We can put some of the blame to Capella whose ideas on what constitutes a college education still holds sway in the halls of academe. As a result there has been steady degree inflation and discontent with curriculum composition. The bachelor’s degree of today is viewed by most who employ graduates as little better than a high school graduate of twenty years ago. At the same time a graduate degree is even worse because of its heightened irrelevancy.
Now, having said that I can offer a bit of impeachment if we focus on the technical disciplines (again, the absence or exception of Capella) outside the top rank universities. Research and development is now the engine of modern society’s economics. In this environment a bachelor’s degree in engineering or science or maths is enough to assure a position as a technician. Full performance and successful career demand at least a master’s degree and in some situations a doctorate. Management is dominated by individuals with a doctorate and something equivalent to an MBA.
No, this is not academia. There is no tenure and writing is more about communication than social status, but the technical graduate schools are not failures. Somewhat whacked, but not broken.

Why would anyone believe that a degree, at any level, would be a “guarantee” of a position, let alone a “forever” position? The degree simply states you have completed a course of study. It does not even state how well you performed. The success you achieve with that degree is entirely up to you. One problem I see with graduating PhD’s is the expectation that “then a miracle happens” and a dream job just lands in your lap. It takes work, effort and often a less than perfect job first. I returned to school once my children were grown – a dream of mine was to obtain my doctoral degree. I had no illusions that it would guarantee me anything – I just love my field and wanted the opportunity to intensely study it. I left a very good position in biotechology, realizing I would probably never make that kind of money again. I wanted to teach, and did not much care about tenure – I don’t need a guarantee and am willing to prove myself on a daily basis. My degree is in biology, so the expectation was lab work, not teaching…but I was a TA and took courses in pedagogy, worked with the Center for Teaching Excellence and taught at a small college during the last two years of my degree studies. I subsequently heard that teaching outside the college was frowned upon, but I never asked – I just did it because I knew I would need experience actually teaching to get the position I wanted once I graduated. I made sure my research did not suffer, which means I worked my butt off! But, it paid off. I wanted to teach at a small, liberal-arts rural college. My desire is to work with undergraduates, first generation college students. I want to give them high-quality science education, and the support needed to get them to the next level, so they can fly and find their dreams. And, here I am, completing my first year of a tenure-track position. Now, I realize this is not everyone’s dream. But, there are a lot of rural schools looking for people. No, the pay isn’t great, but hey – the cost of living here is not high. And, it is an amazing proving ground – work hard here achieve, and use it to work towards that perfect job. Your doctoral degree is not the end of your education….it is just another beginning.

I believe there is a ton of truth behind this article! I wrote a blog post a few days before on basically the same topic but it pertains specifically to Chicago and how we can start fixing this problem!

Please check out my article at http://bit.ly/QLX3P

Any feedback/Comments will be greatly appreciated!