Comments | academics_anon: Don't try to dodge the recession with grad school

sertrel in academics_anon

Don't try to dodge the recession with grad school

Mar 03, 2009 09:37

http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2009/02/03/dont-try-to-dodge-the-recession-with-grad-school/Read more... )

Comments 66

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nesf March 3 2009, 18:42:05 UTC

Also, the more people with PhDs, the harder the academic market gets for everyone. I always discourage people from going to grad school simply because they have nothing better to do.

Exactly. Ireland's already devalued the undergraduate degree and taught Masters to the point where it's just an extension of second level at this point. PhDs are the last degrees that are exclusive and even that is being broken down slowly.

sertrel March 3 2009, 18:47:48 UTC

I think here in the US, the undergraduate degree is definitely on its way towards devaluation; I think there was an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education a while back which actually called the BA degree the most overrated product in education and said most people shouldn't get them.

nesf March 3 2009, 18:53:31 UTC

41.6% of people in this country aged 25 to 34 have an undergraduate degree compared to only 27.1% back in 1999 and an EU average of 29.1%. (Stats from P50 here: http://www.cso.ie/releasespublications/documents/other_releases/2007/progress2007/measuringirelandsprogress.pdf)

It's crazy tbh, and now the push is to have more "fourth level" graduates in research degrees.

katie_alicyn March 3 2009, 14:45:31 UTC

I dislike this article, but I have noticed many of my cohorts going back to school, myself included because we don't feel that undergrad programs specialized our skill set enough to be invaluable to employers.

dorantherook March 3 2009, 18:02:40 UTC

I'm still in school because most careers in archaeology require at least an MA to be able to run excavations and not just be a bucket monkey.

tempter March 3 2009, 23:01:34 UTC

Well, that's really not what an undergraduate education was meant to do ( ... )

uberconfused March 3 2009, 14:55:45 UTC

Why would you take advice from her?

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knut_hamson March 3 2009, 15:07:19 UTC

I insist on head shots from my career advisors.

uberconfused March 3 2009, 15:20:03 UTC

She's also a complete nut-job with bad ideas. We happen to have some mutual acquaintances...

Thread 11

cpt_babypants March 3 2009, 15:09:19 UTC

Like my History degree is ever gonna get me rich. :P

knut_hamson March 3 2009, 15:12:00 UTC

I think there's only one reason for going to graduate school, and it has nothing to do with the economy.

I also like the assumption that a PhD is like joining a book club: "Go read books after work."