Opinion

A new correspondent writes: I am two years into the four year tenure process at my community college after having...

The honorable political pledge to "make college affordable" becomes a wolf in sheep’s clothing during a recession. And the wolf...

As the soufflé of an overleveraged economy collapses, it's easy to focus on the negative. I spent most of December...

Can't find a job? Don't go to grad school. The economy's tanking! Should I give up looking for a job...

When I'm not on campus, I farm. As a result, for the last 25+ years, I've lived a ways from...

Can't find a job? Don't go to grad school. The economy's tanking! Should I give up looking for a job and just go to graduate school? This seems to be the question of the moment, and everyone has an opinion. Few of the folks giving advice, though, are acknowledging a tough fact of life: as investments and state budgets dry up, so does education funding --which affects both admissions and employment. If you're a social worker, or you work for a non-profit, or in human services, then yes: I believe a master's in social work or public policy or urban planning or what have you will probably help your advancement. If you're a scientist, then there are industry jobs waiting for you--although my sense is that you might be better off working in the field for a while before picking a subfield. If you're a teacher, then a master's in education can help you move into administration and the higher salaries that go with it. I suppose MBAs might be useful degrees, though I confess, academic-by-training that I am, I haven't really the foggiest notion, except that there seem to be an awful lot of boring middle management types with MBAs. If you want a solid, dull, respectable 9-5 job, become a dentist or a self-employed lawyer. (If you want to become partner in a huge firm, you might as well get a PhD and aim for a job at Harvard: you'll go crazy either way.)

Not too long ago, I posted about how it's easier to defeat information-based change than to achieve it, particularly if...

The indomitable Professor Cohen writes in response to my most recent post about creative nonfiction and food: Okay, so I'm...