Failed exams, rejection letters, and the Impostor Syndrome

Kudos to Chris Uggen, professor of sociology and chair of the sociology department at the University of Minnesota for blogging about how he failed one of his Ph.D. qualifying exams as a grad student.

Yes, you heard right.  He’s a professor.  He’s chair of the department.  He failed one of his qualifying exams.  And he just told the whole world.

For those of you in other fields, I can’t stress enough how rare and refreshing this kind of openness is in academia.  I think the lack of transparency (or maybe it’s visibility?) is partly why so many people feel “ensconed” in grad school.  The illusion that the big names got to the top by skipping through school designing airtight research projects and writing flawless articles can leave lowly grad students questioning whether they’ve got what it takes.  When all you see is a shelf of faculty publications or article-length CVs, it’s easy to forget that there are bumps along the way.

Chris’s message is simple:  “Just because you fail an exam doesn’t mean that you won’t be a good professor.”

That’s sound advice, and it almost goes without saying that we could expand it to include having articles rejected, not winning every fellowship you apply for, receiving poor teaching evaluations…right on down to not having brilliant contributions to make in every class discussion.

As qualifying exams roll around again and as new cohorts of grad students get ready to start their programs, Chris’s post and the comments that follow are well worth reading.

And for those of you who feel like some of the commentators, that it’s time to bail on school because you can’t hack it, definitely check out resources on the Impostor Syndrome first.  Others have been in your shoes before.