Comments on: Skip grad school. Life is better with experience.

By: Rishona

Rishona — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 17:24:41 +0000

I think this is one of those, “What came first, the chicken or the egg” sort of scenarios. I actually started working professionally BEFORE I earned my degree. And I only got that chance by accident. I worked low-level retail jobs for years, then I got a temp assignment (my 5th one in a year) for an insurance company and the general counsel actually noticed that I was a hard worker and intelligent and I moved up through the ranks (in 5 years, my pay increased 125%). However when speaking to those outside my company, the common remark was, “It’s tough to be competitive without a degree.” or “Most people in your position have a Bachelor’s at least”.
I’ve sat on hiring committees where we have received as many as 165 applications for one position. Yes, the ones who have degrees get put on the top of the “to interview” pile, although we would go for people who do not have degrees, but have the right mix of experiences and personal fit for the position. I admit, a lot of this is fueled by the high competitiveness of job hunting….you need SOME standard by which to categorize people and slim down the interview pool. However I work for a university where there tends to be tons of applications for any one position; so the story may be very different in the small business sector where positions do not have as many applicants. However those positions tend to be filled by networking anyway; not necessarily by “may the one with the most experience win”.
If anything, networking is the key…not so much experience. At least this is what I have seen. Also it saddens me to even bring this up, but as a Black person, I deal with a lot of preconceived notions and stereotypes. (For example, I actually had an HR person at one company that I interviewed with remark that I “speak well” and that I’m not an “around the way girl” — I was FLOORED!). Having a degree helps to build some confidence in these people who might have some misgivings about my work ethic due to my race. Is this a given? No. But it is a chance that I feel I personally do not want to take.

By: doug

doug — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:49:38 +0000

This is garbage. Maybe it’s true for some fields, but definitely not mine. I am graduating with my PhD this year and have a job lined up paying me double what I had to look at after my Bachelors degree. This is the case for all my other graduating colleagues as well.

By: No “A for Effort:” How Colleges Fail Generation Y | Modite

No “A for Effort:” How Colleges Fail Generation Y | Modite — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 05:07:14 +0000

[...] for two or three millennia,” says Dean Edward Snyder of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. A comment so arrogant that we have to assume Dean Snyder isn’t intentionally asinine, but rather [...]

By: Jamie

Jamie — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 14:48:26 +0000

I think you’ve overlooked the fact that in many graduate programs you do in fact learn to do something that you cannot learn to do in any other context. Medicine, law, and science all must be learned through postgraduate eduction, and “real-life” experience absolutely cannot be substituted for that education (I never noticed that any graduate students were leading imaginary lives, but maybe I just wasn’t judging hard enough). For science degrees in particular, students must produce data to graduate. They also, of course, are paid to do so. I think it is highly ludicrous to suggest that people pursuing these fields are wasting their time by failing to go out and be the best little business peons they can be. Not everyone is interested in hawking goods and services.

By: Why Grad School Is the Right Choice for Me : Brazen Careerist

Why Grad School Is the Right Choice for Me : Brazen Careerist — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 02:11:24 +0000

[...] much thought, discussion, and reading (mostly in the blogosphere grad school debate), I realized that each professional decision is a personal decision. Professionals, colleagues, [...]

By: Why I’m Going to Grad School « Life Before Noon: A Millennial’s Manual

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 17:48:34 +0000

[...] much thought, discussion, and reading (mostly in the blogosphere grad school debate), I realized that each professional decision is a personal decision. Professionals, colleagues, [...]

By: Mark Longo

Mark Longo — Fri, 11 Jan 2008 15:13:35 +0000

To equate the “real world” with the consumerist, materialistic, profit-driven, greed-fueled world of business that drives our modern disco ball of a society is a joke. In this model, Britney Spears and McDonald’s are gods. In academia, on the other hand, researchers try to find deeper truths. To me, that is a more worthy pursuit. Graduate school can be a means to a meaningful job, not just a path a higher paying McJob.

By: Tim Gill

Tim Gill — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 08:00:30 +0000

Rebecca, as you know and have stated Grad school isn’t the key to everything. but it can get you a higher salary. You should separate out the professional degrees: mba, jd, and md from other degrees. The forementioned can double, quadruple, or even quintuple (it is a word) your salary. This is a far cry from piled higher and deeper (phd), best,
Tim Gill

By: David ben-Avram

David ben-Avram — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 04:22:18 +0000

Argh! I’m very conflicted with this article. On one hand, I do want to disagree with it because I can. And because you did in your comments. Surely this is not the whole conversation. Let’s throw another log (or two) on the fire: Consider that Bachelor’s degrees are quickly becoming the norm in the office environment and you want to distinguish yourself. I’d recommend to those individuals that they earn an MBA, or a professional certification (LEAN or Six Sigma come to mind) if they want to distinguish themselves from their peers and climb the ranks. And another point to throw out…does objectivity exist? The academics will talk this death, but let’s cut the chase: Passion, conviction and a point of view matter. Period. Don’t give me lukewarm…give me hot or cold or I’ll spit out!

By: John Wasinski

John Wasinski — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 23:50:15 +0000

You can never go wrong if you follow your feelings. I chose grad school more for the experience. It felt right when I went to see it. The program was something I was really excited about, it was cross-disciplinary and a fun field, one I like. The people were awesome. The town felt like home. And I made a lot of supportive friendships. Financially? I don’t know. It was worth it. If you’re determined, or need, great income during grad school, there’s plenty of bigger schools and private schools that offer nice assistantships.