The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Worst Side Effect of Recession? Endless Plague of Perpetual Grad Students

Posted on | July 5, 2010 | 35 Comments

OK, this is a pet peeve of mine from way back. When I was in college in the late ’70s and early ’80s, there was a distinct group of hippie leftovers who hung around the campus pub a lot while, supposedly, working on their master’s degrees.

They didn’t seem particularly smart or studious. Rather, they struck me as having fallen in love with the student lifestyle, which was far less strenuous than going out into the world to work for a living. And then there was that one ditzy girl from my art classes (I minored in art with an emphasis in graphic design) who, at homecoming a couple years after graduation, informed me that she was now pursuing a master’s degree.

At the time, my day job was forklift driver in an industrial warehouse, and I realized that this chick was going to grad school not because she had any special aptitude, but rather because her Daddy could afford it.

From personal experiences with these “perpetual student” types, I formed a perception of them as indolent and overprivileged, seeking sanctuary from the hardships of the real world. They reminded me of a line from Ghostbusters:

Personally, I liked the university. They gave us money and facilities. We didn’t have to produce anything! You’ve never been out of college! You don’t know what it’s like out there! I’ve worked in the private sector. They expect results.

Which brings us to this story from the Wall Street Journal:

College graduates who took a detour around the weak job market by going back for advanced degrees are beginning to emerge from those programs — and finding job prospects aren’t much better than they were a couple of years ago. . . .
Caitlin Johnson, 23 years old. . . 2009 graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a B.S. in computer-science and engineering, she said she was unable to land any of the 10 positions she applied for.
So she opted to stay at MIT for her master’s in engineering. Having just finished her first year of the two-year program, Ms. Johnson said she might look for a job at the end of the summer to start after she completes the degree next year. But finding graduate school more appealing and facing a job market that remains weak, she said she would most likely go on to earn her Ph.D. . . .

(Notice she “opted to stay at MIT,” where tuition is $37,782 a year. Spending Daddy’s money, you see.)

Aneri Patel, 25, graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2007 with an undergraduate degree in international relations. She landed a good job with a consulting firm, but decided to go to the London School of Economics in 2008 to learn more about climate change and be a stronger candidate in the job market. She never imagined how bad the job market would get while she was overseas in graduate school.
Since returning from London in January — her advanced degree in hand — she said she had applied for dozens of positions, but had yet to secure work.
“With international work experience, coupled with my internships at fairly respectable places and my master’s, I thought I’d get immediate interviews,” she said. “It was tough.”

Life is tough when you’re an international relations major with special training in “climate change.” Maybe you should have studied something useful, like alchemy, phrenology or necromancy.

Anyway, instead of getting a job as a waitress or a retail clerk — i.e., earning your keep while looking for something closer to your preferred line of work — these overprivileged slackers go back to grad school and mooch along for another couple of years. The final wisdom here comes from Monty at AOSHQ:

Many students get stuck in a “failure to launch” cycle that is familiar to the situation in Europe: students endlessly chase meaningless degrees that have no practical application in the real world mainly because academia is an alternative to holding a job rather than training for a job.

Category: Economics, Education

Comments

35 Responses to “Worst Side Effect of Recession? Endless Plague of Perpetual Grad Students”

  1. Joe
    July 5th, 2010 @ 7:44 pm

    But you can train them to make a hell of a cup of coffee.

  2. Joe
    July 5th, 2010 @ 3:44 pm

    But you can train them to make a hell of a cup of coffee.

  3. Joe
    July 5th, 2010 @ 7:46 pm

    I love this scene. It was of course made with a lefty perspective, but it is actually the opposite. Total fantasy but entertaining.

  4. Joe
    July 5th, 2010 @ 3:46 pm

    I love this scene. It was of course made with a lefty perspective, but it is actually the opposite. Total fantasy but entertaining.

  5. Rob
    July 5th, 2010 @ 7:50 pm

    As a ’08 grad with a B.S. in bizniz; I can assure you that the trend is alive and well since the 70’s, especially among my peers at two different universities. In my two year detour looking for “meaningful employment”, I found that the skills I learned over that two years help me (knock on wood) land my dream job!

  6. Rob
    July 5th, 2010 @ 3:50 pm

    As a ’08 grad with a B.S. in bizniz; I can assure you that the trend is alive and well since the 70’s, especially among my peers at two different universities. In my two year detour looking for “meaningful employment”, I found that the skills I learned over that two years help me (knock on wood) land my dream job!

