PhD in Mythology/Religious Studies (cheap would be nice as well)?

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by TheResidentAlien, Sep 4, 2014.

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  1. TheResidentAlien

    TheResidentAlien New Member

    Howdy all!
    I am on the hunt for a PhD in Comparative Mythology or Mythological Studies or Religious Studies etc, etc. If it is possible, the program would have be to accredited and it would be amazing if the program was done via distance learning/online. Cheap would also be outstanding. The closest things I can find are all MA programs, such as the University of Philosophical Research which done via Online and the MA/PhD at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Mythological Studies, which is not online and crazy expensive (how they justify 27k a year, for a three day weekend once a month course I have no idea). I am been searching more and more outside of the United States, but still no luck as of yet. You may be wondering, why do I want a PhD? Well I have decided since the Humanities is basically dead in the Academy world, I pretty much have no hope of getting a traditional job at a traditional university anymore. It breaks my heart to think like this, but it is a fact I am slowly but surely embracing. I had considered (as some of you have previously seen in my posts before) in a PhD in Biblical Studies, which is what I did my Masters and Bachelors in. However unless I got into a school like Harvard or Yale or something else Ivy League, which I cannot imagine happening, I don't like my odds. Not being Christian doesn't help because no seminary or divinity school would be interested in me. To prove my point, my local university in Kansas had a position open up for a teaching job in the Religion Department for Christian Studies and had over 150 people apply to it with degrees from all over the place. It is becoming clear to me if I want the PhD, I am going to have to do it for me, not for my career. So I am going to "follow my bliss" regardless. My plan is work independently or rather interdependently in the network of scholars I know who are over educated and unemployed, teach online, offer what seminars and courses I can, and beyond that, work whatever 'real' jobs I need too. All I want to do with my life is learn more, write more, teach more, and then repeat the process. Of course, you may be wondering... So dude, just go to your local Barnes and Nobel and get some books to read, you don't need the degree. Well while this is true in part, "some sort of credentials" still matters to me and what I believe will be my life's work. So any insight, advice, or guidance into the matter of Mythological Studies and online PhDs would be amazing.

    Thanks!
     
  2. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I suggest that you contact the folks at Trinity St. David in Wales. They have postgrad programs in Ancient History, Ancient Civilizations, Philosophy and Classical Studies plus they offer research-based doctoral degrees. It would seem that only a small twist would be required to create a PhD research project in the area od Mythology.

    Distance Learning - University of Wales Trinity Saint David
     
  3. TheResidentAlien

    TheResidentAlien New Member

    Nice, looks interesting!
     
  4. TheResidentAlien

    TheResidentAlien New Member

    Well, $20,000 isn't so bad... Is that a year or for all the whole course?
     
  5. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    Note that Pacifica is a for-profit school.

    It is probably the only for-profit institution that offers graduate degrees in Mythological Studies. That's not the sort of degree program one would expect to see at (for example) the University of Phoenix.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 4, 2014
  6. nyvrem

    nyvrem Active Member

    Where did you see $20,000 ?

    You might want to call them to check just to be sure.
     
  7. TheResidentAlien

    TheResidentAlien New Member

    What number to call? Arent they in Wales?
     
  8. TheResidentAlien

    TheResidentAlien New Member

    I understand that but still. I do not want my wife to get a 100K debt for a PhD that wont have a job at the end of it.
     
  9. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

  10. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  11. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    The traditional way to get a well-recognized PhD at little or no financial cost is at residential (B&M) programs. If the department feels that you are a strong PhD candidate, then they may waive part or all of the tuition, and may offer a teaching or research assistantship that will cover living expenses. It's not unusual to obtain a PhD from a traditional B&M school at essentially no financial cost (apart from the opportunity costs incurred by attending school for several years instead of working).

    The likelihood of obtaining such aid would depend on factors like your previous degrees and grades, other non-academic experience, and (in the USA) GRE scores. It also depends on the department; some schools obviously have stronger and more competitive applicant pools than others. The only way to know for sure is to submit an application and see what happens.

    College towns in the US, like Berkeley or Austin or Madison or Ann Arbor or Cambridge, are full of people like that. They go there for school and never quite leave; they hang around the fringes of academia, picking up work as adjunct profs, tutors, bookstore clerks, etc.

    If you can't attend a B&M school, then your options will be very limited. The top PhD programs are generally not interested in distance learning. The schools that do offer distance PhDs are typically less well known, and use DL as a way to get funding from students who are willing to pay the full sticker price. Tuition waivers or assistantships are not typically offered to DL students.
     
