I found out recently about a particular incentive to change: the national security complex. The US government wishes more people with US citizenship would pursue graduate degrees in mathematics and the sciences. And they'd like for the underrepresented genders and ethnicities to be well-represented in that group.
I don't know how to change the funding stuff, but even just changing the name we call this endeavor would make a difference.
I think one reason that good students who grow up in the US and go to college in the US don't do this is that they hear "school" and assume that:
* they will have to pay for it (because it's called "school" and students have to pay to go to school -- they don't realize, until someone tells them, that usually graduate students are paid a stipend) * grad school is mostly about taking more classes (because it's called "school" and taking courses is what you do in school) * the only reasons to go to grad school are to get an academic career (very debatable) or to meet colleagues so you can drop out together and cofound a startup (because that's a prominent story for the math & CS people)
So if I were trying to get more people to pursue postgraduate research work, I wouldn't say "are you thinking of going to grad school" -- I would say something like "are you thinking of getting a paid research apprenticeship?"
incentives and names
I found out recently about a particular incentive to change: the national security complex. The US government wishes more people with US citizenship would pursue graduate degrees in mathematics and the sciences. And they'd like for the underrepresented genders and ethnicities to be well-represented in that group.
I don't know how to change the funding stuff, but even just changing the name we call this endeavor would make a difference.
I think one reason that good students who grow up in the US and go to college in the US don't do this is that they hear "school" and assume that:
* they will have to pay for it (because it's called "school" and students have to pay to go to school -- they don't realize, until someone tells them, that usually graduate students are paid a stipend)
* grad school is mostly about taking more classes (because it's called "school" and taking courses is what you do in school)
* the only reasons to go to grad school are to get an academic career (very debatable) or to meet colleagues so you can drop out together and cofound a startup (because that's a prominent story for the math & CS people)
So if I were trying to get more people to pursue postgraduate research work, I wouldn't say "are you thinking of going to grad school" -- I would say something like "are you thinking of getting a paid research apprenticeship?"