  7. Greg Hlatky
    July 5th, 2010 @ 8:20 pm

    In the STEM disciplines, this isn’t necessarily Daddy’s money. The tuition may be waived and the grad student gets a stipend as well.

  8. Greg Hlatky
    July 5th, 2010 @ 4:20 pm

    In the STEM disciplines, this isn’t necessarily Daddy’s money. The tuition may be waived and the grad student gets a stipend as well.

  9. thirteen28
    July 5th, 2010 @ 8:24 pm

    “And then there was that one ditzy girl from my art classes (I minored in art with an emphasis in graphic design) who, at homecoming a couple years after graduation, informed me that she was now pursuing a master’s degree.”

    Was her name “Tanya”?

  10. thirteen28
    July 5th, 2010 @ 4:24 pm

    “And then there was that one ditzy girl from my art classes (I minored in art with an emphasis in graphic design) who, at homecoming a couple years after graduation, informed me that she was now pursuing a master’s degree.”

    Was her name “Tanya”?

  11. Mary Rose
    July 5th, 2010 @ 8:31 pm

    Amen for Monty!

    I had the same opinions of those who stayed in college to pursue higher degrees. Some did want to actually do something with those degrees, but most, IMO, were cowards. Too scared of the world, too scared to try and fail, too scared, period. And.. sad to say – my current day job is run by someone who spent all their time in an ivory tower as a university dean but never held a job in the private sector. As you might have suspected, it’s disastrous.

    I had no idea you also were an artist! My major was graphic design before I switched to communications. I wish I could introduce those slugs to a young man I’ve recently met and will hopefully work with on some projects.

    “Ben” began his life in a small Ohio town and developed and honed an interest in computers. Before long, he was the “go-to” kid for small business in his town who wanted to put up a website. He started to do this as a part-time job. He graduated from H.S., and attended a nearby university, still servicing those clients and a few new ones.

    Meanwhile, he found that his university offered an entrepreneurship program. He took it. His small town clientele started to grow and he enrolled the help of a friend to handle what he couldn’t. Then, with another friend, approached the university with a proposal to redesign their entire website. It was accepted. Since they couldn’t legally use his services and write it off within their work-study program, he created a new business and contracted the work.

    He ended up as the president of the university’s entrepreneur organization, and as he graduates with a double Bachelor’s in computer engineering and mathematics (with a minor in entrepreneurship), he now is the owner of his own computer business that provides small to medium-sized business with website development, software development, and POS, just to name a few. He has two full-time employees and five part-time. He is 22 years old.

    Is it any wonder that I look at this kid and feel hope for our future? May we have more of them. Many more.

    Meanwhile, I’m hoping to get some work from this young turk. 😉

  12. Mary Rose
    July 5th, 2010 @ 4:31 pm

    Amen for Monty!

    I had the same opinions of those who stayed in college to pursue higher degrees. Some did want to actually do something with those degrees, but most, IMO, were cowards. Too scared of the world, too scared to try and fail, too scared, period. And.. sad to say – my current day job is run by someone who spent all their time in an ivory tower as a university dean but never held a job in the private sector. As you might have suspected, it’s disastrous.

    I had no idea you also were an artist! My major was graphic design before I switched to communications. I wish I could introduce those slugs to a young man I’ve recently met and will hopefully work with on some projects.

    “Ben” began his life in a small Ohio town and developed and honed an interest in computers. Before long, he was the “go-to” kid for small business in his town who wanted to put up a website. He started to do this as a part-time job. He graduated from H.S., and attended a nearby university, still servicing those clients and a few new ones.

    Meanwhile, he found that his university offered an entrepreneurship program. He took it. His small town clientele started to grow and he enrolled the help of a friend to handle what he couldn’t. Then, with another friend, approached the university with a proposal to redesign their entire website. It was accepted. Since they couldn’t legally use his services and write it off within their work-study program, he created a new business and contracted the work.

    He ended up as the president of the university’s entrepreneur organization, and as he graduates with a double Bachelor’s in computer engineering and mathematics (with a minor in entrepreneurship), he now is the owner of his own computer business that provides small to medium-sized business with website development, software development, and POS, just to name a few. He has two full-time employees and five part-time. He is 22 years old.

    Is it any wonder that I look at this kid and feel hope for our future? May we have more of them. Many more.

