The Post Academic Survival Guide to Grad School: Your summer SAT prep and study center job
Since Caroline has been covering been covering the topic of part-time work the last few days and also because you probably can’t freeload your way through summer, it’s probably timely to discuss SAT and other tutoring jobs that might be available for the taking. Mind you, Caroline and I were lucky when we did our summer part-time study center gigs, because there are tons of opportunities for this sort of thing in Southern California, partly due to Asian ethnic communities that have transplanted the study center ethos from their home countries here. (If you think Kaplan and Princeton Review are anti-intellectual factories, they ain’t got nothing on the study centers in Taiwan, where your college future hinges on a single standardized test!)
Here are some tips about finding study center work and how to make the most of it (i.e., how to cut corners so that you’ll be able to use the summer to study for your qualifying exams or work on your dissertation).
1. How to find a job: Word of mouth usually works well in these cases, so ask your friends (as Caroline has suggested) and check your department listservs for summer job possibilities. Also, look for study centers that aren’t just the big chains you’ve heard of, although indie operations might be harder to find in non-urban areas. This where getting your M.A. or Ph.D. makes you an appealing candidate, since it’s more than likely you’re at a good or the only research institution in your area. Study centers like to boast that they have teachers from Ivy-like schools, top-notch public universities, or colleges their students would like to attend, because they assume you can magically make that happen for them too. Also, don’t think that positions are limited to SAT or achievement tests or AP classes: some “learning centers” offer courses all the way down to middle-school standardized tests, which I tended to choose because I didn’t need the stress of making sure high-schoolers got the SAT score they wanted.
2. What to expect: Academic purity trolls need not apply here, since this is a crass money-making enterprise mostly for the study centers and for you too. Whatever class you take, be forewarned that, in almost all cases, you are just a glorified test-cramming baby sitter, especially if you are actually teaching young kids who are really going to the equivalent of day care. But sometimes, it’s not so bad–like your college students, you’ll find some kids who are really smart, motivated, and that you’re happy to invest your time/energy in. And because it’s hard to care that much about a summer job, the smart alecks are a lot funnier at this stage than they will be a few years later messing up the dynamic of your comp section.
As for pay, I got $20-$25/hr for my starting rate, though it goes up the longer you teach and also with the level of class you’re assigned. The hard-core SAT classes for the tip-top students will offer a higher rate. I’ve heard private tutors in big metropolitan areas can get up to triple-digits an hour and some folks who basically work full-time can get paid more than a TA salary, but that might more of a commitment than most grad students are looking for.
More after the jump… (more…)
How to Make the Most of Working Part-Time in Grad School
If you’re planning on going to grad school, unless you’ve been blessed with some incredible funding, you should plan on taking a part-time job. In most cases, having a part-time job is pure goodness: You avoid going into debt, and you’re building up extra skills in case you have trouble getting an academic job. We gave you some tips on good part-time job options, but what happens once you get the job? As long as you follow these three tips, you can get the most out of your side gig:
Ask people in your program what they’re doing first. You’ll save time and get a crash course in networking if you use your fellow grad students as a resource. They’ll know who is hiring and might be able to refer you.
Choose a job that complements your grad school work, if possible. It all depends on what you’re studying, but the ideal job suits your current skills while letting you build new ones. For example, teaching an SAT course can help new teachers polish their classroom skills. Or, building Web sites on the side can help you prepare interactive classroom materials.
Avoid taking on too many hours. If your boss likes you so much that she offers you more hours, you are already doing something right. But don’t immediately say yes. Check your budget first because you want to avoid debt, but you also don’t want to cut into the time you need to finish your graduate degree on time. Your degree should always come first.
Image from the German Federal Archive under a Creative Commons License, Wikimedia Commons.
Last Week on Post Academic (4/18-4/24)
Thanks, new and loyal readers, for bringing more traffic to the blog than ever this week–and by a wide margin! A lot of it had to do with Caroline’s wonderful interview posts with Adam Ruben for his book Surviving Your Stupid Stupid Decision to Go to Grad School. We had a whole lot of other stuff going on here as well last week, and here are some of our picks to click that might have been lost in the shuffle:
* In the spirit of Adam’s book, we looked into ways grad students can persevere the average 9.3 years they spend (trying) to get their Ph.Ds. Caroline wrote about how to improve grad student-faculty relationships and the kinds of part-time work grad students can find to make ends meet. Arnold provided some advice on more shifty ways to subsist through freeloading.
