I don’t know who needs to hear this, but an unfunded PhD, or a PhD with miniscule partial funding, is basically electing to pay for vocation as if it’s a luxury hobby. If it was unjustifiable before the pandemic given the job market, it’s lunacy now.

I read a tweet on here a long time ago I can’t find that was basically “Getting into a PhD program with no funding is in fact a rejection” and it is harsh but true! Even with full funding it’s a bad idea & there are no jobs. WHY do this to yourself

Odd that this is apparently a controversial view...? Getting mad at me for saying it's a bad idea to go into debt for a degree that will train you for a job that post-2008, post-COVID hiring freeze exists for almost no one shows that ire is being misdirected, but that's just me!

A humanities PhD throws you into an incredibly unforgiving academic job market (and, if you're lucky, a low standard of pay relative to another profession you pay to train for, like law); it is like a multi-year apprenticeship; it is work; it should be paid. That's it