Doing a bit of research for grad school, I read the profile of an alum of one of the programs I'm looking at. It turns out he went to Carleton, like me, and was a Political Science major, also like me. Unlike me, he graduated Summa Cum Laude (my grades are good, but nowhere near summa territory). And then he went and got his law degree from a top-10 law school, along with a Ph.D from the same school in a program that looked very exciting.
He's now teaching political science at a community college.
This is not heartening news.
Perhaps he wanted to teach at a community college. I was valedictorian of my undergrad and will get my PhD from one of the top 5 or so programs in the country for my field, but I find the prospect of teaching at CC very exciting. You get to focus much more on teaching, and work with a more diverse student body.
ReplyDeleteOr that alum could have had personal life considerations. Even if I wanted to teach at an Ivy, I'm geographically constrained by my wife's job and would possibly have to settle for a CC job. (My wife, incidentally, went from CC to a top-10 law school.)