* Some more practical, concrete help to improve the grad school experience would help, though. Arnold found some possible solutions to the latest, greatest crisis in graduate education.
* Try typing “grad students” into a Google search and submitting a thesis topic to the new site IsMyThesisHotorNot.com, and see what you come up with!
* And please be a part of the Post Academic social networking experience by “fanning” us on Facebook page and following our Tweets. You can join up by pressing the virtual buttons in the right column. Or you can just drop us an old-school email–our address is in the right-hand column as well–to give us your suggestions for story ideas, more interesting interview subjects, and whatever else you feel like.
Footnotes, celebrity edition
Lindsay Lohan mugshot (public domain)
Our irregularly recurring “Footnotes” feature pops up every once in a while on a weekend to collect some stories floating around online that may or may not be directly relevant to academia, but that are kind-of entertaining and maybe even interesting. This time around, we have some tidbits about celebrities.
1. Even fake grad students are having a hard time finding work: So according to TMZ, Lindsay Lohan was supposed to star in a role as a graduate student in a film titled The Other Side–until she was fired for not being a “bankable” enough star. You know what else isn’t bankable? The premise of the film, which was apparently about a “grad student working on a deserted island.” Hey, if Lindsay Lohan could pull off playing a grad student of any type, maybe she’d be a better actor than she’s given credit for. (h/t to reader Patty)
2. Maybe Lindsay Lohan would be better off as a the subject of grad student research–like Lady Gaga!: Let us introduce you to “Gaga Stigmata: Critical Writings and Art about Lady Gaga”, an e-journal/blog about Material Girl 2.0. ”Gaga Stigmata” describes itself as a “a new technological breed of journal that intends to take seriously the brazenly unserious shock pop phenomenon and fame monster known as Lady Gaga”, with a goal of producing a collection of published writing on the topic. We’ve discussed the frustrations associated with the conventional means of publishing academic research, from the limited opportunities for young scholars to the timeliness of research to what we call the time-lag problem, so, hey, more power to “Gaga Stigmata.”
"Lady Gaga and Monster announce Project RED Heartbeats" by Domain Barnyard from Wikipedia Commons (Creative Commons)
3. Celebrity commencement speakers, coming to a campus near you: At this time of year, you might be just as likely to see a celebrity on campus giving a commencement speech as you are tracking one on the Gawker Stalker. Some celeb speakers include Meryl Streep at Barnard, Alec Baldwin at NYU, Anderson Cooper at Tulane, and Vassar ’85 alum Lisa Kudrow at her alma mater. For a more comprehensive list of commencement speakers, celeb or otherwise, go to this College Confidential forum.
McSweeney’s feels y/our pain, too!
If you see a posting on the McSweeney’s online annex described as a “A GREAT JOB OPPORTUNITY”, you’ve gotta jump on it, huh? So what if it’s an unpaid internship and asks for 80 hours a week, with hours during weekends and holidays, you know you’ll have to pay your dues if you want to get your foot in the door in the media business, right? Then look at the “requirements” and “education” requested for the position–uh oh, it might be one of the few positions your average Ph.D. isn’t overqualified for. Check out some of these nuggets:
• At least three years working at a print publication. Celebrity weekly preferred, but not required. Senior writing position at the New York Times and/or Us Weekly, a plus.
• HTML experience REQUIRED. Candidate will be expected to write and post eight-to-ten 2000 word articles per day for our online site, including weekends and ALL major holidays. (Hey, not even Post Academic can work at this rate!)
• Ideal candidate should also be able impress executives with his/her ability to expertly handle company’s espresso machine. (Guess they missed Caroline’s memo banning the connection between grad students and coffee jockeys.)
