Grad School and Making Education a Commodity

Reported By: Benny Schorie

Illustrated By: Addie Patterson

College has long been a surefire route to job security, higher pay, and life-long benefits. More Americans seek out a college education to obtain those things now more than ever. However, many believe that a bachelor’s degree has lost its potency and that the master’s degree is the new bachelor’s. This phenomenon is a consequence of education becoming a product and the constantly evolving barriers of access to high-paying jobs.

  According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCSE), 87% of 25-34-year-olds with a bachelor’s degree or higher were employed in 2022; this statistic was a larger figure than those with less education even though more Americans than ever are college graduates. 

However, as current college graduates search LinkedIn, they struggle to secure jobs in their fields. Being a museum tour guide or working for the government now requires a master’s degree when before they used to accept applicants with only a bachelor’s degree. 

This shift towards demanding post-baccalaureate education in the job market has changed the face of master’s programs across all fields. Master’s degrees have long held a reputation for being a way to kill time or for being consolation prizes for failing a Ph.D. that lacked professional skill development. However, in recent decades, professionalizing these degrees and expanding programs at universities has taken hold to make more workplace-ready graduates. 

For this reason, graduate school enrollment has been on the rise. The NCSE states, “Between fall 2010 and fall 2021, total post-baccalaureate enrollment increased by 9 percent (from 2.9 million to 3.2 million students).”

In contrast, undergraduate enrollment rates have been falling since the COVID-19 pandemic; fall 2021 saw a 15% lower undergraduate enrollment rate than in fall 2010.

Those who already have bachelor’s degrees are seeking out further education because they need to, and high school graduates are disillusioned by college education because they see the decreasing value of a bachelor’s degree.

This phenomenon is called credential, or educational, inflation where over-qualifications and educational requirements increase for positions that do not require them. Jobs that used to be considered “blue-collar” are being turned into professional roles requiring higher skills and knowledge. Lower-class people are thus further restricted from the jobs they used to hold with only a high school diploma.  

The falling relevance of the bachelor’s degree shows the crippling effects of putting monetary value on education. Education becomes a means to an end instead of existing for its own sake. The definition of  “an educated person” has changed; therefore, reaping the full benefits of a college education is more difficult. As graduate school application deadlines approach and undergraduate seniors try to secure their futures, they reckon with this reality of how to best attain success post-graduation.