Some take steps to add degrees

Two men in long, white coats and dress pants sat in the bustling Scaife Hall cafeteria as… Two men in long, white coats and dress pants sat in the bustling Scaife Hall cafeteria as two living, breathing, smiling examples of the success that awaits the 603 medical students swarming throughout the building each day.

Neurologist Ayo Ugunrinde, who went to the University of North Carolina’s Chapel Hill School of Medicine, and Collin Liu, a UPMC resident in neurology from New York Medical College, reminisced about their time spent in graduate programs.

“The best advice I got when I was an undergraduate was don’t go to med school,” Liu said with a chuckle.

The School of Medicine, just one of 14 graduate and professional schools at Pitt, makes up a small percentage of the 9,000 graduate students converging on Oakland every day.

Students pursue master’s degrees in the arts, sciences, fine arts, education and business administration, to name a few. They also have opportunities to add letters like J.D., Ph.D., M.D. or D.D.M. after their last names in courses of post-graduate study which last from three to six or more years.

In four-year medical programs, the first year is the most difficult, according to Ogunrinde. “It’s a whole bunch of stuff coming at you at the speed of light.”

During the first and second year of medical school, students spend most of their time in class taking in information and about a quarter of their time working in groups shadowing doctors.

Students in their third and fourth years more actively participate on medical teams and rotate through many specializations. After graduation, those choosing to practice medicine instead of becoming consultants or researchers begin their residency, in which they work long hours in an area of specialization of their choosing.

“You’re learning to take care of people, you’re dealing with people’s lives,” Ogunrinde said about the process.

The daily demands of medical school make it imperative that doctors-in-training are good listeners, communicate well and are not afraid to stay up late at night, he added. “You have to be able to adapt, that’s the most important thing.”

Of the 148 students who enter Pitt’s School of Medicine, most begin right after finishing their undergraduate degrees, according to Paula K. Davis, an assistant dean for admissions.

“But we get several students in each class who are over 30 for whom this is a second career,” she said. “They found their calling later in life.”

The mean applicant age for students entering med school nationwide in 2006 was 24 years old, according to the American Association of Medical Colleges.

Medical school isn’t the only type of graduate school in which students take a few years off before working on their post-grad degrees.

Kathleen Murray, a third year doctoral candidate in Pitt’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, tried her hand in the work field for two years before going back to school for her master’s and doctorate degrees.

She worked at a marketing firm in Virginia after her graduation from George Mason University in 1999.

After the time off, she said that “school becomes a pleasure again.”

Before coming to Pitt’s doctoral program, she earned a master’s degree at The New School University in New York City.

“I always knew I wanted to teach,” she said.

Most Ph.D. candidates want to become college professors and gain experience as teaching assistants at the university where they study. Students in doctoral programs usually complete the degree in six years, but often their study lasts much longer.

Master of Arts candidates, like some grad students in the English Department, take a much shorter time period to complete their work. These degrees are valuable because they teach students to write, make degree holders more valuable in the job market, and show a person’s commitment to education, Murray said.

Lisa Kubick, director of admissions in the Graduate School of Art and Sciences, said that 322 new students began their post-graduate programs last August.

About 30 separate departments comprise the Graduate School, covering areas of study in the natural sciences, social sciences and humanities.

At Pitt, the largest natural science graduate program is chemistry, with 66 entering students last year. Economics and English have the largest programs in the social sciences and humanities, respectively.

In the School of Arts and Sciences, 1,526 total students roamed the Pittsburgh campus as of fall 2006.

“It’s all based on what the economy’s doing, it’s all based on what’s going on in the world,” Kubick said as to why students choose to attend graduate school.

But for students in Pitt’s School of Law, many go on to law school because that’s the career path they had always had in mind.

Andrew Hazi, a first-year student in Pitt’s School of Law, started his post-graduate work the year following his graduation from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa.

“I just wanted to get it over with, and I never would have gone back if I didn’t,” he said of his choice to continue his education.

Sitting at a table in the student lounge of the Barco Law Building, Hazi likened his law school experience, oddly enough, to high school.

“We’re divided into sections. There are lockers, drama, we sit at the same table each day, we even call it the lunch table,” he said.

But for fellow first-year law student Melissa Pregmon, her time after her undergraduate has been much different.

“It’s a lot more intense than undergraduate,” she said, echoing the experiences of other graduate students across the disciplines. “You might have 100 pages of reading for tomorrow, but you find time. You can still go out on a Saturday night and be O.K.”