Friday, October 20, 2006

SWNIDish Advice Statistically True: To Finish Grad School, Get Married

Inside Higher Education today reports on a study by economist Joseph Price of Cornell University demonstrating, against conventional wisdom but in accord with SWNIDish wisdom, that being married is linked to success in graduate school.

The advantage is strongest for married men but still significant for married women. And it applies even though married graduate students tend to be older and have lower GRE scores than singles. Being married with children also seems to be an advantage.

The author of the study anecdotally attributes part of the marriage advantage to time management. We agree.

We'll further argue that the same aspects of character that tend to make people marriageable also tend to make them good graduate students.

For years we've been telling students not to think that being married will make grad school harder. Now we're glad to have some statistics to back our intuition.

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