Grad school realization.

The further I get along in grad school, the more like I feel that I've been sold a bill of goods by the Humanities.

Since I've joined, the jobs in my area that were in seminaries have dried up due to the economy - a lot of those institutions are closing! - and since the economy froze up money in the system, people have been graduating and not getting jobs. 

Even with the one-year positions that were traditionally renewed for a 2nd or 3rd year or often turned into tenure-track jobs after they saw if they liked you, have become awful - a lot of people I know have gone to one with promises of more, and then towards spring at the last minute they don't renew the position, and people have to max out credit cards in order to move somewhere else.

And this is for graduates of the one of the best programs in the country!

The common denominator is that people have to be willing to take a *huge* financial risk and overwork for several years, or they have to have family money, or money or health insurance through a spouse.

In a way, it's almost like the internship stuff that's getting established elsewhere - you have to have money and sink a lot of your own money in, in order to have a fighting chance.

From everything I can see, the only reason people without money keep going into Humanities ph.d.s is that there's an information gap, and they don't *really* understand what their odds are.

A part of me wonders how many of the professors I've gotten encouragement to continue on from over the years really have family money, or graduated at a time that that doesn't matter.