Maybe you went and came out missing the limbs. Maybe you no went and feel like it ams for suckers. Maybe you getting 300 hectares per tank.

Not crap in the slightest - but I went through the Australian and English system so cannot extrapolate to the US one with much confidence

Not crap, but it all depends what you're going for. I went for design and it was brutal, but I'm working in my field and have zero regrets.

If you go for design, like architecture, the best advice I can give is to have fun. Don't stress about deadlines and criticisms too much. Treat it like a sandbox, cause in the real world the work get a lot less exciting.

I just wrapped up my Master's in Data Analytics, so only time will tell if it was Crap or Not Crap for me. I still haven't found a job.

I guess it depends on the field but IME it was CRAP.

TravelinPete wrote: Wed May 05, 2021 7:46 am If you go for design, like architecture, the best advice I can give is to have fun. Don't stress about deadlines and criticisms too much. Treat it like a sandbox, cause in the real world the work get a lot less exciting.

PhD in architecture. Most pointless, masturbatory, insubstantial experience of my life. I don't even work in the field, in the end.

for me both my master's and the PhD were amazing, but I'm definitely not a representative case

my year studying in the UK opened me up to so much good stuff, definitely a turning point in my life.
and my atypical PhD was p low-pressure (laidback coordinator), and i got to work for 4 months in Paris which again were incredible. My academic ranking is shit, but I've found a niche where I can function (for better or worse) in the local system.

For me it was weird because the place where I am finishing up grad school is where I dropped out of undergrad 18 years ago, and for the longest time I never thought I'd go back to college let alone go to grad school.

It's also weird for me because I hated undergrad so much. I was surrounded by two-faced passive-aggressive people and I never really felt like I had any place there. Most of us who were not mainstream (BIPOC, LGBTQ, et c.) had pretty much the same experience. Literally the only reason I kept going was that CSWE requirements are really specific, every BSW program is slightly different, and the differences between two schools could delay you for a year depending on what year they put certain classes in. And I wasn't in the mood to be a 6-year undergrad. But my experience in grad school was amazing and I never felt like I didn't belong for a split second. Maybe it's because I had some history with the school? Maybe it's because the school is so much more diverse (the place I did my BSW is one of the whitest schools in the nation)? Maybe it's because, at the graduate level, the bar to entry is high enough that the only people who are there are people who are totally committed and willing to put up with the work to get in the door?

I dunno. It hurt my brain because it all went by so fast and there was so much to do, but I'm kind of sad it's ending. Contrast it to last year where I was so happy to be gone. I'm having a hard time processing it and maybe that's why I started this thread?

oZZma wrote: Wed May 05, 2021 1:23 pm I guess it depends on the field but IME it was CRAP.

TravelinPete wrote: Wed May 05, 2021 7:46 am If you go for design, like architecture, the best advice I can give is to have fun. Don't stress about deadlines and criticisms too much. Treat it like a sandbox, cause in the real world the work get a lot less exciting.

PhD in architecture. Most pointless, masturbatory, insubstantial experience of my life. I don't even work in the field, in the end.

Yeah, I went for landscape architecture. Actually spent a good amount of time in construction management rather than actual design, but no complaints there.

We always heard rumblings of some schools offering a PhD in LA, we all kind of giggled at that. But, I bet its great if you want to teach and really dig into theory.

Not crap. Graduate school was wonderful. I have no job.

Law School. Feh.

I worked for 25 years as a lawyer following, so I guess it had the desired effect.

But its too expensive and did not prepare me very well for a career in the legal business.

also much happier doing a non-lawyer job now. law firms so totally suck hard.