I'm starting school again after 3 yrs off. This time I'm getting my doctorate in psychology. Funny, I know I want to do this, but as usual, I have doubts about doing this. This is big committment, mentally, physically, emotionally not to mention financially. Someone asked me why am I doing this if I already have a master's degree. Mostly it's practical, I can do a lot more with a doctorate in Psychology. I couldn't find anything in dc with a masters that wasn't social work. No offense to the MSW's out there, but that's not my cup of tea. To a smaller degree, it's a personal goal. I wanted to see if I can do it. Apply, get in, and finish. I suppose my family influenced me. Not the way you think. My parents, god love em, weren't that supportive. Mostly due to the language/immigrant/cultural differences. They were too busy working 12 hour shifts in factories to go to teacher's conferences, or to presentations. They were(are) old school mexican catholic traditionalists, valuable work to them was with your hands. Don't get me wrong, I am thankful to my parents. They worked hard, gave us all we needed. I have friends/cousins my age who spent most of their childhoods in the fields. I can't blame my parents for not having the tools that they never had to begin with.
I also think the statistics influenced me. Let me explain. We are over
41 million people, 14% of the population but only 7% of
Latinos have a bachelors degree, 2% a masters' and less than one percent (.83 to be exact) have a professional/doctorate degree. To compare, almost 20% of whites and 10% of African-Americans have a BA. Who have the advanced degrees? Nine percent of whites and 5% of blacks have a masters or more. I know they are only numbers, but they predict the future. Sometimes it's overwhelming...we are not going into school, and if we are, we are being
siphoned into a community college track. I suppose I can blame the corrupt educational system that keeps brown and black people perpetually behind. But it's more than that. It's the false
meritocracy boot-strap story we tell children. If you go to school, and get good grades and get a degree you will do well. Is that really true? How will you ever "do well" if you are
incarcerated or
tracked to a less than stellar school? How do you do well if
wealth and resources are set up to keep those in power (white people) on the top.
Sad to say, I think more than education will even this up.
7 comments:
First, I'm so excited for you taking the big PhD step! I only know two folks from my school days who've done it. You'll be the third. I know you can do it.
Second, I know! When will segregation end? Is the voucher system the answer? How do we cure poverty and all the other societal ills that influence education/success/etc? Are magnet schools the answer? Are schools the answer? All those questions that I've been asking myself for 10 years now, and I still don't have any any answers.
Culturally, there are so many things which hold us down. I'm so glad you are defying these notions.
well i think it's great that you are going for higher education. good luck!
and thanks for the figures. wow.
congrats on the continued education -- "doctor" suits you very well.
keen observations. do you think there's less mobility or opportunity now? both the wsj & new york times recently published articles on class and the growing income inequality.
this widening gap certainly seems to indicate a decline in mobility, a widening of the working poor & a dwindling of the middle class.
Congratulations to you, Dulce. I also left my 7-year career in banking to go back and get my master's degree. Part of it for me was to see if I could get in and finish, and not just to further my career (which really didn't end up happening anyway, but that's a whole other story).
I was up against fresh-out-of-college students and a handful of grad students just like me. I'm happy to say that I still managed to hold my weight against these kids. I'm sure you will too. Buena suerte!
thanks Opal :) gracias lorena & mala!
thanks mags :) surrounded by 24 year olds when your 10 yrs older gives you alot of insight doesn't it?
jessica, i think mobility is brittle, i don't think that our overworked and underpaid middle class is getting bigger..*sigh* maybe i should've paid attention in my econ class
Definitely. After my experience, I think all universities should REQUIRE several years of "real world" experience prior to even thinking about applying to a graduate-level academic program.
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