![]() ![]() Advisers and students are increasingly turning to private companies to help them manage the growing volume of documents. The escalating number of job applications submitted by many Ph.D.'s is making it difficult for advisers to keep up with writing reference letters. In the 2012 hiring season, applicants for faculty positions at some art programs, like Colorado State’s and Temple University’s Tyler School of Art, were charged fees of $10 to $15 to transmit digital files of their creative materials through SlideRoom, a virtual art portal that the institutions insisted candidates use. Old costs, like those for conferences, are compounding, while the costs of new products, services, and fees are adding up. “The difference today is that you might do it for three or four cycles instead of one.” A $6 E-Mail Feal, executive director of the Modern Language Association. “Applying for academic jobs has always been expensive,” says Rosemary G. “I feel exhausted,” she says, “and as though I am throwing money into a gigantic hole.” She doesn’t regret graduate school, she adds, but “my wallet and credit score regret it.” ![]() Finn, who has taught as an adjunct at three universities, is unemployed, still on the job market, and trying to keep up with her research. There has been no payoff in terms of offers of a tenure-track job, visiting-professor position, or postdoctoral fellowship. To date, she has spent $365 for the service to transmit her application materials to scores of institutions. Her tab also includes $39.90 to set up a three-year account with Interfolio, a popular online dossier-management service. She has paid for postage, transcripts, several years of graduate-student membership in the Modern Language Association, and costs associated with attending the group’s conferences four times. In that time she has applied for a total of 75 academic positions and spent more than $2,000. She has now been looking for a tenure-track job for four years. Finn first went on the market in 2009, a year before defending her dissertation, which she published as a book with Palgrave Macmillan last year. She didn’t expect to spend multiple years and thousands more dollars hunting for an academic job. from one of the world’s top universities would give her an edge. Once back home in the United States, she believed that having a Ph.D. So was the $100,000 in student-loan debt she’d accrued along the way. Finn’s sense of accomplishment was enormous. “I was on an awesome high,” she remembers.Īfter five years of work, which included the publication of a book chapter and a contract for another before graduation, Ms. Her adviser took her to a fancy cafe for a toast, and she spent the evening drinking cocktails with friends. in English literature from the University of Oxford. Finn, who on a cold, wet afternoon in December 2010 successfully defended her dissertation on representations of powerful British queens, securing her Ph.D. Graduates’ costs are growing, too, as they stay on the market longer.Ĭonsider Kavita M. But now their job-hunting tabs also include the cost of new services, like digital storage for recommendation letters, research statements, and other documents. New Ph.D.'s have long had to set aside money to mail applications and travel to scholarly conferences. But earning the top graduate degree doesn’t mean their spending has come to an end.Īn industry designed to help aspiring academics manage the job-application process and land tenure-track jobs is growing, and reaping the benefits of a tight market in many disciplines. Ph.D.'s are used to shelling out tens of thousands of dollars in the name of education. ![]()
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