"The subject matter of poetry is not that 'collection of solid, static objects extended in space' but the life that is lived in the scene that it composes; and so reality is not that external scene but the life that is lived in it. Reality is things as they are." Wallace Stevens, The Necessary Angel, 1951

In the 14 years I have been at Reed, countless numbers of students have paraded through my office, some purposefully, some casually, to ask, what should I do after Reed? During my early years at the college, this question usually took a more singular form: where (not whether) should I go to graduate school? In those days, despite a depressed and depressing job market, neither students nor faculty thought, at least not out loud, about very many other alternatives. Reed has always been proud, and rightfully so, of its record production of future Ph.D.s. This fact speaks both to the strengths of the curriculum and to the pervasive atmosphere of academic intensity, characteristics that made it very easy for me, recently out of graduate school myself, to recommend this same path to many students. In those days, I was not without cautions about the perils of the job market, but my advice usually concerned having back-up schools to apply to rather than addressing the more fundamental question of whether to pursue graduate school and an academic career were the best choices.

Today many students still come to my office to discuss life after Reed, but circumstances, as well as students' questions and my answers, have changed, specifically the number of students going to graduate school, how they apply, the alternative educational and career paths students imagine for themselves, and the kinds of conversations I have with students.



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