Getting into Grad School-Now Everyone's Doing It!

Education# Universities

The covered sidewalks of Taipei's Nanyang Street-a crowded, narrow lane sometimes known as Cram School Street-are plastered with ads for cram schools, each trumpeting the names of students admitted to prestigious graduate schools.

There may be only one kind of cramming, but the streets here are packed with two kinds of students. It used to be that the most of those who made their way to Nanyang Street were students who had been frustrated by their first attempt at the joint university entrance exams. Now, however, these kids have been joined by older students prepping for graduate school entrance exams and the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language, an exam most US graduate schools require foreign students to take). This development hints at a changing view of the value of a graduate degree.

Streets littered with master's degrees

Statistics provide another indication. From 1991 to 1999, enrollment in master's degree programs in Taiwan grew at an average annual rate of 12%, faster than any other segment of the higher education market.

Although this exponential growth means that a master's degree doesn't have nearly the cachet that it used to, younger people still have faith in advanced degrees.

Wang Kuei-chun, who got his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from National Tsing Hua University, says that almost all of the 60 students in his chemical engineering class applied to graduate school. Wang says that more than half got in, and those that didn't plan to try again next year. "Students are looking at trends in the market. Few of us are interested in a PhD, but we all know that we need at least a master's. When you open the want ads, all the jobs ask for at least a master's."

Wang applied to graduate programs at National Taiwan University (NTU), National Tsing Hua University and National Chiao Tung University this year, and was accepted by all. For students in the hard sciences, applying to graduate school is almost a given, and getting in is nothing to write home about. But what about students of the social sciences?

According to Lee Yu-ju, a graduate of Tunghai University's department of sociology, "Competition was fierce this year. More people took the exams and a lower percentage were admitted to programs." Lee says that he had classmates who applied to seven programs and were admitted to none. In Lee's view, people with degrees in sociology have basically three options: becoming a civil servant, becoming a primary- or secondary-school teacher, or going into marketing.

"Sociology is not an unpopular major, as you can see from the growing numbers of sociology departments in Taiwan. However, the career options for a sociology major are not nearly as clear cut as they are for someone with a degree in management or accounting." Lee says that a man's intuitive reaction is to complete his military service or go to graduate school before looking for work. His parents also felt that he should take his studies as far as he could, but suggested that getting his military service out of the way was an option if he didn't get into graduate school. After being accepted into Tunghai's graduate program in sociology, Lee asked himself how much interest he really had in sociology. "I'd be lying if I said I was passionate about it, and it would be excruciating to have to complete a program in a field in which I had no interest. I guess I'm somewhere in the middle."

In October of last year, Cheers Magazine surveyed university seniors about their plans for the future. The magazine found that 44% of university students hoped to continue their studies after graduation, with 32% planning to attend graduate school in Taiwan and 12% intending to go overseas. Only 32% of the students surveyed wanted to look for work.

A strong desire for schooling

Taiwanese society's strong sense that people should take their studies as far as they are able has helped cram schools extend their dominion beyond their traditional realm-the university entrance exam-to graduate school exams.

According to Chuang Wen-ching, who holds an undergraduate degree in journalism from Shih Hsin University, "This year has been a little frightening. A huge number of people in the humanities are attending the test-prep schools." She offers the cram school she is attending as an example, stating that last summer, the school had so many students that it signed up 300 students for each of its two graduate-school admissions test classes. Chuang says, "You really appreciate how competitive it is when you're in a cram-school classroom."

According to Chuang, a number of graduate schools of communications ask for an analysis of an issue confronting society on their exams. The cram schools therefore prepare a weekly precis for their students, saving the students a great deal of research time. An unfortunate consequence of this practice is that students end up writing very similar analyses, clearly indicating to graders that the students got their solutions from a cram school. "The key to success is how many books on communications you have read."

Chuang, who says she spent a whole month writing exams, applied to seven graduate communications programs, including those of NTU, National Chengchi University and National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), and had a pretty high success rate. She has chosen to attend the graduate school of journalism at NTU, which combines real-world and classroom training. Chuang hopes that by attending a large university with such a diverse array of programs, she'll be able to learn something of other fields and realize her ambition of becoming a medical reporter.

Chen Chih-chu, a student in the Graduate Institute of Communications at Shih Hsin University who also works at a cram school, says that nearly 800 students registered for classes at his cram school this year, up from just over 500 last year. Chen also noted that most of this year's students were applying to communications and education programs. Chen says, "Cram schools are one way that people can get into graduate programs in fields other than their undergraduate major." Not surprisingly, cram schools are cashing in on the trend, charging NT$30,000 for a test-prep course.

Low rates of acceptance

One professor of mass communications comments that admission to graduate programs in communications has always been very competitive because it's a relatively easy degree to get. Also contributing to the plethora of students going into communications is the desire of many of Taiwan's university students to move into a different field in graduate school. Many of these students find their way into communications programs.

With the economy slumping, students are in no hurry to leave school, and graduate schools at all of Taiwan's universities received hundreds or even thousands more applications this year than last. As a result, acceptance rates have fallen from a historical average of more than 10% to about 8% this year. Graduate programs in fields such as information technology, management and law, which offer better job prospects, are not only the most popular, but also the most selective, with acceptance rates of only about 2%.

