Is it worth going to university with the specific goal of getting

If you haven't already published something by the age of 25 you should end your life.

If you intend to become an academic and don't have a PhD by the age of 27, it's too late.

>>9222958
Not really true about publishing in general, but becoming more true about academia.

You better be really fucking smart and start publishing amazing things right out of the gate or the only place a PhD at that age is going to land you is an adjunct position at a community college.

There is such a glut of post-docs in every discipline. Like no shit I've had professors who've published regularly after PhDing in their twenties and were still teaching as class-or-two-a-semester adjuncts at 40+, increasingly desperate for a tenure promise of any kind from anywhere.

But like anything, if you are sick talented you'll run the fucking game and write your own ticket to wherever. Goodluck.

>>9222928
if you're good all it takes is one seminal work
if you're going to be another professeur why bother

anyone can get a phd

>>9222958
>>9222976
Ok, guess that's off the table too then, thanks.

>>9222928

/lit/ is clearly full of smart, successful and beautiful people so you're obviously in the right place for advice

is it worth going to college for anything at all if you're over 40?

>>9223052
If you can do it financially speaking, there's no reason not to do it, granted you are able to finish. Don't listen to the cynics in the thread.

>>9222928
A lot of people don't start their PhDs after having been teachers for a few years, and then going back to university, so I wouldn't worry about your age in itself.
But you could perhaps ask yourself why you haven't done so already, if this is a desirable career path for you.
While academia may seem like a clever way to work with things you are interested in, there is also a danger of getting caught up in bureaucracy, correcting papers, planning and preparing the same lectures over and over, the chore of having to write uninteresting and superficial articles, participating in research projects you aren't really interested in, etc.
Just sit down and objectively evaluate whether or not such a life will actually give you more or less time to do what you want during an average work week.

>>9223061
There's no reason to do it either except waste precious time that's rapidly running out at that age.

>>9223091
Precious time for what exactly?

>>9223098
Something that's not pointless?

>>9224042
you're kinda right though. once you're over 45 or so nobody really wants you regardless of what kind of degree you have, unless you're already well established in a field. if you're going back to school for a second career, your prospects are still gonna be partially determined by how well you did in your previous career. (not so much the amount of money you made, but business connections, life experiences etc.)

>>9224407
Why don't people just kill themselves at 45 then?

>>9224419
I honestly have no idea. I know for me it's mainly because my folks are already in their 70s and I don't think they could handle it if I died. if they were in their 50s maybe they'd recover somewhat. but I can't do my old career anymore (and wouldn't if I could, really), and when I do recover enough to work, I'm gonna have to find something low-stress which will probably mean low-skilled as well. the only things I care enough about to even have the slightest desire to go to school for them are all things that will never pay for the cost of the degree (art, architecture, etc.).

>>9224419
also if you're over 45 and you've worked at the same place for a while, often you can just make yourself a lifer and skate through til retirement. but that works better at smaller companies, so the income prospects aren't super. industry experience and specific company knowledge (customers' and suppliers' quirks etc.) is still valuable in larger companies, but it doesn't always transfer so well from company to company or even department to department. so if you're in a place that does a lot of reorgs, you could end up ass out.

polite sage as this is veering off topic.