Reply With QuoteHmmmmm. Let me get this straight here. People are going for 2nd and 3rd Masters, and there is no guarantee of finding a job. AND they are going into debt for this.
All I can say is: 'You want fries with that Diploma?'
Any thoughts or comments? http://www.suntimes.com/news/2831778...grad25.article
Pat Burks last sat in a college classroom in 1976, the year she graduated from DePaul University.
The 57-year-old nurse from Joliet found herself back on a different campus Wednesday, one of more than 60 men and women listening to a pitch for advanced nursing education from deans at Loyola University Chicago's Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing.
"I do want to teach [nursing]," which requires a master's degree, she said.
Graduate schools locally and nationally are posting record numbers of applicants and enrollments, whether looking to change careers, hoping to become more marketable or simply riding out the recession in the classroom.
"Students look at the jobs they want and see the individuals getting these jobs have master's degrees," said Nathan Bell, the Council of Graduate Schools' director of research and policy analysis. "We have to recognize the economy has played a role. We see this every time there is a recession, a huge increase in the applications to grad school and first-time enrollment in grad schools."
Health sciences saw the biggest growth -- nearly 15 percent -- nationally in applications from 2008 to 2009, according to a report Bell wrote for the Council of Graduate Schools. Interest in nursing primarily fueled the increase, he said.
Overall, the group's study found that new graduate-student enrollment grew 5.5 percent between 2008 and 2009, compared with 4.5 percent the prior year. Between 1999 and 2009, the average annual first-time graduate enrollment growth was nearly 5 percent for U.S. students and 3.3 percent for international students.
Local universities said the trend of booming applications and enrollment continued this year.
New DePaul master's students pushed enrollment at the school to its highest total ever. The Illinois Institute of Technology's business school increased enrollment by 28 percent. Applications for the University of Chicago's MBA program were up 12 percent.
Carlo Segre, IIT's associate dean for graduate enrollment and a physics professor, said most of the school's advanced-degree students are professionals who either can't find work or have a job where the company picks up tuition. The school also has a large international graduate student population.
"For domestic students, it's typically because they haven't found a job," he said. "It's something they can just continue on, put things off a year, get a little advanced training and be better equipped to find a job."
While some companies may be cutting perks like tuition assistance, Segre said for many of the school's engineering and computer science students, "if they want to keep employees, they will end up paying for advanced degrees."
It's not just advanced business or technical skills students are seeking. Loyola University said graduate programs in nursing enrolled 51 percent more this year over last year, and the social work and teaching graduate programs also saw more students applying and enrolling.
"We have quite a lot of career changers," said Ann Bezbatchenko, Loyola's director of graduate and professional enrollment management. "People are taking the opportunity to reassess what they would like to do."
Schools are adding seats in existing programs or adding new graduate majors and concentrations. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign added several master's degree programs, like an interdisciplinary master's in bioinformatics and a master's of financial engineering to help keep pace with emerging fields.
Even with new programs, the sour economy has left prospective or current graduate students wanting assurances that their significant educational investment, often primarily financed with student loans, will pay off.
"On the front end it's always important to know what alumni can offer and career services can offer," said Bezbatchenko. "Those concerns are greater than they have been in the past."
Nancy Nguyen just graduated with an MBA from DePaul's Charles H. Kellstadt Graduate School of Business. She also graduated with "six figures overhead," she said.
"You're coming out thinking I'm going to have to be paying my school back over 30 years," she said. "It's definitely a big investment."
Unemployed friends, she said, are choosing to stay in school.
"A lot of students because they can't find jobs are getting second and third master's," she said.
Despite the cost, she cited DePaul's MBA program as "the best experience."
"The community and the connections are really good," she said. "Right now, [the job market] is extremely competitive. If you know people, you can get in to the right HR people."
While she is happy to intervene on behalf of other students, the former corporate employee isn't reaching out to human resources.
Instead, she plans to be the one hiring. She bought a hair salon in North Carolina and is starting an e-commerce apparel business, her goal when she started graduate school.
"Everyone is looking for a job," she said. "It's a good time to create a job. The MBA gave me confidence."
Hmmmmm. Let me get this straight here. People are going for 2nd and 3rd Masters, and there is no guarantee of finding a job. AND they are going into debt for this.
All I can say is: 'You want fries with that Diploma?'
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