And the kicker…
• Bachelor degrees in communication, new media AND political science required. Masters Degree in Filmmaking preferred. PH.D in Journalism, a plus. Candidates with a law degree will be given special consideration. (Maybe they’ll take a Ph.D. in English or History, instead? Maybe?)
Oh, so the whole thing is a joke, isn’t it? The sad thing is, the “Great Job Opportunity!” doesn’t read *so* much like a hyperbolic parody these days…
“A Great Job Opportunity!” by Kristina Loew [McSweeney's]
“Howling Mad” Murdock Was Totally a Liberal Arts Grad Student
So McSweeney’s has had a field day with liberal arts majors lately, and a recent satire re-imagines the stock “Team Assembly” scene so popular in action flicks. Usually, action-movie “Team Assembly” involves gathering individuals with special skills that are deployed at just the right time. Blame the “Seven Samurai” for this plot.
Every action-movie team has the brains, the muscle, the sex magnet, the leader … and of course the Batsh*t Insane one. For you pop-culture buffs, that’s “Howling Mad” Murdock from the “A Team.”
Well, who better to be the crazy person on a team than a liberal arts major? Who else is more nuts than that? The “team leader” in Michael Lacher’s satire says,
Your midterm paper on the semiotics of Band of Outsiders turned a lot of heads at mission control. Your performance in Biology For Non-Science Majors was impressive, matched only by your mastery of second-year Portuguese. And a lot of the research we do here couldn’t have happened without your groundbreaking work on suburban malaise and its representation and repression in John Hughes’ films.
Yup. That’s a sign of a nutty mo-fo who has just the right spirit to lead a team into workplace battle. Remember that, hiring managers. Don’t dismiss the resume of a liberal arts major. You might just need a crazy visionary on your team some day.
The Only Thing That Can Stop This Asteroid Is Your Liberal Arts Degree [McSweeney’s]
Image of A Team van graffiti by Hannu from Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Part-Time Job Ideas for Grad Students
Having a part-time job as a grad student can help you in several ways. First, you make a little side cash so you don’t have to live off Ramen noodles. Second, you can learn skills outside of academia that you can apply later on. Here are a few ideas that I’ve actually done:
1. Catering
Pros: Fairly easy work if you don’t mind heavy lifting, and the hours are flexible. Good tips most of the time. Leftovers.
Cons: The occasional bad tipper. Drunk guys patting your butt. Smelling like BBQ for weeks after an assignment.
2. Teaching SAT/PSAT/Etc.
Pros: Good pay. Low amount of prep since the teaching is cut-and-dried.
Cons: Not much room for creativity. Overambitious students whose mantra is “Harvard or Die!”
3. Freelance Editing and Copywriting
Pros: Many people automatically think your grammar is awesome if you tell them you grade papers. You gain experience with client management.
Cons: Some of your buyers are deadbeats. (To handle these people, visit our article “Kneecapping 101.”)
4. Programming and Computer Repair
Pros: Once you know how to fix someone’s computer problem (hint: it usually involves a reboot), you can charge more than you would for editing. Departments will want to hire you because you can fix their busted home page.
Cons: Not all clients understand the amount of work required. You might not have time to keep up with the latest technology.
5. Donating Plasma
Pros: Minimal effort required. The Red Cross will let you watch movies while you do it.
Cons: You don’t learn any new skills. Feeling like a desperate undergrad who needs beer money.
Any other ideas you’d like to contribute?
Image of woman in Esso office in Baton Rouge in 1950 public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Another book Post Academic likes: So What Are You Going to Do with That?
Since we’re on the topic of post-academic books, it’s probably a good time to tout So What Are You Going to Do with That?, a helpful how-to guide for Ph.D.s interested in transitioning from academia to the hamster world, whether willingly or not. It’s usually the first title mentioned when Ph.D.s and ABDs ask about what options are out there for them and don’t know where or how to start looking.
Written by two Princeton lit Ph.D.s, Susan Basalla and Maggie Debelius, the book can be read either as a practical toolkit that provides the nuts-and-bolts on how to rethink your professional life or as a collection of narratives about experiences your peers have had going through what you’re going through now. And don’t worry that the book takes a sappy self-help approach to career advice, because it’s written in a smart, conversational, and casual way that’s neither rah-rah nor an invite to a pity party. However you like your advice, it’s going to help you brainstorm and give you ideas about career paths you might not have considered.
