I am really considering taking a Master's and Doctorate. What do you think? I feel nervous. Do you think it is worth it?

For example, a PhD in linguistics focusing on constructed languages like Esperanto. Or, a doctorate in Information Technology.

We are all slaves to the corporations. Should I try to become a VIP slave?

Will you be offered a scholarship or have to go into debt? If the latter, you'd better have good job prospects afterwards.

If you do decide to do a PhD, think of it as intellectual prospecting. I suggest that you work in an area in which your supervisor is active, so that you will have a good chance of getting some nuggets (good publications) out of it, which would enhance your prospects.

BTW what connection has this with Esperanto?

A masters degree (in Esperanto, say) is not a prerequisite for a doctorate. Why spend the time and money doing both? If you're mainly interested in the PhD, go for the PhD.

If you want to discuss something unrelated to Esperanto, I suggest going to the Esperanto forums, where you can discuss anything in Esperanto. The national language forums are mainly intended for discussion of Esperanto, primarily for the purpose of giving learners a way of getting help with their Esperanto in a language they understand.

BTW - don't get a master's or a doctorate in Esperanto, it's not worth it. But some people have used Esperanto-related studies for their master's or doctorate in another topic (linguistics is a common one but not the only one).

erinja:...BTW - don't get a master's or a doctorate in Esperanto, it's not worth it.

Heh. I just gave that example to try and tie the thread to EO. I tend to agree that an advanced degree in Esperanto would be quite silly.

It's getting to the point now where every Tom, Dick and Harry who walks through the door seems to have a master's degree. There are so many American master's students here in NL that it has become a norm.

In the 'commune' (sounds hippyish, but it's not) where my girlfriend lives more than half the people have a master's degree and they still talk drivel about most things. Too many degrees seems to be an official pass enabling unsuitable people to take up responsible positions when they don't have the tools for it.

Go straight to a PhD, or not at all. My personal opinion is that people should only really be doing this sort of research if it a natural progression of their success so far and not as mere eye-candy on their CV for impressing job interviewers.

I was recently looking into possibly pursuing a post-graduate degree in linguistics. City University of New York has a great linguistics program and even offers a slightly more useful course in computational linguistics.

As tempting as it is to go back to school, I've mostly decided it would make no financial sense for me to pursue this at my age. Many people have written thoughtful essays about whether graduate school is worth your time. This is one of the more pessimistic reads.

Let me be the first (ok, second) to shout:

Off-topic!!!

The market is so flooded with PhDs these days, especially in the humanities, that it's no longer a good way to "stand out" to employers. I don't know how it is in science-related fields. At the least, I imagine the expenses are onerous.

On the other hand, if you have a specific line of work that you are aiming for which requires a higher degree (e.g. law, medicine) then this doesn't apply.

Depends what you mean by "worth it." There are a lot of considerations. If you mean financially, you should clarify your goals. On the one hand, you will, if you take a Ph.D., be compensated for teaching/researching. If this is what you passionately want to do anyway, then it is worth doing. Of course, you will likely have to devote every waking moment to your school and related responsibilities. I've found that a lot of people are convinced they are "passionate" about some area of study because their school guidance counselors, parents, and media "thought-leaders" have relentlessly drilled it into them that "following your passion" is essential to success. So people remake their identity as someone who is "passionate" about something they perceive as possibly lucrative or noble. Nine times out of ten these people are just deceiving themselves. Most of us are passionate (if we are passionate at all) about things we can't monetize: games, literature, sports, politics. That is why majors which resemble these things are the most popular and least helpful economically.

Less than half of Ph.D students will make it through the program, and that is already a group winnowed down by undergraduate completion, GRE, and other practical concerns.

The other interpretation of financial value is the idea that you will, after attaining a credential, be able to parlay it into some economic opportunity. This is far more suspect. The U.S. mints far, far, far more new Ph.D's than can possibly be absorbed by academia. And assuming your specific Ph.D is not valuable in private industry, you won't be absorbed by it, either.

I think people very often gravitate toward these programs because, at least in the U.S., all of our institutional routes from training to practical work have been severed over the past 40 years. So people graduate from high school or college and there is no structured path for them to follow, except higher education or the military. But if your goal is simply to make some money, a far better investment is likely to be learning something in high demand like coding or web design. This is a discipline which still recognizes performance rather than credentials. More modest work in welding or oil production can also get you there. I highly recommend you closely examine your own, possibly subconscious, reasons for wanting to go. Be honest with yourself. Then trawl the internet looking for counterexamples to the narrative that higher ed. is propagating. Remember that it is in their interest for you to apply to their program and they have no legal responsibility to get you a job. So called "job placement" statistics are also utterly misleading as a matter of course. Law schools will frequently list people working at gas stations as successfully employed graduates. Be skeptical.

^ Massive round of applause for that post.

(Oops..knocked it off the first page...)