Debating the MA

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by warguns, Jun 2, 2015.

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  1. warguns

    warguns Member

    The Degree for Quitters and Failures - Advice - The Chronicle of Higher Education

    The Degree for Quitters and Failures?

    It’s convenient to think of the M.A. as a carefully crafted educational stage that prepares graduate students either for related employment or further scholarship. The problem is that so few departments have actually crafted the master’s degree in that way.
    ......
    And because the M.A. gets so little notice, there’s no agreement about what it should do. It’s not so much that the degree lacks meaning as that it has too many meanings — though in the end, that’s much the same thing.
     
  2. me again

    me again Well-Known Member

    Get it early in your career if you're going to be a professional academic.

    Get it later in your career if you need it for professional progression i.e. a promotion.

    Otherwise, don't get it at all because it's not needed.
     
  3. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    I'm assuming the author is another one of those ignorant people who think the the social sciences are humanities because the social sciences weren't even mentioned in the article. One would get a master's in psychology to become a psychological associate or whatever the equivalent is in your state of residence.

    The author forgot that master's degrees are required for several professions: social work, occupational therapy, mental health counseling, genetic counseling, nurse practitioner/midwife/clinical specialist/anesthetist, physician assistant, speech-language pathologist, marriage and family therapy, etc.
     
  4. warguns

    warguns Member

    Masters degrees

    I believe the author is not writing about professional master's degrees which are typically terminal degrees.
     
  5. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    If that were the case, then the author wouldn't have brought up master's degrees in education and MBAs multiple times.
     
  6. warguns

    warguns Member

    Misreading

    I'm afraid you misread the article. It's about the MA, not the MBA, the MEd, or the MSW. In fact the author states, "Apart from the fields of engineering and education (and of course, business), the degree is misbegotten."
     
  7. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    Okay, then, one can use an MA in Counseling or Psychology to become licensed. There are master of arts programs in counseling specifically designed to lead to licensure. The same applies to marriage and family therapy and speech-language pathology.

    This implies the author is talking about all master's degrees and is using MA as a generic term (just like the author doesn't know that the social sciences are separate from the humanities) because these often are not MA programs. It's kind of like how I've seen people use BA in place of bachelor's degree. The author uses masters and M.A. interchangeably throughout the whole article.

    The whole quote.

    In this sentence, the person is talking about the master's degree, in general.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 6, 2015
  8. warguns

    warguns Member

    I give up. Maybe logic is different in Texas.
     
  9. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    It's quite simple. If the author is focusing on MA degrees, then there are MA degrees that meet the requirements for a professional license. Not all of these are terminal degrees either. The terminal degree for psychology is the PhD or PsyD.
     
  10. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    Last edited by a moderator: Jun 6, 2015
  11. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    Sorry about the triple post. This is the comment I posted on the rebuttal article. I will also be posting it on Cassuto's article.

     
  12. Afterhours

    Afterhours Member

    I hate this type of anti-intellectual thought. A master's degree is not necessarily job preparation. It is not a vocational school. My interests, those of my college aged children and those of my husband lie outside the fields of business or STEM.

    We are a liberal arts oriented family. Going back, we have been for centuries. And we have done well and have helped others to do the same.

    I find this offensive beyond belief.
     
  13. Neuhaus

    Neuhaus Well-Known Member

    Hmmmm, it appears warguns posted an article making sweeping generalizations. Intriguing.

    I suppose anyone with an MA in anything will have to get in the unemployment line behind the nurses with MSNs from the University of Phoenix.
     

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