Every time I encounter the Ph.D. snobbery so rampant in the pages of this publication and elsewhere in higher education, I’m reminded of an episode of my favorite old sitcom, Barney Miller, about a squad of misfit New York police detectives.
In this particular episode, the always debonair but financially challenged Detective Harris arrests a teenage drug dealer, who promptly begins bragging that he makes 10 times as much money as a police officer. Harris draws himself up with all the dignity he can muster and says to the kid, “That may be true, young man, but I have something you’ll never have.”
“Oh yeah?” scoffs the teen. “What’s that?”
“Credit,” Harris replies.
In the eyes of many academics, as my colleague Leonard Cassuto recently pointed out, I am considered a failure because I did not earn a doctorate. Meanwhile, American universities are awarding more doctorates than ever. And yet I have something most of those newly minted Ph.D.’s will never have: a full-time, tenured teaching job.
I don’t say that to brag or lord my good fortune over anyone. Believe me, I recognize it for what it is — good fortune — and I count my blessings every day. I’m just pointing out the irony.
Nor, to be clear, am I accusing Cassuto of snobbery. I understand that he was being ironic, too, when he referred to the master’s as a “cheap bauble for “‘quitters’” as well as “‘failures.’” His comment was about how the degree has come to be viewed — what he called its “respect problem” — and not a disparagement of people like me who have “only” master’s degrees. (Also, to be fair, I’ve gotten to know Cassuto professionally and have always found him to be gracious. A few years ago, he invited me to Fordham University to speak to graduate students about two-year college careers, which I greatly appreciated and thoroughly enjoyed. He ended up having to be out of town on the day I visited, so we’ve never actually met in person, but his colleagues and students were all equally gracious.)
In truth, I didn’t find much to disagree with in his essay. But I would like to offer a few observations from my side of the street, so to speak, while at the same time challenging some common misconceptions about master’s degrees and the people who hold those degrees.
Everybody has a master’s, right? I worked hard for my M.A. in English: two years’ worth of rigorous coursework (plus, in my case, another two years of doctoral courses); a 120-page thesis, which I had to defend; and a comprehensive oral exam, during which I was grilled by my committee over arcane tidbits of literary knowledge.
To some extent, then, I share Cassuto’s dismay over the fact that, nowadays, almost everybody seems to have a master’s. Apparently, some contemporary master’s programs (especially of the online variety) take just a year to complete and don’t require a thesis. I’m sometimes guilty of feeling like people who come out of those programs don’t really have the same degree I have, yet technically they do.
On the other hand, much the same could now be said of doctoral degrees. The prevalence of credential creep in American professional life — where everyone (and not just in higher education) feels like they have to get that next degree to get a raise or a promotion or just get ahead — has given rise to a whole new crop of doctorates in this or that. In fact, there are almost as many different types of doctoral degrees as there are types of master’s degrees — and some of them, if the banner ads are to be believed, are relatively easy to get, provided you can afford tuition.
Academe is not just for Ph.D.’s. Even though doctoral degrees are becoming more and more common, both on college campuses and elsewhere, most people who work in higher education don’t actually have one.
We all know, for instance, that part-time faculty members now comprise about half the professoriate. According to the American Association of University Professors, only 27 percent of part-timers have doctoral degrees. At two-year colleges, which represent about a third of the higher-education sector, only 11 percent of the part-time faculty and between 16 and 25 percent of full-time faculty (depending on which study you believe) hold doctorates. Even at less-selective four-year institutions, it’s not uncommon to see brag lines like “80 percent of our faculty have doctorates!” And then there are the myriad staff members in student services and other administrative offices, most of whom have only bachelor’s or master’s degrees.
Outside the Ivory Tower, at least, higher education is hardly the exclusive domain of Ph.D.s, and I think I speak for a lot of us M.A.s when I say I wish the Ph.D.s would stop acting like it is.
The master’s degree is a dead end. One of the points Cassuto touches on is that, in today’s market, the master’s (excluding professional ones) doesn’t necessarily lead to any particular job. In many cases, that’s true. But here’s a news flash: In today’s market, the Ph.D. doesn’t necessarily lead to any particular job, either.
Observing that it’s difficult to get a job with “just a master’s” is not the same as saying that you must therefore invest in a Ph.D. in order to find a job. First, as I just noted, having the Ph.D. is no guarantee of anything. In addition, the majority of two-year colleges around the country (remember, they make up about a third of all higher-education institutions) are still mostly hiring master’s-qualified candidates for faculty positions, even if they are hiring more Ph.D.s than in the past (because there are more of them to hire).
Is it easier to get a college teaching job with a doctorate than with just a master’s?
Probably. Marginally. But it also takes a lot longer and costs a lot more money. Staying to finish my doctoral program, instead of taking a full-time job when I did, would have cost me at least $100,000 in salary alone, not counting what I might have had to borrow. That’s money I would never have gotten back, and the long-term ramifications in terms of retirement contributions and percentage raises is incalculable.
That’s not to say people shouldn’t get a Ph.D. As I wrote on this site a couple years ago, I would advise anyone who wants to be a college professor — well, first, I would advise them not to, but then if they insist I would tell them to get a doctorate. The days when someone can have a career like I’ve had without a doctorate are probably in the past. But let’s dispense with the fiction that you have to have a Ph.D. to teach in college, or that only people with doctorates are “real” professors. Neither is true.
Not everybody wants a Ph.D. The fact is, far from being “quitters” who “washed out” of doctoral programs, many of us with “only” an M.A. have exactly the degree we need to do exactly what we want to do.
I left graduate school not because I couldn’t cut it (I did just fine in my coursework, thank you) but because I knew what I wanted to do: teach composition at a community college and maybe write on the side. I had the degree and training I needed, and I was offered a full-time, tenure-track job. I’ve never regretted my decision, and never felt either the need or the desire to “go back and finish.”
As far as I’m concerned, I did finish. I’m proud of my M.A., and the effort I put into earning it. I’m grateful for my graduate-school professors, who taught me so much that has turned out to be indispensable; for the doors my master’s has opened for me, in teaching and beyond; and for the long career I’ve been able to enjoy in my chosen profession.
I would hate to see graduate schools stop offering terminal master’s degrees for students who wish to pursue further study beyond the B.A. and seek an additional credential, but who have no interest in spending the time or expense required to earn a Ph.D. At the same time, I do wish some institutions would stop handing out M.A.s like lollipops to well-behaved children at the doctor’s office, thereby diminishing the value of the degree. I suspect many Ph.D.s these days feel the same way.
Most of all, I would like to see those in academe who hold doctorates recognize the contributions made by the rest of us. Only in a profession where people are constantly seeking reasons to look down their nose at others would earning a graduate degree of any kind be considered a “failure.” We’re not failures, nor are we quitters. We’re your colleagues — even if you have something we might never have (or want).
