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For me personally it would be about staying competitive. If I am competing with another person for a job, and our skills/backgrounds/personalities are similar, I might lose out, might not. Unfortunately a lot of employers ask for them when it is overkill. With more and more students getting a degree (worthless degree or not), it helps to stay on top.
Another reason I might go is to change career paths. Move into the business side of things, management, or something different altogether.
Honestly, I do not know if I will get my Masters or not. I could stay where I am at and have a solid career and make enough money to be happy. A masters will not help me with my current job. But it would certainly help if I planned on moving into management.
And when you get it will matter as well. If I had gotten it back to back with my undergrad it would have changed my career path dramatically.
I think grad school became the new college because there are fewer jobs for new grads. People feel grad school will set them apart from someone who has only an undergraduate degree. These days anything you can use to market yourself is great. But if you are unsure of what you want to do grad school is definitely not for you. Several of my friends decided to work for a few years and then return to college to complete their advanced degree. In retrospect, I wish I had done the same.
Very good comments Kathy. It is the set of friends and colleagues that makes it seem like "everyone" is into graduate school.
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Originally Posted by KathyR
I don't think it's the new college, it's probably just more your set of friends/colleagues. I am in grad school now, in my mid-40s, after years of a different career and then staying home to have kids.....it took me a while to come to the point of truly knowing what I wanted to do. I had attempted grad school 15 years ago in a different field, and am glad I didn't pursue it. The time and money spent on it wouldn't have been wise.
My undergraduate college was not dummied down. It was challenging. All the exams and projects were moderately difficult for me. Multiple choice exams are a lot of times standardized so sometimes the questions have no real answer (due to error on the part of the professor or publisher of the exams), hence the reason for curves. If the majority of the class missed out on the same six questions. Then the points for those 6 questions are "the curve". Besides that there are no grade inflation on projects, homework, or final grades. Grade inflation just for the sake of it is really rare. The other rare grade inflation is doing extra credit work. That means doing another 5-6 research report on top of the work you already are doing.
Graduate school is a continuation of undergraduate school IMO. Either that or my undergrad experience prepared me well for graduate school.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ivorytickler
It happened when we dummied down college because we decided everyone should go to college. Today, a liberal arts degree isn't much more than a high school diploma in the 1950's. So, everyone gets more education to set themselves apart. I'm, seriously, thinking about going back for a PhD because I don't feel my masters sets me apart. It seemed everyone had a masters or was working on one when I was an engineer and now that I'm teaching, with continuing education requirements, everyone either has or is working on a masters.
Look on the bright side. We've created lots of college teaching jobs and job security.
Put away money into an education fund for a rainy day. You never know when you will loose a job and need a master's degree.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sike0000
I agree with some of the other posters.
For me personally it would be about staying competitive. If I am competing with another person for a job, and our skills/backgrounds/personalities are similar, I might lose out, might not. Unfortunately a lot of employers ask for them when it is overkill. With more and more students getting a degree (worthless degree or not), it helps to stay on top.
Another reason I might go is to change career paths. Move into the business side of things, management, or something different altogether.
Honestly, I do not know if I will get my Masters or not. I could stay where I am at and have a solid career and make enough money to be happy. A masters will not help me with my current job. But it would certainly help if I planned on moving into management.
And when you get it will matter as well. If I had gotten it back to back with my undergrad it would have changed my career path dramatically.
probably because many people have opportunities now to go to a 4 year university due to junior colleges, more financial assistance, more programs etc. i am starting my 2nd year in my grad program. it was very competitive to get into my department. the university i got now only accepted 24 people and 5 people already dropped. i applied to 4 universities and got rejected at 2, wait-listed at 1 (didnt make it through AND THAT WAS MY ALMA MATER!), and accepted into 1. the strange thing is my university is pretty well known throughout california of having a damn good department in my field and one of the better programs within the state. i dont know how i got into this school, and not the others because this one is more competitive. so i had a 25% chance of getting into a school it seems with a 3.5 gpa, and related work experience.
for many jobs, one needs a ba, but now if you have a ma or ms, it is something extra. in my line of work, you need to have a ma or ms. frustrating thing is, there are no jobs in my field right now in california and probably across the country to do budget cuts.
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