National Chiao Tung University's graduate programs, for example, received more than 11,000 applications this year, an increase of more than 1,000 from last year. According to the university, its telecommunications, computer science, mechanical engineering and management programs received the most applications this year.

Similarly, graduate school applications at Yuan Ze University rose to more than 6,100 this year from about 5,100 last year, causing the university's graduate student acceptance rate to fall from 5% to 3.6%. As at Chiao Tung, Yuan Ze's most fiercely competitive programs were in electronics and management, which saw more than 1,000 applicants competing for only 30 spaces.

National Cheng Kung University, meanwhile, had 15,000 graduate student applications this year, and National Chi Nan University had 2,500. Both figures were record highs.

Delaying graduation

Another popular means of avoiding the job market is postponing the completion of an undergraduate degree. Twenty years ago, no one had ever heard of delaying graduation, but now it seems that everyone is talking about it.

According to the Ministry of Education, in 1999 there were over 6000 students taking evening classes at university having postponed their graduation, and the figure rose to more than 8100 in 2000, 68% of whom were male.

Hsu Wan-yun, a graduate of NTNU, says, "There were 50 students in my class, of whom only 38 graduated. A lot deliberately put off graduating. All they had to do was ask a teacher to flunk them in one class. All my male classmates who didn't get into graduate school put off finishing their undergraduate degrees."

Students gave several reasons for their decisions. Some said they didn't yet know what they wanted to do with their lives and were not under any financial pressure to find a job immediately. Others said that the poor job market was making teaching look like an interesting possibility. Consequently, enrollment in education classes has risen sharply. But only so many students can squeeze into education classes in any given semester, leaving many unable to complete the 26 to 40 credit hours required for a primary- and middle-school teaching certificate within their first four years at university.

Minister of Education Ovid Tzeng has remarked that faced with the economic downturn, students the world over are choosing to remain in school. For Tzeng, the important thing is that they use this time to learn another field and to find a direction in life.

Whether students are delaying graduation or moving on to graduate school, the university remains a haven for learning. However, with university degrees becoming more common, the pursuit of an advanced degree has come to be viewed as an investment in one's future. But is a master's degree worth anything in the job market?

Apparently, that depends on the field. For reporters and editors, writing talent, experience and perspective are more valuable than an advanced degree. But even in journalism, a master's degree can mean a higher salary at some organizations.

At Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation, on the other hand, there are more employees with master's degrees than there are with only undergraduate degrees. According to Lee Jui-hwa, vice president of human resources, "An advanced degree does mean a higher salary and position at the start because someone with a master's degree has more field-specific expertise than someone with only a bachelor's degree. But the degree just gets your foot in the door. Once you start working for the company, your degree alone is not a ticket to advancement."

According to a Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics survey of household incomes, meanwhile, people with advanced degrees earn more on average than people with only a bachelor's degree. In 1999, for example, people with master's degrees earned NT$1.03 million per year versus NT$790,000 for those with only a bachelor's degree.

Specialization

"People are applying to graduate school for a lot of different reasons," says Chou Hsiung, director of National Sun Yat-sen University's advisory office for graduating seniors. According to Chou, three years ago only 20% of the graduating seniors at Sun Yat-sen applied to graduate school. This year, that number has risen to 80%. "Taiwan is becoming a knowledge economy, and students understand the importance of a degree." In addition, Chou says that not many university students are interested in entering the workforce, and they can delay their entry into the job market through military service or graduate school. Chou notes that graduate student enrollments at many of Taiwan's national universities have grown to exceed their undergraduate enrollments. But most students begin seeking work immediately on completing their master's degrees. Chou says that Sun Yat-sen University's job placement office is now offering its services to graduate students as well. But he remarks that so far students with master's degrees have had little trouble finding work.

The rise in both university and graduate school attendance has led to criticism from some quarters that students are learning less.

"Undergraduate programs teach general knowledge, while graduate degrees allow specialization. No one questions that," says Wu Se-hwa, dean of the College of Commerce at Chengchi University. Wu admits that university students are not as knowledgeable as they used to be, but feels that the wider availability of a university education is not the only reason. He notes that five years ago, graduate school admissions committees would never have asked an applicant if he or she had been abroad. Now, however, many university students and even high-school students have traveled overseas. "This generation of students has had a more diverse array of experiences than the previous. They've been exposed to a great deal of information from a lot of fields. The problem is how to balance breadth of knowledge with depth of knowledge. It's not entirely fair to criticize students for not knowing their fields in enough depth."

Taiwan's economic miracle can be attributed in part to the emphasis placed on advanced education, and universities are no longer the ivory towers they were of old. Universities have, however, become a refuge from the nitty-gritty of the real world in bad times. One can only hope that the reservoir of highly educated people Taiwan is now accumulating will someday contribute to its prosperity.

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(illustration by Lee Su-ling)

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Cram schools on Taipei's Nanyang Street beckon to students prepping for graduate school entrance exams. Taiwanese society's enthusiasm for education has allowed cram schools to begin offering their services to students hoping to attend graduate school.

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Today's universities may not be ivory towers any longer, but they remain a refuge for students seeking to avoid the real world during bad economic times.