The Grad School Conspiracy

I am a minority. I am a middle class white woman, but I am a minority in my subcategory…at least I feel like it. I am one of the few middle to upper class 20-somethings I know who is not going to grad school. And if I didn’t feel it necessary as an educator to further my education, I wouldn’t go. I would petition against it and all it has come to stand for.

Why is it that a college degree is not enough anymore? Is it because we are striving to be better, because we were raised in a highly competitive environment in which our parents expected only the very best causing us to cheat, lie, and sometimes consume prescription drugs to get the grade that will satisfy? Or is it that in this time of economic crisis we are putting off “adulthood” and signing up for grad school, as if we were signing up for the army, and therefore making the prestige of having a Master’s degree obsolete?

As for us moving on the grad school simply because we aren’t confident we’ll get a job in these dire times: I understand that times are tough, but for us as students, putting off the working world is not going to make it better. Transitioning from a college student to a working stiff sucks no matter when you do it. We all have that realization that we no longer belong on the college campus, and yet we feel like we don’t yet belong in the working world. It happens, and you can’t make it disappear forever with another tuition check. Have a little self-confidence and conviction, and stick your neck out for once. Yes, you have been told at every single point in your life exactly what to do…up until now. It’s true that no one can tell you want to be but you, but you have to try. At some point Mom and Dad won’t be around to tell you what to do, so you must venture off on your own now. Make some mistakes, take some crappy jobs, have some bad interviews, and make something of yourself already!!

And for those who feel grad school necessary to excel in your job, I say shame on you universities. I blame the colleges for making graduate admissions a piece of cake, and advertising grad school as something that everyone can take part in. If everyone is doing it, what makes it so special? This trickles down to the working world, who can blame companies for requiring or “highly encouraging” masters degrees when 99% of the people who walk through their doors have a masters? I blame the schools for being greedy, I blame them for making us believe we can afford more higher education as they sky-rocket tuition rates, I blame them for making the working world that much harder for the rest of us. Even in education, sure I plan to get my masters–I feel it’s my responsibility to further my learning and my teacherly self–but do I really need a masters in anything-at-all to teach junior and senior level English? Because we all know it’s not work experience, classroom experience, or life experience that makes someone a good employee…it’s the piece of paper hanging from their wall.

On a side note, my friend Amy has made it clear that I might be harping on the wrong point here. It’s not that I don’t believe in bettering your education, and for many of the goal-setting, high-achieving people I know, grad school is a necessity. My problem is with the universities in themselves, creating a demand for master’s degrees and tarnishing the hard work that actually goes into receiving a BMA in something a little more challenging than underwater basket weaving.

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