That was a great post. I am graduate student at Stanford (luckily with a fellowship!) and about to move on to the PhD track. I do know why I am doing what I am doing but sadly I have encountered LOTS of people who use grad school as “the snooze button of life”.

Of course this is so natural to happen since as a generation we were never encouraged to explore more of ourselves. Even when life tries to push us into this direction we resist! However, I think that is no news, and it was always the case (you are the history major, I guess you know better than me :) ).

Btw, I have learned TONS of stuff at Stanford! It is a great school!!!!

Maria

But a graduate degree is certainly no “golden ticket” no matter how it’s sold.

I don’t know, I feel like the first couple years of stanford, when you are trying to find yourself, might be better served by just trying to work or traveling away from Stanford. When we go on the path of middle->high school->university, there seems to be a path to follow forever, and no one knows how to think outside the box—and you should see this year’s graduating class, the one that has 60% unemployment—they are all completely lost.

I don’t know how to remedy this problem, other than a cultural shift towards a gap year, like every other country in the world. Bad for the economy, but good for individual students…maybe. Or maybe it’s just me.

Since you mentioned it, I started remembering all those speeches given by provosts, presidents, and professors, telling us how privileged we were to be taking these amazing classes and mingling with such intelligent and talented peers.

If that doesn’t kick in the endowment effect, I don’t know what would!

Grad degrees in business, law, medicine and a few others tend to be fairly vocational and correspondingly guarantee their recipients a spot in those fields - for the most part.

That’s not counting all the people who get through it, thinking it’s what they want, and then realize that working at the i-bank wasn’t really their lifelong dream after all. Which brings our brave hero right back to square one.

If an MBA does happen to speed you along to the McKinsey position of your dreams, then that’s great because business school was the enabler. It’s only a problem when school is the stopgap.

Thanks for the thoughtful insight Matt!

But I don’t quite agree on the benefits of academic courses. Though I learned a ton in college, I feel like there is an endowment effect occurring, and I try to value course work well above its implicit value. Sure, I learned structure and analysis…but was it really all necessary? I’m sure the MBA’s pitch the same benefits, but outsiders like you and I see right through it.

And an MBA is an awesome golden ticket. If you’re in a parallel industry to business, the degree guarantees you a seat an I-bank or consulting firm.

But overall, totally agree. Nice post. :)