Thousands of people have successfully made the transition from academia — whether as graduate students, postdocs, adjuncts, tenure-line faculty, or tenured faculty — to lives and careers outside the ivory tower.
Because we all need models
I thought it might be fun to call to mind all of the famous people who were once academics. Now, this isn’t to say that we can all become famous if we leave academia, but hey, it’s nice to see some success stories, you know?
David Duchovny started a PhD in English at Yale, but dropped out to act.
On-air personality Rachel Maddow has a DPhil in Politics from Oxford University.
Colm Tóibín, the award-winning Irish novelist and critic, left a master’s program for a career in journalism.
Robert Siegal, host of NPR’s “All Things Considered,” left a masters program in journalism after one year.
Marie Brennan, a published fantasy novelist, left a graduate program in folklore and anthropology at Indiana University to write full time.
Debbie Stoller, founder of Bust Magazine and the Bitch N Stitch books, earned a PhD in Psychology from Yale. (h/t to Leaving Academia)
Miucca Prada, head of the Prada fashion house, has a PhD in political science. (h/t to Leaving Academia)
Brian May, guitarist from Queen, has a PhD in astronomy for research on zodiacal dust clouds?
Bill Cosby has a Doctorate in Education from the University of Massachusetts.
Robert Vaughn, the Man from U.N.C.L.E., has a PhD in Communications from the University of Southern California.
Greg Graffin, lead singer and songwriter for the band bad religion, has a PhD in Zoology from Cornell.
Bryan Holland, singer for the band The Offspring, left a PhD program in microbiology at USC.
Monty Python’s Graham Chapman earned an MD, but didn’t practice for long.
Founding Velvet Underground member Sterling Morrison earned a PhD in Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin.
Milo Aukerman, lead singer of early punk band The Descendents, earned a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Swedish actor Dolph Lundgren has a masters in chemical engineering.
Kevin Grevioux, who co-starred in Underworld with super-brainy Kate Beckinsale, was doing a master’s program in genetic engineering when he decided he’d rather act.
Actor James Franco has been accepted in Yale’s PhD program in English — arguably he’s doing the whole PhD / fame thing the other way around.
Elif Batuman parlayed a PhD in Comparative Lit from Stanford into the best-selling The Possessed: Adventures with Russian Books and the People Who Read Them.
Food writer Molly Wizenberg, otherwise known as Orangette, dropped out of a PhD program in anthropology.
Michael Ignatieff, former Harvard professor of history and current opposition party leader in Canada.
And I didn’t even dip very far into the scores and scores of CEOs and politicians with PhDs! Know of any others? I’d love to hear about them!
A few comments about comments
I’d love leads on any other post-academics who’ve been successful out there in the wide world. If you know of any, drop me a line!
The whole question of being unhappy in academia — no matter what stage you’re in — can feel fraught. If you’d like to comment but are feeling shy about “being out there,” feel free to make up a persona or comment anonymously. You can also email me directly.
First-time commenters are always moderated (because you wouldn’t believe the spam I get), so if your comment doesn’t show up immediately, hang tight! Chances are, I’m not right on my email.
And most of all, let’s all practice compassion for ourselves and others in this difficult time and space.
Actually, Cosby’s degree is an Ed.D., not a Ph.D. Only reason I remember that is because in the credits of the Cosby show, when they list producers, so on, they list his full name with the degree letters (but this is also listed in his Wikipedia entry).
Fantastic list especially since I only knew about Brian May!! I was delighted to see that he got since I thought it demonstrated that it’s possible to do a PhD and have a career outside of the academy. So many people I’ve found seem to think that one can’t have a PhD and not be an academic.
@Angel, thank you! You’re totally right. I’ll get that fixed post-haste.
Found another — Gillian Tate, US managing editor of the Financial Times earned a Ph.D. in social anthropology from the University of Cambridge.
Jorge Cham, the cartoonist! Superb Stanford-trained scientist leaves academia after not securing the tenure track he desired-and turns cartoons based on/tackling academia into a successful career!
http://www.phdcomics.com/about.htm
http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_1128_Anita_McCole.mp3/view
In all fairness, I don’t think that a Masters degree falls into the same realm as a phd when we’re considering what life is like in academia. Phd work is very similar to that of a professor (without the pay grade!), while completing a Masters is much closer to that of the student life one experiences in undergraduate programs. A Masters is far less demanding in scale and depth as well as required discipline, time, analytical skills, originality, finances, etc. Furthermore, many people pursue Masters degrees to advance their non-academic careers; a phd is still predominantly pursued on an academic career trajectory.