Higher education is supposedly in upheaval. All too often, colleges are shutting down and universities are terminating tenured faculty.
But a bright spot, at least at a brandname university like Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is enrollment for graduate and professional degrees. That includes the Ph.D. - up 1.5 percent. Yet the majority of advanced degrees have an iffy ROI. The Wall Street Journal, some career coaches such as myself and those participating in professional anonymous networks Reddit, Glassdoor, Fishbowl and Blind warn about low ROI. Also, there are job searchers who have decided it’s smart to delete those degrees from the resume.
So, what could this be happening? Why are those with a BA/BS returning to campus for a graduate or professional degree.
I have a hunch.
So today, unusually warm for late September, I returned to the University of Michigan campus where I had spent six years. The ethos was forever-young. For all ages.
Dressed casually but in brands, sauntering along slow members of every generation soaked up the charm of what is baked into central campus. Oh, they were spending money. The quaint stores and coffee shops with what seemed to me overpriced beverages were packed.
But the message delivered in that lifestyle was that you don’t need money. Not a lot. Staus goes on-hold. It’s okay even if you’re approaching middle age to get shelter in a former single family house divided up into what can be rented out separately. The hell with the McMansion.
Okay, new cars can cost almost half a hundred-thousand. No need for any of that. The bus system, free to students, takes you lots of places. The bikes, mopeds and scooters cost peanuts.
And so much to do. Mostly free. Around campus are still the kiosks that were everywhere when I matriculated for the Ph.D.
The ethos casts a spell. Within that force field you are lifted into the extreme hope of potential. After you get that degree …
I wanted more of that. Maybe needed it. Although my doctoral studies weren’t marketable I went on to matriculating for a professional degree at Harvard.
Of course, spells are cast elsewhere.
In Big Law, for example, those stars have made their money. Enjoyed heady success. But they at Paul, Weiss, Kirkland & Ellis, Skadden and more remain in the force field, enduring what some would consider impossible hours, hyper-demanding clients and the peculiar twists and turns of dealmaking and litigation.
There are also the Generation Z and Millennial travelers. For those exciting journeys they’re willing to go into debt. They’re not doing it the way we Boomers did with our dog-eared bible “Europe on 5 Dollars a Day.”
Another force field is the rapid building of wealth. Or that is the hope. Several of my clients have lost much.
Me now? A number of clients for my tarot-readings sessions indicate that I’d make a great minister. The total cost for a year at Yale Divinity School is $55,884. Should I be tempted?