Photo by UBC Library
My wife and I were recently conversing about the state of education in America. We discussed the statements of others about American students not being able to compete internationally in Math and Science. Although we did not fully agree with such statements, my wife, who is an Elementary School teacher, gave some possible reasons why such a thing could happen in the future. Of the several things she stated, one particular thing really caught my attention. She said that Americans went to school for the wrong reasons. Instead of seeking to gain knowledge about a particular subject, she said, many students attend school because they will get a better job upon finishing and have a higher salary.
I began to think about what she stated in light of some recent statistics . These statistics suggest that about 29% of Americans over 18 years old have a Bachelor’s degree. However, only about 1.2% of Americans over 25 have a PhD. These statistics also confirm that the more education one has, the higher the salary. So, if what my wife said is correct, one would expect to have a higher percentage of Americans with terminal degrees. However, the statistics suggest otherwise. Why is this so?
”If it was easy, everyone would do it.” -Anonymous
I think the reason is, to put it simply, graduate school is tough. It requires one to work long hours with very little pay (much lower than the average salary for persons with only a high school degree). Without a firm commitment to in-depth study and learning knowledge for it’s own sake, it’s close to impossible to finish graduate school. One has to love it. So, my advice to future graduate students, or new graduate students, is to make yourself love graduate school. Immerse yourself in the university environment. Hang out with other scientists. Read voraciously, but not just to finish the book, but to have a firm understanding of whatever you read. Lastly, try to have fun doing research, discovering the unknown.
Makes sense.
well said bro’‘
I agree with your wife. Though it’s not specific to Americans, I don’t think so. I am sometimes afraid that the value of knowledge for its own sake is getting lost, and is being replaced by the-value-of-a-degree-to-get-a-higher-salary. If something doesn’t result in monetary profit, what’s it good for? Or as I like to argue, what is the value of knowing that the universe expands? For all earthly matters it’s completely irrelevant, so the remaining value one can make up is that it’s useful to impress others and make you appear intelligent.
Just a side note on some of the data I found at the link I posted. Persons with a High School diploma (in the US) make around $31k/year. The current stipend here @ Vanderbilt is 25,500/year. Given that the tuition is probably around $50k/semester, which is free to PhD students, I guess I’m not very disappointed.
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