Pursue a Post-graduate Degree

October 4, 2010

(描述图表)
As is shown in the table above, dramatic changes have taken place in the number of the students pursuing a post-graduate degree in these 5 years.
The most obvious changes happend in 2005 and 2008.
We can see that the number is increasing dramatically from 2004 to 2007, especially 2005 showing us a craze in it. But from 2006, the increase became slow and finally in 2008 it dropped a lot by 6.4%.

(变化原因)
There are many factors accounting for these big changes.
(1) In the first place, "higher learning, higher earning" once so deeply dominated people's mind in those years especially from 2001 to 2005 that a large number of college students tended to pursue master's degree or even doctorate in order to get a good job.
(2) However, with the development of market economy, employers have gradually attached importance to skills and competence instead of diploma. Master's degree or even doctorate does not necessarily guarantee stable jobs. The unemployment-rate of well-educated people has been rising.
All these changes made those students, who wanted to seize the good job opportunity through pursuing a post-graduate degree, give a second thought to their pursuit. Thus we see a big drop in 2008.

(你的观点)
From the analysis above, we can draw the conclusion that every one of us should make a sensible choice of our future.
If we do want to study further, we can go and pursue it. Or we can find a job and improve ourselves in it.