Spelman College President Beverly Tatum offers cautionary advice for undergraduate students and graduates: If you allow fear to fester long enough to prevent you from pursuing your MBA or other advanced degrees, then you very well may rob yourself of the many wondrous opportunities and experiences that await those who pounce on this opportunity.
Tatum spoke with rolling out briefly at the White House HBCU Initiative conference in Washington, D.C., about her degrees and what that pedigree and knowledge acquisition has done for her. She strongly implores more African Americans to plow through those fears of not being smart enough or professional degree price tags and, just like Michael Jordan once said, “just do it.” The residual benefits will cast such a gigantic shadow over the negatives that you will not even be able to see the latter.
–terry shropshire
What is the greatest argument for getting your MBA and advanced degrees?
The more degrees you have, the better off you are. In terms of employment opportunities, I have a Ph.D. in psychology. And that Ph.D. has allowed me to be a college professor, it has allowed me to be a public speaker and it has allowed me to be a college president. It has opened many doors for me.
What is the greatest impediment that young students face that prevents them from pursuing advanced degrees?
Well, in this economy, I know that many people are afraid of taking on more debt. They are afraid that they will be burdened by it and won’t be able to pay it back, and all of that. When you are talking about advanced education, sometimes it can be quite expensive, particularly professional education — law school, medical school, etc., but just as with undergraduate degrees, there are scholarships available.
To use myself as an example, I got my Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Michigan, one of the best psychology schools in the entire country, and it cost me very little. Almost all of it was paid for by scholarships from the University of Michigan and the federal government supporting the training of psychologists. Sometimes students don’t know. And sometimes there are more money available for doctoral programs than there are for master’s degrees. Let’s say that you finish your undergraduate degree and you feel like you want to pursue your Ph.D. but you don’t think that you can afford it, so you pursue a master’s degree. But what may not know is that there is funding for Ph.D.-level students and not for masters-level funding. So, sometimes having the higher level goal is easier to get support for. I went from an undergraduate degree in psychology straight to a doctorate program for Ph.D., but I earned my master’s degree along the way.
What is the best business or inspirational book you’ve read in the last three to five years?
A fabulous book I just read by Clyde Steele, who is also a psychologist, is called Whistling the Balding, which is an interesting title. And it is about stereotype threats and how stereotype threats impact all of us and what we can do to overcome it. Any student finds himself or herself saying, “I want to ask this question, but it might reinforce some stereotypes, that blacks aren’t as smart,” should read the book.
