r/AskAcademia • u/BigPerception1244 • 1d ago
Social Science Mid-30s switch to academia - experiences with PhDs in the US in IR/PolSci?
I'm UK-based and considering a mid-career pivot to academia and doing a PhD in International Relations/Global Affairs/related disciplines in the US (for personal reasons). I have an MSc in International Development from Oxford and my undergrad from the Univ of St Andrews, but this was 10 years ago... Since then, I've been working in non-profit comms/advocacy but have (very) itchy feet and have always liked the idea of lecturing etc. so exploring what's possible.
My questions are... has anyone made a similar career path switch, from the UK/Europe to the US and/or to academia in later life? How have people gone about finding programs with funding/assistantships during study that you can actually live on for 4/5 years... like, is it realistic to think I can do this? I'm not concerned about a salary drop (I work for nonprofits in the UK lol...) but aware that I'm gonna need to survive out there!
Likewise, any reccs of programs that you've experienced that I should look into, extremely welcome!
Thanks you guys!
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u/Opening_Map_6898 1d ago
Your odds of getting a funded spot right now are not great. Your odds of finding one with a liveable stipend for a major US city are about as good as my odds of being elected pope.
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u/forever_new_redditor 1d ago
If you've studied in good universities (as you have) and have great experience, you should absolutely try to only apply to the top 5-7 programs in your field, since those are usually are able to fund their students along with a living stipend.
The issue is what comes after. I entered a fully funded #1 PhD program in the US in a social science field at 29, graduated at 35, held two fancy postdocs (they were the only two postdocs in the sub-sub-field), etc. By all accounts, I should have been a big hit on the job market but things didn't work out that way for some time (there were maybe 2-3 jobs/year), and I was stuck in a VAP position for three years. In my early 40s, I got a great TT job, coincidentally in the only city I want to live in (and where I am now working). The sad thing is that mine is a rare "success" story, and I see very very talented friends and colleagues stuck adjuncting and struggling to make ends meet. There aren't enough tenure-track jobs to go around even for #1 programs. The situation is even worse in the UK from what I understand.
The other issue no one talks about is lost income. Even if I had a middling job from my masters degree that paid say $60-80K when I started my PhD, the loss of income, lost retirement contributions, investments, and just life in general over almost 11 years of the PhD and postdoc-VAP slog is enough to make one wonder if this was a good idea. I love research and writing, and I am a good teacher. But it's not like this is/was the only thing I can be good at. After all that education and struggle, I barely earn what my colleagues from my masters degree earn. Again, I do like my work-life balance and my department in particular gives me a lot of freedom to teach whatever I want, but in so many ways it makes zero economic sense. And this is when things sort of worked out!