The Cognitive Dissonance of Grad School Truth-telling

By my fifth year in a professional degree program, a concerning pattern has been made clear. Graduate programs of this nature enjoy unique protection from student-driven criticism both when and after students attend. This leads to an asymmetric information problem whereby the public, including prospective students in these programs, overweights the value of graduate degrees. Different programs benefit from this ultimate outcome through both similar and disparate dynamics.

First, graduate students are older. Most have work experience and likely greater responsibilities, financial and otherwise, than they might have had in college. Second, most graduate students have already been oriented towards professionalism through post-college work experience — notably, experiences that led them all to choose to return to the academic environment. Conditioned by the low expectations for justice and equity across corporate America, in contrast, the professional school environment seems enlightened. The passion of protesting undergraduates just buildings over is exhilarating enough — at a safe distance. Two years at McKinsey will do that to you. Many are just relieved to be back in school, compared to whatever unfulfilling work environment they chose to leave behind.

Additionally, the personal sacrifice required to attend a professional degree program often leaves entrants with limited options. Professional degree programs pose a unique financial burden. One study found that among advanced degree holders, “professional degree recipients were the most indebted group, with 56 percent having borrowed $100,000 or more for their professional degree studies.” Ninety percent of professional degree holders graduate with at least some debt. In contrast, up to 30 percent of college graduates complete their education with almost no debt.

Costs, of course, are not only financial. Consider a Master in Public Policy student at the Harvard Kennedy School who has quit a middle-income job, uprooted a spouse and young child to move to Cambridge, and taken out tens-of-thousands of dollars in loans. This is not someone likely to rock the boat. No matter how awful the HKS experience may or may not be, students in this position will avoid the cognitive dissonance of an honest program assessment.

In my experience, as someone who has spent half a decade in such programs, those pursuing a professional degree program consider their degree, at least in part, through a return-on-investment lens. If a graduate degree is an asset, intuitively, you don’t devalue your own asset. In a world where brand names matter, it behooves students and alumni to ensure their school remains in high regard. Spilling dirty little secrets will not serve professional graduates in the long-run. It signals to future employers that you might do the same to them — if they hire you. Even your classmates and future colleagues may take offense to you criticizing the program they’ve just invested in.

To many, college is about freedom and experimentation — broadening horizons and earning access (at least in theory) to a new world of opportunity. Conversely, most professional graduate school programs are about narrowing choices, specializing – and for many – leaving the working world for the chance at a second start. According to the U.S. News & World Report, two-thirds or more of MBA candidates, for example, use their degree to switch industries upon graduation. Everybody knows — you don’t throw away a second chance.

The burdens of age aside, even professional degree students that skew younger than others, like those in law school, are arguably less likely to ruffle feathers. The overwhelming majority of those attending a professional degree program … want to be a “professional.” More than three-quarters of students at top law schools across the country take a job in “BigLaw” upon graduation. The close mapping of the school environment and network onto post-graduate job prospects puts students in a pseudo-employee mindset. “This is a professional school and, being on time is important, think of this like your job,” one Kennedy School professor would nag our cohort every chance he got. Good employees follow the rules and don’t constantly challenge superiors. They are not negative. They are collegial. Good employees never publicly criticize the company. And good employees understand that when the company succeeds, they succeed.

After graduating, the incentive to be honest about the negative aspects of professional graduate programs diminishes even more. Your degree is now a networking tool. In professional conversation, it will always serve to reminisce over Harvard Business School’s famous gym and rarely serve to recall the school’s stunning lack of faculty diversity.

Kaivan K. Shroff is a third-year joint-degree student at the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Law School.

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