# Should I go to grad school? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 6, 2014, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-go-to-grad-school/685491 "2014-04-06T18:15:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![LinusK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@LinusK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LinusK)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2014, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-go-to-grad-school/685491/121 "2014-04-12T17:43:00Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > Sure you can. I got three right here in my garage. 😉 Sounds like you need a criminal defense attorney. I can recommend a few. ---
**Author:** ![LinusK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@LinusK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LinusK)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2014, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-go-to-grad-school/685491/122 "2014-04-12T17:46:23Z")
> [@Filbert](#): > > I hate to break it to you, but do you know what success in selling books requires? Yeah. My wife sold 7 of them. She doesn’t do that anymore though. She has a real job now. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2014, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-go-to-grad-school/685491/123 "2014-04-12T22:09:43Z")
> [@LinusK](#): > > I’m not very good computers. Which is unfortunate, since I have a _great_ idea for a website. Know anybody who’d want to 50/50 with me? When pursuing my undergrad I took it upon myself to read original texts in areas which would now be classified as “heterodox economics”. Interesting yes, practical, no. I would assume having computer literacy is required for any MA program in Economics. ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2014, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-go-to-grad-school/685491/124 "2014-04-12T23:23:33Z")
> [@Erdosain](#): > > The thread title should probably be changed: “Fruitlessly try to talk me out of a terrible life decision I’ve already made.” > > I mean, you want to go to the incredible hassle and expense of getting a PhD, of all things, for the sole purpose of confirming some crackpot economic theory of yours that you’ve arrived at with no math skills or study of economics. This is what crazy people do. I’m sure you’re very smart and nice but pet obsessions are what weekends are for. Not dragging your family across the country for years at a time. > > (Are you still paying off your law school debt?) Best post of the thread. LinusK, don’t go to grad school. Find some other outlet for your current identity crisis. Take some math/econ courses at your local community college, read some books on branches of the field that you don’t currently understand or agree with, maybe find another way to use your law degree that is more interesting / satisfying to you. A PhD is not going to make you happy or successful. ---
**Author:** ![LinusK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@LinusK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LinusK)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-go-to-grad-school/685491/125 "2014-04-13T01:21:17Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > Best post of the thread. > > LinusK, don’t go to grad school. Find some other outlet for your current identity crisis. Take some math/econ courses at your local community college, read some books on branches of the field that you don’t currently understand or agree with, maybe find another way to use your law degree that is more interesting / satisfying to you. A PhD is not going to make you happy or successful. Do you speak from experience? ---
**Author:** ![LinusK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@LinusK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LinusK)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-go-to-grad-school/685491/126 "2014-04-13T01:22:34Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > When pursuing my undergrad I took it upon myself to read original texts in areas which would now be classified as “heterodox economics”. Interesting yes, practical, no. I would assume having computer literacy is required for any MA program in Economics. I can only assume you weren’t reading MMT. It’s extremely practical. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-go-to-grad-school/685491/127 "2014-04-13T04:34:37Z")
> [@LinusK](#): > > I’m starting to feel like I shouldn’t have brought up math at all. 🙂 > > I’m not Barbie: I _can_ do math; it’s just that my experience with math has been mostly bad, I don’t like pointless rote memorization; my perspective (and, I believe, the perspective of heterodox economics generally) is that much of the math done in mainstream economics is - how shall I say it - not helpful, and done for alternative motives (“dick waving”, if you will). Enough with the math. I’m just saying that if you go into an interview for an Econ department with the attitude that the math is not helpful, you aren’t going to get very far. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c57346/32.png) [@Little\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Pig)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-go-to-grad-school/685491/128 "2014-04-13T06:02:42Z")
> [@LinusK](#): > > I can only assume you weren’t reading MMT. It’s extremely practical. Monetary Policy? Definitely. I still follow along on the news. I really don’t know what is in vogue nowadays. I came around when crunching big data was becoming feasible. I used to help crunch, that’s how I got into computers. Though I didn’t go to U of C I did sneak into a few of Stigler’s lectures. I should have brought a tape recorder :smack: Best of luck. ---
**Author:** ![LinusK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@LinusK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LinusK)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-go-to-grad-school/685491/129 "2014-04-13T15:50:20Z")
> [@Little\_Pig](#): > > Monetary Policy? Definitely. I still follow along on the news. I really don’t know what is in vogue nowadays. I came around when crunching big data was becoming feasible. I used to help crunch, that’s how I got into computers. Though I didn’t go to U of C I did sneak into a few of Stigler’s lectures. I should have brought a tape recorder :smack: Best of luck. MMT has nothing to do with monetarism, which you _may_ be thinking of. You may also be thinking about the Federal Reserve. Whatever the Fed does or doesn’t do is called 'monetary policy." FWIW, MMT generally focuses more on “fiscal policy”. Not saying monetary policy is _unimportant_; just that fiscal policy is more important. Sort of like the Fed plays an important, but supporting role. My website project involves crunching lots of numbers. Want to go 50/50? ---
**Author:** ![Giraffe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giraffe/32/129_2.png) [@Giraffe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giraffe)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2014, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-go-to-grad-school/685491/130 "2014-04-13T19:44:23Z")
> [@LinusK](#): > > Do you speak from experience? I do. I went to graduate school to get a PhD in Heterosexual Economics in my forties after growing bored with the law profession and it was a complete disaster. Everyone got STDs: the students, the professors, the janitors, everyone. I’ve come back from the future to warn you not to make the same mistake I did. ---
**Author:** ![LinusK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/258eb7/32.png) [@LinusK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LinusK)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-go-to-grad-school/685491/131 "2014-04-14T14:56:07Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > I do. I went to graduate school to get a PhD in Heterosexual Economics in my forties after growing bored with the law profession and it was a complete disaster. Everyone got STDs: the students, the professors, the janitors, everyone. > > I’ve come back from the future to warn you not to make the same mistake I did. Huh. I’ll make a deal with you: If you share your time travel tech with me, I’ll do whatever you tell me to do. ---
**Author:** ![raspberry\_hunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@raspberry\_hunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raspberry_hunter)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2014, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-go-to-grad-school/685491/132 "2014-04-14T20:18:02Z")
> [@LinusK](#): > > Your google-fu must be much better than mine. You found a list of Galbraith’s students online? Could you share, please? Huh, this is not quite what I thought it was – it is a list of students who work on the Inequality Project, which is headed by Galbraith. [http://utip.gov.utexas.edu/group.html](http://utip.gov.utexas.edu/group.html) I wasn’t really sure from the text whether this is his entire research group or just a portion of it. Anyway, it would be a good place to start, and papers from UTIP are available from that same website. Here is a list of ALL LBJ grad students: [http://www.utexas.edu/lbj/students/phd](http://www.utexas.edu/lbj/students/phd) They don’t have advisors listed… but you could probably see from the topics which of them looked interesting to you. > [@](#): > > Not a good fit, why? LBJ specifically, or grad school? Grad school in economics specifically. Any economics grad school program worth its salt is going to involve a huge amount of math of the kind that you have specifically said you don’t like – take a look, for example, at the link from Salt Lake that I posted earlier where they actually spell out what math you are going to need to know to take the classes for the program. Grad school in public policy (including LBJ) sounds much more like what you would enjoy, and the math they use appears to be much more along the lines of what you actually do enjoy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-i-go-to-grad-school/685491.md?page=6)