    Meanwhile, I’m hoping to get some work from this young turk. 😉

  13. Jamie
    July 5th, 2010 @ 9:00 pm

    I love the conclusion the article draws–students from MIT and UNC-Chapel Hill who are $ 90K in debt because they just had to go to an elite school are upset they cannot get jobs that will make them rich before their 30th birthday, so they hide out in academia where they are still special.

    Bonus points for assuming the rest of us have the same problem.

    I have a small army of friends with master’s, doctoral, law, and medical degrees who wet to places like the University of South Carolina, Georgia State, and lowly Campbell university in the great metropolis of Bouis Creek, North Carolina. All earned their degrees at at least half the price of their elitist counterparts at MIT and Duke, got decent jobs, and paid off their loans in five to seven years with wise sacrifices.

    The problem is not the job market. It is the bad decisions made by arrogant kids who expect to never have to start at the bottom anywhere. Or at least rack up so much debt, they cannot start at the bottom even if they have to.

  14. Jamie
    July 5th, 2010 @ 5:00 pm

    I love the conclusion the article draws–students from MIT and UNC-Chapel Hill who are $ 90K in debt because they just had to go to an elite school are upset they cannot get jobs that will make them rich before their 30th birthday, so they hide out in academia where they are still special.

    Bonus points for assuming the rest of us have the same problem.

    I have a small army of friends with master’s, doctoral, law, and medical degrees who wet to places like the University of South Carolina, Georgia State, and lowly Campbell university in the great metropolis of Bouis Creek, North Carolina. All earned their degrees at at least half the price of their elitist counterparts at MIT and Duke, got decent jobs, and paid off their loans in five to seven years with wise sacrifices.

    The problem is not the job market. It is the bad decisions made by arrogant kids who expect to never have to start at the bottom anywhere. Or at least rack up so much debt, they cannot start at the bottom even if they have to.

  15. Rob
    July 5th, 2010 @ 11:24 pm

    Irony is that a fair amount of my peers encouraged me to join them in grad school two years ago. In two years I learned the skills necessary to do my dream job (knock on wood), I’m expecting a job offer by the end of the week.

  16. Rob
    July 5th, 2010 @ 7:24 pm

    Irony is that a fair amount of my peers encouraged me to join them in grad school two years ago. In two years I learned the skills necessary to do my dream job (knock on wood), I’m expecting a job offer by the end of the week.

  17. weenus multiplex
    July 6th, 2010 @ 12:01 am

    a BS in computers and engineering from MIT and she can’t find a job? sorry. i don’t believe it. she can’t find the job she wants, that’s all.

  18. weenus multiplex
    July 5th, 2010 @ 8:01 pm

    a BS in computers and engineering from MIT and she can’t find a job? sorry. i don’t believe it. she can’t find the job she wants, that’s all.

  19. Adobe Walls
    July 6th, 2010 @ 1:29 am

    @ Jamie: Go Camels! In 2007 I was in charge of the concrete contract for Campbell’s new convocation center. A small University in an even smaller town but with an excellent reputation.

  20. Adobe Walls
    July 5th, 2010 @ 9:29 pm

    @ Jamie: Go Camels! In 2007 I was in charge of the concrete contract for Campbell’s new convocation center. A small University in an even smaller town but with an excellent reputation.

  21. Michael Bates
    July 6th, 2010 @ 2:07 am

    As an MIT grad in 1986, I came back to Oklahoma and got a job during the big oil bust, the worst economy locally since Dust Bowl days. There are plenty of companies desperate for computer science grads (including the one I work for). It’s a job-seeker’s market, IF you’re willing to go where the jobs are. That may be Miss Caitlin’s problem.

  22. Michael Bates
    July 5th, 2010 @ 10:07 pm

    As an MIT grad in 1986, I came back to Oklahoma and got a job during the big oil bust, the worst economy locally since Dust Bowl days. There are plenty of companies desperate for computer science grads (including the one I work for). It’s a job-seeker’s market, IF you’re willing to go where the jobs are. That may be Miss Caitlin’s problem.

  23. Michael Bates
    July 6th, 2010 @ 2:09 am

    Oh, and what Greg Hlatky said. Those are likely your tax dollars at work keeping Miss Caitlin snug and cozy in academia for two more years.

  24. Michael Bates
    July 5th, 2010 @ 10:09 pm

    Oh, and what Greg Hlatky said. Those are likely your tax dollars at work keeping Miss Caitlin snug and cozy in academia for two more years.

