Life After Getting Your Degree-what a UMKC Graduate Degree Means
I have been at UMKC for nearly two years. UMKC is the 5th doctoral-granting institution with which I have been affiliated outside of my own academic degrees. I have been approached by students that wonder after all their years of hard work about the worth of a graduate degree from UMKC. I can offer my own observations based on my past experience. Recently I have visited with faculty and graduate students, attended poster sessions and presentations, and discussed issues related to Masters and Doctoral degrees. Through these visits, I have found our students to be either as competitive or more so than students from those other universities.
Years ago, there may have been a major emphasis placed on the name of one’s graduate institution upon entrance into the job market. Graduates of many private colleges and universities may have had an edge in obtaining employment. I don’t want to be dismissive of the educational experience of such fine institutions, but the stature of public institutions increased dramatically in the last half of the 20th century thanks to the support of an enlightened public and elected officials of that time. The financial investments that have been made in public higher education are the envy of the world. Don’t forget that we are the University of Missouri, a state university. We are NOT a branch campus located in Kansas City. The University of Missouri itself has value added to your degree, as it has name recognition as one of those fine public institutions of higher education.
Additionally, your ability to obtain employment is more than just a name or the place where you went to school. It is about you! Your competitiveness in the job market is more related with what you have accomplished while you have been a student here at UMKC. What area(s) have you researched? What honors, prizes, and awards have you received as a student? Have you attended professional meetings and made presentations? For doctoral students, what publications have you accomplished or are preparing? What exhibits have you presented? Have you had internship experiences? Is your major advisor well known in his/her field? What networking have you done? The School of Graduate Studies is heavily invested in networking —we awarded one hundred $300 travel grants for students to attend meetings this past year so they could network. Next year, we expect to allocate one hundred $400 travel grants to this program.
The School of Graduate Studies recently started collecting employment data on our doctoral alumni. We were not surprised to learn that our doctoral alumni are employed at prestigious higher education institutions, work for highly visible companies in their fields nationally and worldwide, and work for government organizations. One economics graduate is a Vice President for a large corporation in Hartford, Connecticut; a recent Ph.D. graduate in physics works for a major oil company in Houston, Texas; a Ph.D. graduate from geosciences is a Vice President and Principle Hydrogeologist for an oil company in Irvine, California. There are many who stay in the Kansas City area, serving the community, working for community colleges, are faculty members at UMKC, and have leadership positions including principals at area schools, to name just a few. Our Conservatory graduates are placed not only locally, but nationally and internationally. Many of our pharmacy doctoral students go on to corporate entities. I could go on and on about our many success stories.
As someone who has done much hiring of faculty I can attest to the fact that I have never been able to predict the success of an employee based on the institution from which they graduated. The real success is determined, in my opinion, by how well one applies one’s self. I have observed graduates from prestigious institutions unable to achieve tenure, while others from lower-profile institutions excel. The bottom line is that UMKC Master and Doctoral graduates are competititve and a UMKC graduate degree has economic value. However, each one of us is responsible for what we do with the skills and knowledge that we gain from our experiences here. UMKC provides the tools to obtain these skills and the knowledge to be successful. Don’t let anyone tell you that your degree from UMKC is of lesser value. We are the University of Missouri at Kansas City and we have value!