Today's question: Why did you or did you not decide to go back to school? Subquestion - what's the value of field specific certifications?

Carlos and Carlita return to compare and contrast reasons why Carl and Carlita decided to get graduate degrees but Carlos did not. Carlos and Carlita also discuss non-degree certifications they can get in their fields (which don't really exist for Carl's version of biology) and Carl and Carlita compare funding as a bonus (e.g. 5th year, 4 + 1, Co-term) Master's student to how PhD students operate. Also explored: Carl doesn't understand non-English, non-east Asian linguistical marks; how old are your co-workers?

In addition to your regular episode responses/engagement we are also collecting vents, questions, and stories about the current academia situation regarding unprecedented uncertainties in funding and opportunities. If you want to share, hit us up at arsquadpod@gmail.com or on the socials: Threads/Instagram @arsquadpod; Blue Sky @arsquadpod.bsky.social

*Editors Note - the preamble of this episode was recorded on Monday 3/17, before the Trump administration announced the potential dismantling of the Department of Education and Columbia University partially caved to the administration's demands to change certain policies so they could maybe get their funding back. Yikes, stuff did get worse.