Lesson 15: Conclusions
Conclusions have a purpose: They are to explain your career plans beyond graduate school. Many if not most PhD applicants will imagine becoming a professor. That’s fine, but you need to convey that goal with a healthy dose of humility. Faculty members know that securing a tenure-track job is increasingly difficult; they do not want to deal with your unrealistic expectations. At the same time, you might not want to dismiss the possibility of an academic career, and you certainly don’t want to portray graduate study as just a stepping stone to career advancement.
Yes, it’s a delicate balance, best achieved through carefully chosen phrases:
I imagine myself
I hope to
I aspire to
At present, my goal would be to
I plan to
I am committed to
Consider some of these tactfully worded closings.
the potential academic
“I am committed to pursuing a scholarly career in curriculum development focused on K-12 multicultural literacy, while recognizing the realities of the academic job market. I would hope to secure a postdoctoral or visiting position where I can revise my dissertation as a book or a series of articles plus begin to develop a second research area--all while gaining valuable teaching experience.”the aspiring professional
“After earning my master’s in public administration, I hope to work in the area of economic development in Latin America. The setting might be a private (possibly church-based) development agency, the UN, the OAS, a multilateral development bank, or government agency. Graduate school will prepare me to apply the theories of global development and post-colonialism to redress health care inequities as intersecting with gender and security in Mexico and Guatemala.”
Diplomacy and discretion are key to the conclusion. This ending feels too blunt, too simplistic. The opening (“in terms of a career”) cannot possibly flow from what came before; plans are presented as just another, separate topic. The listing (first, further, ultimately) is crude, and the idea of “studying literature for its own sake” is a kiss of death. Don’t do this.
“In terms of a career, I see myself teaching literature, writing criticism, and going into editing or publishing poetry. Doctoral studies would be valuable to me in several ways. First, your teaching assistantship program would provide me with the practical teaching experience I am eager to acquire. Further, earning a Ph.D. in English and American literature would advance my other two career goals by adding to my skills, both critical and creative, in working with language. Ultimately, however, I see the Ph.D. as an end in itself, as well as a professional stepping-stone; I enjoy studying literature for its own sake and would like to continue my studies on the level demanded by the Ph.D. program.”
Everything about this example is crude and unsophisticated.
A word specifically for those aspiring to earn the PhD and enter academia: Do not focus on teaching. You should certainly highlight any teaching experiences you’ve had, but you are applying to research institutions where faculty members generally care much less about their teaching than their research.
