This essay outlines my personal philosophy on graduate school, its importance in our careers, and how to approach it. It also reflects my own observations from classes that I’ve taught and taken.
Success—the Degree?
What is success in graduate school? Each of us has one obvious goal, and that’s getting a degree to evidence our skills in our chosen profession. Beyond that, though, how should we conduct ourselves in graduate school to advance ourselves in our careers?
The simplest definition of success in graduate school is that it’s the degree. Of course, a high GPA makes the degree more beneficial professionally..
Does that mean the easiest way to succeed in graduate school is to earn the degree by taking the fewest tough courses and doing the least amount of work to get good grades?
This might be your goal. It’s a valid approach, and one that many adopt. I call these people “students”.
Success—Skills?
Success in graduate school can be viewed from a broader perspective, encompassing not only obtaining a degree and achieving a high GPA but also the ambition to develop extensive professional skills. In our pursuit of these skills, we would actively seek out challenging courses that push our limits. Striving for good grades will motivate us to study diligently for each class, putting out a full effort on every assignment to maximize our learning from every experience.
Some students adopt a proactive perspective that truly distinguishes them in the classroom. They actively participate in crucial discussions, tackle assignments with dedication, and immerse themselves in the course material. As a result, professors are eager to engage with these students, favoring meaningful intellectual exchanges over merely dispensing information and grading assignments. Their genuine enthusiasm and consistent effort earn them favorable recognition, leading to special opportunities such as glowing letters of recommendation that significantly enhance their career prospects, often connecting them with job opportunities through their professors’ networks.
I call these people “scholars”.
The Consequences
Each of us must choose a path to follow. None of us is purely one or the other, of course; we all are part student, part scholar. We all work harder when things are more interesting, and we work less when we are turned off by a course or a professor or when other attractive ways to spend time may beckon. But the basic decision is there—scholar or student? Which are you? Which do you want to be?
When graduation arrives, what are the consequences of the approach that you’ve selected? Are the students for jobs or go on in school? After all, they have the degree, and they have the grades. And they’ve had time to also have a very good time, to enjoy all that the Nation’s Capital has to offer people who are smart, young and curious.
What about the scholars, who’ve had far fewer great social experiences? What rewards do they reap?
During interviews, hiring managers recognize that nearly all graduate students achieve good grades. They understand that lower grades may indicate challenging coursework or demanding professors, so grade point averages are not the sole deciding factor in hiring. Instead, interviewers examine academic backgrounds and pose technical questions related to specific courses the candidate has completed, assessing their practical knowledge of these subjects. Scholars typically excel in this context; their extensive learning enables them to engage in in-depth discussions about the topics they studied. In contrast, many students struggle in these situations, often lacking a thorough understanding of the coursework they have completed.
What about letters of recommendation? Some professors proactively offer personalized recommendations to their top-performing students, investing time to create thoughtful and individualized letters for subsequent requests. However, it’s crucial to recognize that some professors may hesitate to write recommendations, or if they do, they may resort to generic templates used for all students. It’s important for interviewers and admissions committees to understand that anyone can obtain a standard letter, and they are aware that professors cannot dedicate time to crafting personalized letters for every student. Personally, my policy is to provide recommendations. only to those who achieve high “A” grades in my courses.
The longest-lasting consequences that I see are in the career arena. There’s a sharp difference on the job between the people who really worked—and learned—in graduate school and those who just sailed through. The scholars have a working knowledge of a lot of concepts and can take hold and advance themselves; they become the knowledgeable people who advance at work, who are always called on when there’s an interesting, challenging problem to solve. And they reap the rewards for this. The students typically have less technical knowledge than one would expect from someone with a graduate degree and have more mediocre careers.
The scholars also have a sounder platform for lifelong learning. All through our careers, things will change, and the issues we’re dealing with will be different from the ones we saw yesterday. Here, too, the scholars have the advantage—they’ve learned not only a catalog of knowledge, but also, they’ve learned how to acquire knowledge. Their ability to keep up and know the latest developments in their professions tends to make them the most valuable people at work.
There is also the benefit of acquiring good work habits! The student who takes that same approach to professional work won’t advance and perhaps won’t even keep a job. In the workplace, a professional is expected to complete the assigned task and deliver value beyond just the task that was assigned. The scholars are in the habit of doing this, and their generous contributions to work efforts are appreciated and recognized. The student’s approach in the workplace produces an employee who shirks responsibility and tries to hide a lack of contribution. Such a person won’t advance and may have worse consequences when their lack of contribution is fully understood by their employer.
Finally, there’s the matter of personal satisfaction. Do you want to really understand the things you study in school, and when you start your career, do you want to be working with concepts you really understand, or do you want to struggle for decades, working with concepts you didn’t bother to learn in graduate school? A lengthy career spent learning and maturing is much more satisfying than a career spent doing as little as possible and trying to avoid accountability.