More about the book, after the jump…
Interview With Adam Ruben, Author of Surviving Your Stupid Stupid Decision to Go to Graduate School: Part 2
Yesterday, PhD, comedian, and recovering grad student Adam Ruben, author of “Surviving Your Stupid Stupid Decision to Go to Graduate School,” answered our questions about how grad students can stay sane in their programs. Today’s questions focus on what happens after the program, specifically on how Ruben got his book published and on why he decided not to become a professor after earning his degree.
1. Your bio says how popular your stand-up comedy classes were at Johns Hopkins. Did your advisors or your grad school peers ever catch your show? What did they think? Was anyone offended, and how did you get around it?
Some of my grad school friends did attend the final show for the stand-up comedy class I taught, but that show mostly consisted of performances from the students in the class, not me. For other on-campus shows that peers and advisors might see (though I don’t think my advisor ever saw a show), I made sure that the things I made fun of were more universal and didn’t pick on anyone in particular. For example, I talked about the difference between conceptions of science when you’re in grade school (You get to make a volcano out of baking soda and vinegar!) and in grad school (You move small amounts of liquid from one place to another) and why such a large percentage of the students’ lab reports included the sentence “Overall, this lab was a success” even though they didn’t understand anything in the lab. Actually, I’ve never really offended anyone with stand-up, though I did get a few angry letters when I edited the grad student newspaper and introduced columns like “Undergrads Say the Darndest Things.” Some people didn’t like that.
2. Obviously, you have made the move from academia to the working world. We were wondering a) how did you launch your stand-up career and b) how did you land a book contract?
I began doing stand-up in college, and I started performing in the real world when I started grad school. A couple of comedy clubs in Baltimore had open mic nights, and I’d perform there when I could–and I’d meet other comedians, and some of them told me about other clubs, and things kind of grew from there.
As for the book contract, I was writing some freelance pieces for National Lampoon, and one day they contacted all of their writers to see if any of them would be interested in submitting book proposals. I came up with the idea for this book, and I wrote up the proposal, and they promptly rejected it, since grad students weren’t exactly National Lampoon’s demographic. So since I had the proposal anyway, I started sending it to literary agents. The most common response I got was, “I love it! I don’t want it!” Apparently it’s not a good idea to try selling a book to people who are notoriously cash-strapped. But a couple were interested, and I signed with Laurie Abkemeier at Defiore & Co., and she sent the proposal around to publishers. The process began again, and I received lots of very polite rejections, all claiming that impoverished grad students won’t buy books. Broadway Books turned out to be interested, though, which was great news.
More after the jump! Image of Adam Ruben courtesy of Broadway Books/Crown Publishing. (more…)
The Post Academic Survival Guide to Grad School: Freeloading and living on the cheap (with poll)
Piggybacking on Caroline’s wonderful interview with Adam Ruben about his book, Surviving Your Stupid Stupid Decision to Go to Grad School, we wanted to offer our own little survival guide. Today’s topic is freeloading, and how to make the most of stuff you can get for nothing or close to it because that’s what you’re getting paid. Maybe we should add the freeloader to the grad student personality types we’ve mentioned here and here…
1. Food: Getting free food is a good place to start, since it’s still somewhat common even with budget cuts hitting schools everywhere. Usually, the price of admission is only your time and maybe a little bit of your attention. And since events supplemented with food usually take place during times when people aren’t teaching or going to class, there’s a good chance that they will coincide with lunch time or a nice afternoon snack. I’ve been to events that have offered trendy vegan sandwiches, Vietnamese subs, all sorts of pizza, and even a taco buffet. At the very least, you’ll score some cookies or a fruit-cheese platter, and coffee. Keep an eye out, especially, for anything that a Dean organizes or a beginning/end of the year departmental open houses, where they know food is a way to fill seats. Also, student recruitment events are a good bet for good food. But be forewarned that everyone else knows this too, so show up a little early if you want enough to eat.
More free stuff below the jump!…
