I’m the Marketing and Admissions Coordinator for a fantastic school in Ontario, and part of my job is to correspond with a number of people via email. These individuals come from different types of businesses holding various employment positions. Everyday I read their emails and everyday I feel the sequence of letters after their names are getting longer and more difficult to understand. Varied letters meaning higher forms of education. BA, MA, MBA, BSc, MSW, LLB, PhD, Pg D, RDH, DDS, M.S. (candidate) and the list goes on. So many acronyms, so many credentials, so many letters that some people just don‘t understand/know/or care about.
When did the length after your signature mean so much? And what does it really mean anyway? The people with the longest signature are those individuals who have wonderful executive jobs with an amazing six or more figure income, right? They’re the ones who had the time, the money and the patience to freely sacrifice in order to quench their thirst for knowledge, right? Some people take it that way. But then there are others who see the more educated ones as those who truly lost more than they gained in the quest for intelligence. They lost time, money, friends, even sometimes family members...tired of waiting, tired to being second best.
For some, education pays off. For others, not so much. You may have all the credentials to be a university professor or executive, but you may not be working in your chosen field, or working at all, due to the lack of jobs out there.
Education doesn’t make or break a person. On the contrary. Yes, as mentioned above, those who are educated usually have plenty of opportunities laid out for them. But on the flip side, there are many individuals who do not have education and they are successful in every sense of the word. Men: Bernard Shaw, Tarantino, Sydney Poitier (was an elementary school dropout!) Women: Angelina Jolie, Anne Beiler (you may not know her name but you know her pretzels), Liz Claiborne. Both lists go on and on. Education, although important, should not define a person! Letters after your name should not define a person!
Sometimes I find myself yearning for more academia. Pursuing something more specialized, pursuing a subject that I’m passionate about. I know in the long run, I will benefit from more letters after my name. It can lead me to new employment, pay grade, opportunities. These amazing thoughts are usually accompanied by thoughts that perhaps I’m only thinking about going back to school because I feel it’s a way for me to keep up with the Jones’. Tying into that notion, I caught a clip of "Big Bang Theory" and a the subject of having Master's degree came up, specifically how everyone has one nowadays.
I have a BA…BA Honours to be exact, I also have a Pg D (Post-Graduate Degree), but that’s not an MA, that’s not a PhD (a PhD…imagine me with one? that would mean I’d finally be the doctor my parents always wanted. Hey, they never specified the type of doctor they were going for). I’m more than happy with the sequence of letters after my name; however, sometimes after reading those emails and seeing the acronyms following the name, it makes me wonder how long I can get my signature. But then that thought quickly leaves my head as I press “send” and go back to the job I like and a job that I am good at with the two credentials behind my signature.
Sincerely,
Abigail Santos, BA (hons), Pg D
If you’re interested in seeing other degree abbreviations, visit http://www0.hku.hk/pubunit/cal2004/images/pt14.pdf
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