  25. Stylin Ping Pong with Junior and Paco 2
    July 5th, 2010 @ 10:15 pm

    […] Worst Side Effect of Recession? Endless Plague of Perpetual Grad … […]

  26. Roxeanne de Luca
    July 6th, 2010 @ 4:49 am

    Oh, the employers are just as moronic as well, if they grew up to be that sheltered and pampered.

    I’ve had employers tell me to get a LLM to wait out the economy. That would cost about $60,000 – on top of my $300,000 education that I already have. A LLM is totally, ridiculously unnecessary for the type of law I want to practise. (It’s good for international and tax law; not for much else, beyond padding the coffers of elite universities.) These people do not understand my choices to work two jobs – one that pays the bills, and one that is rewarding – while I wait out the economy.

    Ivory-tower thinking is a contagious disease.

  27. Roxeanne de Luca
    July 6th, 2010 @ 12:49 am

    Oh, the employers are just as moronic as well, if they grew up to be that sheltered and pampered.

    I’ve had employers tell me to get a LLM to wait out the economy. That would cost about $60,000 – on top of my $300,000 education that I already have. A LLM is totally, ridiculously unnecessary for the type of law I want to practise. (It’s good for international and tax law; not for much else, beyond padding the coffers of elite universities.) These people do not understand my choices to work two jobs – one that pays the bills, and one that is rewarding – while I wait out the economy.

    Ivory-tower thinking is a contagious disease.

  28. Bob Belvedere
    July 6th, 2010 @ 12:21 pm

    1) Life is tough when you’re an international relations major with special training in “climate change.” Maybe you should have studied something useful, like alchemy, phrenology or necromancy. ZING! Beautiful, Stacy – I wish I had written that.

    2) A good friend of mine was a student for eleven years before getting his four-year degree. Thankfully, he woke up in the early ’90s, entered the Army, is now a major with several tours in the METO under his belt.

  29. Bob Belvedere
    July 6th, 2010 @ 8:21 am

    1) Life is tough when you’re an international relations major with special training in “climate change.” Maybe you should have studied something useful, like alchemy, phrenology or necromancy. ZING! Beautiful, Stacy – I wish I had written that.

    2) A good friend of mine was a student for eleven years before getting his four-year degree. Thankfully, he woke up in the early ’90s, entered the Army, is now a major with several tours in the METO under his belt.

  30. Ben (The Tiger)
    July 6th, 2010 @ 4:26 pm

    Peccavi.

  31. Ben (The Tiger)
    July 6th, 2010 @ 12:26 pm

    Peccavi.

  32. Kev
    July 6th, 2010 @ 9:16 pm

    When I was in school, it seemed like there were two types of grad students: Those who came back to school after working for a while, and those who continued straight from undergrad school. The ones who came back from the working world were in quite a bit more of a hurry. (And I understand why; as a continuing student, my $950/month paycheck as a teaching fellow seemed pretty cool, but it paled in comparison to what I made after I got my master’s.)

    BTW, not *all* seemingly “professional” students are slackers. I spread out my master’s over six years, but there was a reason; until I got that teaching fellowship, I was paying for everything myself, so I worked in my field three days a week and took classes the other two. It ended up being beneficial to me to be able to apply what I was learning to my work.

  33. Kev
    July 6th, 2010 @ 5:16 pm

    When I was in school, it seemed like there were two types of grad students: Those who came back to school after working for a while, and those who continued straight from undergrad school. The ones who came back from the working world were in quite a bit more of a hurry. (And I understand why; as a continuing student, my $950/month paycheck as a teaching fellow seemed pretty cool, but it paled in comparison to what I made after I got my master’s.)

    BTW, not *all* seemingly “professional” students are slackers. I spread out my master’s over six years, but there was a reason; until I got that teaching fellowship, I was paying for everything myself, so I worked in my field three days a week and took classes the other two. It ended up being beneficial to me to be able to apply what I was learning to my work.

  34. Katherine
    August 10th, 2010 @ 10:43 pm

    I agree that people in some humanities fields may be postponing reality by remaining in school. But I respect people with advanced degrees in the “hard” (read: not “soft”) sciences. Most just don’t seem like the type to avoid hard work. (Otherwise, they would’ve gone into women’s studies.)

  35. Katherine
    August 10th, 2010 @ 6:43 pm

    I agree that people in some humanities fields may be postponing reality by remaining in school. But I respect people with advanced degrees in the “hard” (read: not “soft”) sciences. Most just don’t seem like the type to avoid hard work. (Otherwise, they would’ve gone into women’s studies.)