paying for grad school (was Re: Getting a graduate degree)
Dave Hull
dphull at insipid.com
Thu Jan 30 21:20:09 CST 2003
On Thu, 30 Jan 2003, Jonathan Hutchins wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "J. Eric Gilliland" <patzeric at yahoo.com>
>
> > > Hm, someone once told me that if you have to pay to go to
> > > grad school, you probably shouldn't be going.
>
> > I certainly don't think this is true. When did this person
> > tell you this? Perhaps this was true years ago, when
> > federal pell grants ...
>
> I don't think they were referring to grants or scholarships, but referring
> to employers paying for your advanced schooling.
The person that told me this was a GTA in the English department at KU. I
always thought she meant if you weren't going to grad school on a scholarship,
then you probably should not be going, but I never sought clarification.
That said, I think working for a company that is willing to pay for your
schooling qualifies.
IMO, real work experience is more important than classroom learning. However,
the world in which we live is filled with people who for better or worse, give
preferential treatment to people with degrees. I believe that management is
one area where this is especially true. Many employers only want folks with
MBA's in management positions.
More anecdotes, in my intro to Econ. class at KU many years ago, the professor
devoted the better part of a lecture to how a person going into the work force
straight out of high school at a minimum wage job could save 10% of her income
annually and by the magic of compound interest, could come out ahead of her
high school classmates who went to college for four years and then entered the
work force. I don't remember all of the details, but I remember enough of it
that I found it interesting.
Nevertheless, I will likely start working on either an MBA or a BS in CS at
some point in the future. I've got a decade of experience in the IT field, but
still don't feel my BS in History (don't laugh) holds much weight for
employment elsewhere. Oh, and my employer will pay for my degree.
--
Dave Hull
http://insipid.com
love, v.:
I'll let you play with my life if you'll let me play with yours.
More information about the Kclug
mailing list