Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be PhD Students

by Stuart Shapiro

When a student makes the mistake of asking me whether they should get a doctorate, I close the door and put on my most serious tone of voice.  After discussing the horrible academic  job market and the trend in academia toward hiring adjunct professors, I try to steer them back toward the real world.  Well I just got some news that will help me in these discussions:

The number of PhD recipients on food stamps and other forms of welfare more than tripled between 2007 and 2010 to 33,655, according to an Urban Institute analysis cited by the Chronicle of Higher Education. The number of master’s degree holders on food stamps and other forms of welfare nearly tripled during that same time period to 293,029, according to the same analysis.

While this reflects the economy as a whole, it is also indicative of the fate of doctoral education.  Too many students and not enough jobs.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.