Thread by @WomenInStat

As a professor at a big university, a lot of people come to me for career advice.

Undergrads ask me — how did I decide to become a statistician and go to grad school?

Grad students ask me — what advice do I have for grad school, the job market, and the tenure track??

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To answer honestly, I first need to acknowledge that I come from immense academic privilege. I'm the daughter of 2 profs, the granddaughter of a prof, the sister of a prof, the niece of a PhD. This privilege has informed every aspect of my academic experience.

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Here’s an example: in college, I took a class with an in-class midterm exam that — I felt — tested us on material that had not been covered in the class. We were taking a class on checkers, and the midterm exam was about chess. 3/

So after the midterm, I went into the professor’s office and told him that I didn’t think it was reasonable to give a midterm on material that wasn’t covered. ICYMI: I was 18 years old and he was a professor. 4/

Friends . . . after I left his office, he CANCELED THE MIDTERM, i.e. he e-mailed the class to say that the exam (which we'd already taken) wouldn't “count”. This is an actual true story that happened. As a prof now, I almost can’t believe it (seemed reasonable at the time).

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That anecdote is ridiculous to the point of comical, but when it happened, I thought it made total sense.

Walking into your professor’s office at age 18 with total certainty that you are right about how the course should be taught and evaluated: THAT is privilege.

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What does this have to do with giving advice to students?

An academic career is a decades-long scramble up a very treacherous path covered in boulders and loose rocks. It’s easy to trip & fall & get badly hurt, or so severely injured that you won't be able to keep going.

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I had to do the same scramble as everyone else. But my experience was different. When I did it, all the loose rocks had been glued in place. Every single sharp boulder had been bubble-wrapped so I wouldn’t risk skinning my knee. I wore a harness in case I fell.

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From a distance it looks like I did the same scramble that everyone else did. But there was one key difference: my scramble wasn’t dangerous.

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Understanding my privilege can feel very threatening — like, did I really earn my accomplishments, or are they just a result of the opportunities that I was given?

I think it’s OK to say yes to both — yes I did the scramble, and yes my scramble was a heck of a lot easier.

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Being a professor — and especially at a public university — has made me reflect on this privilege. Many (most! almost all!) of the students with whom I interact have had drastically different life experiences. Many are doing the scramble with no bubble wrap and no harness.

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To support the academic journeys of all my students, I need to understand & acknowledge the ways that my academic experience doesn't reflect their journeys.

Otherwise, instead of supporting them, I’d be like “hey, don’t worry about that boulder, it didn’t bother me!!!!”

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My job isn’t just about doing research: it’s also about training the next generation of researchers.

Understanding my privilege helps me be a more empathetic and effective mentor to my students.

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