Ph.D. Programs Get a Lot More Practical

After getting her bachelor's in American studies and clinical psychology at Tufts University, Barbara Ceptus Schreiber decided the best way to pursue her passion -- social justice -- would be to aim for the Ivory Tower.

"Academics were superstars," she remembers thinking. But two years into a Ph.D. program in cultural studies at the University of California--Davis, "I became disillusioned," says Ceptus Schreiber, 36. "We were all competing over a piece of a very small pie."

So after getting her degree in 2011, Ceptus Schreiber searched out a fellowship program aimed at helping students in the humanities take their degrees outside academia. Run by the American Council of Learned Societies, a federation of scholarly organizations, the program has so far helped 41 recent Ph.D.s parlay their deep knowledge and critical-thinking skills into two-year nonacademic jobs paying $65,000 annually.

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Ceptus Schreiber got a position with the Council on Foundations and now plans a career in the public sector or at a nonprofit.

According to the Council of Graduate Schools, fully half of people who pursue a Ph.D. these days wind up in jobs outside of academia. And increasingly, those who do end up in the classroom are there as low-paying and vulnerable adjunct or nontenure-track professors.

Still, as Ceptus Schreiber discovered, the system has remained stubbornly "invested in training you as an academic." Experts agree that alternative careers confound many professors.

The fellowship program she took advantage of is intended both "to demonstrate to potential employers and others that Ph.D.s provide great value," and "to provoke" academia to step up preparation of doctoral students for a range of careers, says Steven Wheatley, vice president of ACLS.

Since the ACLS launched the initiative, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Chemical Society and the Council of Graduate Schools have each called on universities to greatly strengthen the professional development doctoral students get during their studies.

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Employers want their hires not only to have subject-area expertise but also the "soft" skills that make them good communicators, culturally aware and sensitive, masters of teamwork, adept at managing projects and able to negotiate conflict, solve problems and think outside the box.

While the employment rate for Ph.D.s is in the upper 90 percent range, "it's taking longer to get jobs," cautions Robert Townsend, director of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences' Washington, D.C., office.

In 2011, just 66 percent of new Ph.D.s had a job or paid study lined up, according to the organization. Even in the science, technology, engineering and math fields, postdoctoral study is common. The proportion of Ph.D.s with job offers in hand at graduation is surprisingly low -- 19 percent in the life sciences; 38 percent in engineering. It now takes a Ph.D. nearly three years to land a tenure-track professorship.

From Paula Chambers' vantage point, graduate schools have "come a long way." Chambers is the founder and CEO of The Versatile PhD, an online resource for people exploring nonacademic career tracks. Before finishing her Ph.D. in rhetoric and composition in 2000 at Ohio State University--Columbus, Chambers started a service so doctoral students could give each other moral support and share insights about nonacademic jobs.

Today, more than 50 universities -- along with 38,000 individuals -- are subscribers, so students can access panel discussions on various careers, find inspiration in others' stories of career success and get job-hunting tips and access to new postings.

There is still a big need for more transparency about where grad students land jobs and a way to track them five, 10 and 15 years out, says Debra Stewart, CGS president. Duke University, one of the few institutions that has been tracking the paths of its doctoral students for some time, knows that just 823 of its 2,935 Ph.D.s between 2002 and 2012 landed in tenure-track positions.

Those who want to stay in academia are getting more help, too. Traditionally, Ph.D. prep has focused on cultivating top-notch researchers, giving short shrift to instructional skills beyond putting doctoral students into teaching assistant positions.

Lauren Schnabel did feel certain that a research career as a translational scientist was for her -- but she also wanted to put her Cornell University advanced degrees in veterinary medicine and comparative biomedical sciences to use in the classroom.

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Schnabel gained extra bona fides in a teaching fellowship through Cornell's Center for Teaching Excellence. She also got training as a research mentor via the National Science Foundation-backed Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning, a network of 23 research universities committed to advancing effective teaching practices in the STEM fields -- and did a separate fellowship that combined teaching and research.

The extra shots of professional development paid off. Last summer, Schnabel landed her dream job at North Carolina State University--Raleigh: assistant professor of equine orthopedic surgery.

This story is excerpted from the U.S. News "Best Graduate Schools 2015" guidebook, which features in-depth articles, rankings and data.