Thursday, January 11, 2007

I'm Done!!!

Now all I have to do is sit back and wait for the rejection letters to roll in.

10 comments:

Shmuli said...

How many places did you guys apply to? In Rachel's job search, she (and I assume most other new PHD's) just mail merged and applied to pretty much every university that advertised an opening. Unfortunately, neither SUNY Buffalo or University of Georgia seem to have had any openings this year. Rachel did have a preliminary interview with SUNY Stony Brook, though. In truth, our real preference had been to stay in the Chicago area, but the only schools in the Chicago area with openings this year were UofC and Northwestern, neither of whom gave Rachel an interview. In terms of family, the best place after Chicago would be Israel, but it seems Rachel would have to take a pay cut in moving from GSB grad student to new econ prof in Israel.

Zev said...

9. It is a very taxing process. You are required to tell everyone why you love them best. I don't love anyone best, I don't know anyone. I do love school, though.

Rachel will do just fine. It might take a shot or two, but that is how these things work, from what I hear. Lobbying with the better departments seems to work as well.

Israel is a terribly difficult place to be a professor, but if you wind up there, just ask Yehuda about getting grants, he seems to know about those things.

jacob said...

"Rachel would have to take a pay cut in moving from GSB grad student to new econ prof in Israel."

Is this a comment on the largesse of American Academia or a comment on the sad state of Israeli socialism?

Yehuda said...

As someone with two academic parents, I can attest to "Academic Largesse". The way things are going, in the not so distant future an academic salary may not be enough to send the children of academics to private universities.

Josh M. said...

As someone with two academic parents, I can attest to "Academic Largesse". The way things are going, in the not so distant future an academic salary may not be enough to send the children of academics to private universities.

Interesting. I suppose there are a lot of fields in which the people producing the product get a small enough piece of the pie that they can't afford to purchase the final good (trained craftsmen who work for BMW?).

Where exactly is the money going, though? I know the administrators make enormous amounts of money, and universities have to also employ numerous people who are directly connected to money to the extent that they justify their large salaries (fundraisers, lawyers, PR), but does that account for such a large amount of money that the professors become squeezed out?

Oh, and I applied to 9 schools (in engineering). I customized each essay by describing how the research of 1 or 2 professors at a their greatly interested me (this was easier for some schools than for others).

Shmuli said...

"Is this a comment on the largesse of American Academia or a comment on the sad state of Israeli socialism?"

I would have to say the answer is Israeli socialism. Part of the reason for the great difference in pay between American econ profs and Israeli ones is that Israeli schools pay as if Econ people are only as valuable as philosophy people. Of course, as we all know, economists have much greater economic and moral worth.

"The way things are going, in the not so distant future an academic salary may not be enough to send the children of academics to private universities."

God forbid, some children of academics may be forced to take out student loans.

Zev said...

Shmuli, I think you and I had a form of this conversation a while back. If really smart and talented people are willing to trade salary for job security and summers off, the market will reflect that.

Shmuli said...

Zev- I'm confused. Are you bringing this up to explain the disparity between American and Israeli econ faculty salaries (i.e. Israeli profs work much less than American profs)? Alternatively, are you explaining the disparity between American econ faculty and American philosophy faculty (i.e. philosophy profs work much less than econ profs)?

Yehuda said...

Oooooh, I'm Shmuli. My wife does alot of work . . . .

Shmuli said...

Yehuda- Actually Rachel and I have a pretty equitable arrangement. She pretends to work and I pretend to take care of the children. Of course, she's still a grad student.