk of my income remains from construction work. While I don't really mind the desk work, I love construction because it helps me burn off energy, makes me feel like I'm contributing to society, and keeps me in shape.
|
ioxd4in
|
iovhgrb
| 1,663,508,909 | 1,663,466,852 | 7 | 3 |
I have a masters of fine arts and work as an art handler. Twice the money for half the work as adjuncting.
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I always say, if I ever leave politics, I'll go back into woodworking.
| 1 | 42,057 | 2.333333 |
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