  12. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    an assistantship that actually covers living expenses?
     
  13. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    Graduate students who have teaching or research assistantships at traditional B&M schools commonly receive "stipends" or "salaries", in addition to tuition waivers. This compensation isn't specifically earmarked for "living expenses", but in practice that is how it is normally used.

    For example, the rates for full-time assistantships at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee are in typically in the $20,000 to $30,000 range. Some students might only get "50% appointments" or "33% appointments", with correspondingly lower pay. The rates at Stanford are comparable, although the posted rates are minimums and are probably higher in some departments.

    The compensation is generally lower than what an intelligent, college-educated person might expect to make in a "real job". However, the stipend associated with a full assistantship is generally sufficient to cover basic living costs like food and rent while in grad school. That's what it's for.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 6, 2014
  14. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    For example, the Stanford page cited in the previous post explicitly states:

    "non-tuition expenses" = "living expenses", like food and rent.
     
  15. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

    I generally get a bit cynical when people write about assistantships covering living expenses. I recall having an assistantship that paid $360 a month. Granted this was the rate for a 25% appointment for an entry-level master's degree student 30 years ago at a non-prestigious albeit doctoral granting state university somewhere in the Rocky Mountain area. Guess it all depends on whose idea of living expenses we're talking about.
     
  16. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    No, it all depends on whether you can get a 100% assistantship. Nobody claims that a 25% assistantship is going to cover 100% of living expenses. It might cover something like 25% of living expenses, which is certainly better than nothing. But it's obviously less than 100%.

    If you look at the example in my previous post, a full assistantship at University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee pays in the $20,000 - $30,000 range. If you are awarded a full assistantship, that will go a long way in Milwaukee, where single-bedroom apartment rents average $750 per month. It's about $900/month for a 2-bedroom apartment, so if you split the rent with a roommate, a 100% assistantship would go even further.

    But if you only got a 25% assistantship, and only received $5,000 to $7,500, for living expenses, then no, it's not going to go nearly as far. In that case, you will be paying for some of your living expenses.

    In general, the more selective and prestigious schools are also the wealthiest. So the more selective schools (like Stanford) are also the most likely to provide full assistantships, and therefore to cover all of your tuition and non-tuition costs.

    Look, there is a spectrum here. At one end of the spectrum, you pay for all of your graduate school tuition and living expenses yourself. At the other end, your school pays for all of your tuition and living expenses. And there are all kinds of intermediate levels, where the school may cover part of your tuition and/or part of your living expenses.

    In general, DL graduate programs will be more likely to make you a financial offer that is near the "you pay everything" end of the spectrum. In general, B&M graduate programs are more likely to make you an offer that is further towards the "school pays everything" end of the spectrum. However, it may or may not be all the way at the far end, where the school offers to pay 100% of tuition and 100% of living expenses.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 6, 2014
  17. CalDog

    CalDog New Member

    If the rate for a 25% appointment was $360/month, this implies that the rate for a 100% appointment was $1,440/month. It was probably paid during the 9 months of the academic year (but not summers), which represents $12,960/year.

    According to the US Government's inflation calculator, $12,960 in 1984 (30 years ago) is equivalent to $29,718 in 2014. That is completely in line with the example numbers that I posted above. I think that most people would agree that $29,718/year qualifies as a "living wage" in most parts of the US. It's not going to make you rich, but you can survive on it.

    If you are accepted for graduate study in a B&M department, there is no guarantee that you will get a 100% appointment. You might get a fractional appointment, or you might get nothing at all. Same goes for tuition. But many students, especially at the wealthiest schools, do get stipends that are sufficient to cover living expenses, as well as full tuition waivers. The only way to find out if you qualify is to apply.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 6, 2014
  18. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    My assistantship is enough to cover living expenses. I don't know what the living wage is in San Marcos, but in San Antonio, I've seen it placed at $8 an hour or $11 an hour for a single person. My assistantship is the equivalent of making $12.50 per hour 40 hours a week, but I'm working 20.
     
  19. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    I invite anyone who thinks eight bucks an hour is a living wage to give it a try.
     
  20. NMTTD

    NMTTD Active Member

    We're a family of 4 living on $11 an hour full time and we really just barely squeak by. I mean BARELY. Some months, we don't. So $8 an hour? I suppose if you live alone in a studio apartment with NO extras at all, maybe you might be able to scrape by. But that's still a big maybe.
     

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