Comments on: ETS offers personality test for graduate admissions http://www.studlife.com/news/2009/11/13/ets-offers-personality-test-for-graduate-admissions/ The independent newspaper of Washington University in St. Louis Sat, 20 Mar 2010 00:39:39 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Jerome Bauer http://www.studlife.com/news/2009/11/13/ets-offers-personality-test-for-graduate-admissions/comment-page-1/#comment-4026 Jerome Bauer Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:51:29 +0000 http://www.studlife.com/?p=7257#comment-4026 One of my friends from grad school, then a PhD candidate in Anthropology, told me to tell my students "NO, NO, NO, tell them NO, don't do it! You must tell them not to do it!" when I told him most of my students were planning to go on for the doctorate. "Send them to law school! Send them to law school!" I always tell this story to my students, and I do whatever I can to dissuade them from going on for the doctorate, though I encourage them to get a Master's degree to continue their liberal education or professional training. If nothing I say can dissuade them, they have the vocation. Nothing I say, nor any other power, will prevent them from pursuing an academic career. Those students, like all my students, have my lifelong support. A PhD is not for everyone, nor should it be. Students are always surprised to discover that a PhD program is mainly a training program in professor craft and a test of one's political skills, including academic turf warfare.. They also test one's endurance, creativity, fortitude and character. Any test that can give admissions officers, and applicants, a clue about this would save many students from making a very bad life choice. For my part, I have no regrets. I would never have been happy in law school. Lecturer Dr. Jerome Bauer --sometime President (by acclamation) of UPenn's Graduate Student Associations Council, representing the interests of all PhD students, and all grad students in the School of Arts and Sciences One of my friends from grad school, then a PhD candidate in Anthropology, told me to tell my students “NO, NO, NO, tell them NO, don’t do it! You must tell them not to do it!” when I told him most of my students were planning to go on for the doctorate. “Send them to law school! Send them to law school!”

I always tell this story to my students, and I do whatever I can to dissuade them from going on for the doctorate, though I encourage them to get a Master’s degree to continue their liberal education or professional training. If nothing I say can dissuade them, they have the vocation. Nothing I say, nor any other power, will prevent them from pursuing an academic career. Those students, like all my students, have my lifelong support.

A PhD is not for everyone, nor should it be. Students are always surprised to discover that a PhD program is mainly a training program in professor craft and a test of one’s political skills, including academic turf warfare.. They also test one’s endurance, creativity, fortitude and character. Any test that can give admissions officers, and applicants, a clue about this would save many students from making a very bad life choice.

For my part, I have no regrets. I would never have been happy in law school.

Lecturer Dr. Jerome Bauer
–sometime President (by acclamation) of UPenn’s Graduate Student Associations Council, representing the interests of all PhD students, and all grad students in the School of Arts and Sciences

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