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Many graduate students delaying degree

January 18, 2011
Second year clinical social work graduate students Eric VanBuskirk and Sierra Gardner discuss emotion Tuesday in their SOC 851 class. Nationally, between fall or 2008 and fall of 2009 the number of graduate school applications increased 8.3%. Matt Hallowell/The State News
Second year clinical social work graduate students Eric VanBuskirk and Sierra Gardner discuss emotion Tuesday in their SOC 851 class. Nationally, between fall or 2008 and fall of 2009 the number of graduate school applications increased 8.3%. Matt Hallowell/The State News —
Photo by Matt Hallowell | and Matt Hallowell The State News

A more competitive job market is the driving force behind an increased number of students applying for master’s degrees and spending more years in school earning the degree.

Between fall 2008 and fall 2009, the number of applications to graduate schools increased 8.3 percent, according to the most recent report by the Council of Graduate Schools, a national advocacy group.

Although the number of applicants to MSU graduate programs has not seen a major increase, the number of applications has increased steadily about 5 to 7 percent in the past several years, said Karen Klomparens, dean of the Graduate School. However, the changes aren’t detected easily.

“When you have 12,000 applications and you’re spreading those across 130 different departments, those can be four or five new ones you didn’t see a year before,” Klomparens said.

Each year at MSU, about 10,000 to 12,000 applications are received and 1,600 students are accepted to nonmedical and law programs. However, fewer students are being accepted because of cuts within departments. The large number of graduate students staying more than the standard length of time in the schools also prevents some new students from being accepted. In fall 2010, about 150 to 200 MSU graduate students who were expected to leave their program stayed an additional year, Klomparens said.

“When I talk to graduate students and faculty, one of the reasons they give me was that last year the job market was not very good,” Klomparens said. “The students decided to stay in their department and do a really good job on their thesis or dissertation.”

Klomparens said the graduate program also was growing through online courses such as teaching, nursing and social work. The students in these program usually are adults with job experience, homes and families who are earning their master’s to become more competitive in the workplace, she said.

“As knowledge expands and people are expected to know more, a bachelor’s degree is becoming not enough,” Klomparens said.

The pressure to compete is not only present for older adults, but college students as well. Ellen Whipple, an MSU professor of social work, said she has seen a tremendous increase in the number of applications for a master’s in social work.

“As jobs are getting tighter in our agencies there’s simply less you can do with a bachelor’s degree,” Whipple said. “You have to have a master’s.”

Stefan Fletcher, a graduate law student and president of the Council of Graduate Students, said students opting for extra education rather than entering the job market is common.

“I know several individuals who have gone to extend their educational stay to not enter the job market at a time where it’s weak,” Fletcher said. “(They are gaining) more education, which they believe will help them increase their market ability potential when the job market gets better.”

However, those with a higher degree might face just as much job competition as those with a bachelor’s degree, said Matt Helm, director of Ph.D. Career Services.

“It all depends on the degree and the field and the need for an advanced degree in that field,” Helm said.

“Students are going back to school thinking that that’s going to solve the problem with unemployment, and that’s not proving to be true in some fields.”

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