If you're thinking about going to grad school, you may not want to read this.
These days, there's plenty of gloom and doom about the prospects for a career in academia. And a vibrant debate online about whether it's really worth the time, effort and expense to get a graduate degree.
Which brings me to a blog I recently stumbled across: "100 Reasons NOT to go to Graduate School."
It was created, anonymously, by an obviously jaded soul who, I'm guessing, sorely regretted his or her decision to pursue a doctorate in … something.
The blog is clearly a work in progress — it was started in 2010, and so far there are only 91 reasons, which have slowly accumulated ever since.
The latest, posted in September, is: "Downward mobility is the norm."
"If you go to graduate school," it reads, "it is quite possible that you will experience this kind of economic downward mobility."
For generations, professors have had an enviable place in society. They could earn a healthy, if not extravagant, living by pursuing knowledge and sharing it with others, and still get summers off.