Paths Toward Graduate Education and Career Opportunities
There are as many paths toward a Ph.D. as there are Ph.D. candidates.
- Inspirational college professors and early opportunities for undergraduate research may transform one undergraduate’s hazy and poorly understood career option into a much more definite and attractive goal.
- Another student may experience an awakening as a result of college courses in a field previously untouched in high school and may find that the subject is so personally compelling and intellectually challenging that it demands investigation and study to the deepest possible level.
- A third student’s early interest in a teaching career may be the foundation for a revised career goal as a college or university professor engaged in both research and teaching.
- Other students enter graduate school only after working for a while and discovering areas of innovative thinking or specific research problems they feel compelled to pursue.
A Commitment, not a Holding Pattern
Students considering embarking on the path toward a Ph.D. need clear objectives. An advanced degree requires a profound commitment and should not be regarded as a holding pattern until something better comes along. Undergraduates should apply for graduate school only when they are certain that they want to dedicate themselves to self-motivated inquiry in their chosen discipline.
For those aspiring to become college and university professors, there are additional considerations. Universities have become increasingly cautious about replacing faculty who leave or retire. While there will always be good positions for good people, it is also true that the search to land a good position can be prolonged.
Varieties of Job Opportunities
Highly qualified new Ph.D.’s commonly are hired as assistant professors in colleges in universities. (Although those with new degrees in the natural sciences are likely to take postdoctoral fellowship positions for two or three additional years of research training before applying for a faculty position in a research university).
Increasingly specialized high schools in the arts or in mathematics and the sciences are hiring new faculty with doctoral degrees to direct very talented students in composition, performance, or research projects.
Other career opportunities for those with doctoral degrees include:
- publishing companies and news organizations
- chemical and biotechnology companies
- government research institutes
- museums and other sites for informal education
- government organizations and firms that advise them
- foundations and other non-profit groups involved in higher education initiatives and social reform