Honorable Forum:
I don't know how much any master's degree is worth; some are very expensive
(e.g. at "for profit" "universities" which scandously push student loans
that will come back to haunt and bite students in later life) and will
saddle a person with impossible debt, others can be had at less cost but be
of much greater value. Still, I know of cases where state
universities/departments/professors have royally screwed good students who
wanted to stick to their studies and stay out of academic politics, causing
them to waste time jumping through ceremonial hoops, extending the time by
years required to "get their Ph.D.s" and wrecking their lives, just to
demonstrate their power, intimidating, mostly through bluff, both the
administration and the students. That's a long way of saying that, whether
on-line or at "prestigious" universities, it pays to check them out
thoroughly.
The Internet is increasingly a highly valuable resource (even the fact that
there is entirely bogus material on it is a plus, as it teaches a healthy
skepticism--one has to work very hard to separate the sheep from the goats,
but that's true in more formal settings too). This is close to free, mainly
requiring time, dedication, and commitment to learning. Many of the best
universities are posting complete course material on their web sites. Also
free. Increasingly, Open Access journals and Open Source software are
opening doors for the dedicated, the passionate, the hard-working (and
therefore hardly huddled) masses to breathe the free air of intellectual
discourse, free from the arbitrary, the bureaucratic, the imperious
egocentrics in "higher" education that must be avoided like land mines by
anyone dedicated enough to pursue knowledge rather than anointment by
grant-driven, bloated institutions crying poverty and hanging ever more
onerous costs upon students, even as they make poster-children of a few of
"the poor" to cover up their arteriosclerosis and parasitic behavior.
Why would being "out of the country" for a few years need to postpone
learning? Especially if one is going to the ends of the earth, ecology, is,
if anything, set in starker contrast in, say, Afghanistan than, say, the
rain forest. Wherever one is, ecology is with you, from a chunk of alley
pavement under a dripping faucet or a tree shorn off by bombs in the
mountains of Afghanistan, to the patterns seen from high in the air. The
accumulated observations and continuously-tested connections between them of
an aware existence my not qualify as research or ever be published or in of
themselves gain one any "credit" or credentials, but they can add up to a
sharpened facility for understanding more formal studies.
What counts the most in any realm of learning is the dedication to honest
work and living rather than "getting a job," say, or even "a Ph.D." Granted,
one is unlikely to get grants without some sort of certification, and a
Ph.D. opens a lot of doors, but while it may be a ticket to ride, and it may
be proof that one survived a severe test of determination, it does not
automatically qualify anyone in anything. It remains a useful measure and a
convenient way of culling out mere pretenders or self-deluded wannabes, but
it is a high perch which can either be perceived as a launching pad to yet
greater understanding and a lifetime of increasingly difficult (and
therefore highly pleasurable) self-examination or a "position" which must be
defended at all costs (and therefore a kind of personal hell-on-earth).
If one can afford the best universities, they can be both a means to an end
and a mind-altering experience. But here and there there are small colleges,
and in them lesser-known professors, librarians, and others who endure the
agony and the ecstasy of going beyond the curriculum, as it were, and
nurturing and nourishing and facilitating true learning, greatly speeding up
the process of individual development. The universal indicator seems to be
joy! Hunting down the joyful, wherever they are, might not be a bad way to
approach one's accelerated understanding of Nature. And books, of course.
Almost all of Darwin's books, for example, are available on-line. Darwin's
correspondence is now being published--maybe $1,000 on that would be a
better way to spend a limited budget than paying some entity that is in it
primarily for the money and "prestige."
If one wants a sales tool, all of this may seem irrelevant drivel. But I
can't imagine why such a person would be drawn to ecology in the first
place, even though that doesn't mean that none are. One can struggle without
any sales tools at all, or with inadequate certifications or degrees, and
this becomes increasingly possible as the number of applicants outstrips the
fixed capacities of the institutions of accept them, driving the cost of
institutional education higher and higher, and, some would argue, its
quality, in some respects, down. Class sizes alone make those after-class
beers with professors that last deep into the night, seem a distant fantasy.
The face-to-face critically joyous interaction between others of similar
interest and dedication is a crucial ingredient, but so is the quiet
contemplation in reading books and other media, as is the supreme experience
of being in the middle of all ecosystems great and small--which, of course,
all of us are.
McNeely is certainly right that any learning that one gets is useful in life
and in any kind of work. All experience is preparation for being tested, but
it is perhaps debatable whether or not being tested, especially with those
linear devices still cherished by institutions of academic torture, is
equally preparation for experience.
Why would anyone turn down any form of learning other than on the basis of
its being irrelevant or inadequate? And why would anyone accept any form of
advertising alone as evidence of competence?
WT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Whitley, Mahogany" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, November 20, 2010 9:25 PM
Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Master's Degree Online? Need Feedback
Hello Ecologgers,
I have a question that I need feedback on.
I was wondering about your thoughts on how much an online master's degree
is worth. Is it worth it to get the degree online, or wait a few years to
try for it? Is there a difference in the importance and weight of the
degree when looking to apply for a doctorate program or job?
I will be out of the country for a few years, but I do not wish to wait to
start my Master's program. Should I?
I do not know what a university's graduate program would think of an
online degree? Would they think it useless since there is no actual
face-to-face instruction involved? Or would they accept it and me into
their program? Is there a way to make an online degree worth their
attention?
What are your thoughts?
Thank you,
Mahogany Bullock
Texas Tech University
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