Administrative Response

Berg says that the GSAS and OCS are proactively trying to keep students aware of the limited job market in academics to prevent them from getting caught in a career path unable to support them.

"That's what we're trying to avoid by alerting them as early as possible that there are economic limits to the academic job market," Berg says.

According to Newhouse, OCS is actively trying to point students toward nonacademic job possibilities.

"We do a lot to show what alternatives there are to academic jobs for people who decide they don't want one or can't get one," Newhouse says. "A greater proportion of the people I see are looking for alternatives."

Berg and Newhouse agree that there are increasing numbers of technical positions available for Ph.D.s.

"There are places out in the world that are more accepting of Ph.D.s," Newhouse says. "And I think a number of people are getting more disillusioned with academia."

The OCS report urges readers to "note that over four-fifths of the unemployed [Ph.D.s] intended academic careers, compared with under a tenth of those intending nonacademic careers or either. In other words, frustration and disappointment are undoubtedly more the domain of those bound for academia."

The 1995-96 GSAS General Announcement and Admissions Application nonetheless remains optimistic about job opportunities in teaching and research.

"Most Harvard Ph.D.s pursue academic employment upon completion of their degrees. Job opportunities in many academic fields are expected to improve in anticipation of the large cohort of faculty members who will retire in the 1990s. We anticipate that students beginning Ph.D. programs in 1995 will enter favorable job markets," the bulletin reads.

Such glowing descriptions sound eerily similar to predictions made in the late 1980s about today's job market, and that has some graduate students concerned.

But Berg says GSAS is trying to avoid making the same mistake twice.

"We're no longer quoting optimistic predictions," Berg says. "We're talking about individuals with a passion following their star, and we believe that there will still be room in society for talented people interested in research and teaching."

A Place of Learning

As the tightening job market receives more attention from the administration and worried graduate students, some in academia are concerned that doctoral candidates will be so anxious about earning a living that they will forget why they are studying in the first place.