WASHINGTON – At a time when much national higher education discussion revolves around student access to and through college, the Council of Graduate Schools’ annual conference that wrapped up in Washington, D.C. over the weekend focused on the challenges associated with positioning students to pursue more than just a bachelor’s degree.
Sometimes, the lack of interest in graduate school stems from lack of information on what graduate school entails and the financial benefits that it brings, said Larry A. Griffith, vice president of the Gates Millennium Scholars program at the United Negro College Fund.
“We need to help them think about what graduate school is and how to communicate that to their community of support,” Griffith said at a panel discussion titled “Diverse Perspectives on Achieving Student Success.” He lamented that graduate school has proven less enticing than the world of work, particularly for Hispanic students who feel compelled to work to help out their families.
The Gates Millennium Scholars program, which provides unmet need scholarships and guidance to high-performing minority students who are Pell Grant eligible, has served some 14,000 students since its inception in 1999. Of that number, 2,470 have gone on to graduate school.
However, when you delve deeper into the numbers, they reveal that the program is failing to persuade many males to pursue anything beyond a bachelor’s degree.
For instance, of the 697 Gates scholars currently in graduate school, only 201 are male. Griffith said part of the problem stems from higher education proponents not making a strong enough case to answer the question “Why bother?” when it comes to graduate school.
” I think we have lost the conversation with the large majority of students and particularly with African-American males in helping them understand why college, why graduate school and a doctorate are important to their success,” Griffith said, arguing that many have become disillusioned by instances of racism in corporate America and have opted to pursue entrepreneurial endeavors that enable them to maintain their identity.
