A former graduate student in philosophy writes:
I am writing to you because you have appeared in the past--and in sharp contrast to many of your colleagues in the field-- to have at least some genuine concern for the well being of graduate students in philosophy. I have completed two masters degrees, a post-bac in classical studies and four years of doctoral work at a relatively well ranked program. I have been enrolled in four different graduate programs, one of them in [Europe], and have taken classes at eight different colleges or universities since I graduated from college. My point is that I have been around and I know what to expect and what not to expect. And by and large my experiences have been very good. However, the last couple of years have not been so good. I have had professors simply neglect to hand back papers, much less offer any substantive comments, even after repeated requests for them. I have had professors ask me to do some research on a topic and write up short reports or essays for them only to have them drop the the project and move on to a different university without even an email to let me know that they at least were aware of the fact that I did this work. I have had a graduate adviser tell me that she cannot offer me any advice because she does not really know anything about me and has not seen my file--this after a month of just trying to get an appointment with her. She even commented that getting the file would be too much trouble.
There is obviously much more to this story. But the short end is that I have since left the field of philosophy. I do not feel that I was singled out or the target of some clandestine prejudice. I think I was the victim of something systemic to the field itself. I hope that faculty members realize that in most cases, however wrong this may seem, a faculty's feedback and respect for a graduate student is all a graduate student has to work with. A student afloat without any land in sight or beacons to guide them is either an Abraham or a doomed individual. I have had no opportunities to voice grievances at the university nor any other way to try and show those who consider themselves enlightened and critical thinkers just what the human consequences are of their reserved and subconsciously unsympathetic behavior.
What do others think? How common are these problems? I know of one top PhD program where almost every graduate student signed an open letter to the faculty complaining about these kinds of problems. But are these incidents anomalous or widespread? Anyone who wishes to be specific about these problems (e.g., mentioning a particular program) must include their name and e-mail address. All comments will be pre-screened, as always.
