Chronicle of Higher Education

[booksareneat]

Since I am desperately trying to divert my mind to anything other than the postman, I thought I'd post these two articles from the Chronicle of Higher Education.

The first was a study of different graduate programs and the aid offered http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i15/15a00102.htm. I was genuinely surprised by the survey. Some schools that I am a big fan of offer a lot less. Of course, there are issues of cost of living to account for some differences. What disturbs me more is the fact that some of these programs don't offer health care (such as where I am getting my M.A.), which I find to be reprehensible (ok, maybe not the best word, but I find it morally suspect).

The second is an article about the high rate of depression in graduate schools http://chronicle.com/weekly/v55/i24/24b01201.htm. "At the University of California at Berkeley, 67 percent of graduate students said they had felt hopeless at least once in the last year; 54 percent felt so depressed they had a hard time functioning; and nearly 10 percent said they had considered suicide, a 2004 survey found."

I have to say that having been through school rejections and being in graduate school, I'll take the depression of being overworked to the depression of wasting time, money, effort, emotions, etc. on getting across the board rejections.

[commoner]

Hear, hear!