I’d like to add one other thought though: What’s a relatively bright girl to do while she’s working professionally, and waiting around for the equally bright and at least equally qualified no longer young single adult males, RMs, temple goers, to get their marital act together? She does an MA. And then maybe a PhD. Because it beats staying home and mourning the death of the dream. Come on guys, there are some wonderful women out there who could do with a yoked husband of some description so they can raise up children in Zion the way they’d love to do!

That got a good laugh from many that day because they knew I was doing a little back handed social commentary. But you are right, it is less known and doesn\’t have the same universal recognition. Sorry for digressing.

Anyone know the current stats?

Now that I look over the responses, I can’t find the comment I was responding to. Hmm. That should teach me something about being particularly rude and pointed. Apologies all.

For an example of what I’m getting at- The YW in Excellence award represents about as much time and effort as the Eagle Scout award, they may or may not be the exact same, but they are at least comparable. Unless a potential employer is familiar with the YW program putting the YW award on a resume is pointless. For all they know you’re just making things up. On the other hand just about everyone has heard of the BSA, so putting ‘Eagle Scout’ on a resume is more effective.

We do have a very nuanced position in the gender role issue, don’t we?

True that. I have a MA in composition theory, and my wife has something equivalent to a BA in design. But she is well-known in Finland as a designer. In fact, if it weren’t for my foreign hire benefits, she would make more money working than I would as a school teacher. (She’d also have to work more days and hours than I do, of course.) We tend to overemphasize The Professions as the keys to success over the creative fields.

Why would the only options be “your word alone” or a diploma?

My first business, just a few months after having my first baby, we doing desktop publishing. I didn’t have an MS in CAD. But I’d worked at space utilization at BYU while in school and then created a great portfolio at home. I had more business than I could do while my baby (and later, two babies) were sleeping (which was my designated work schedule) until my husband finished grad school.

After moving to Florida, I started a niche subscription newsletter and, later, an educational mail-order catalog. When my fourth daughter was born and I was too busy to run it, I sold it to a Maryland corp. And I didn’t have an MBA.

Currently I have a few things I’m involved in (web services, accounting, writing. public speaking) and my degrees are the same as they were in 1987.

True, I’ve always been home and my family has always been the priority, but I’ve worked with clients enough to know that I could get a job without more paper on my wall.

I have friends who have done so much more than I have, in similar circumstances, that I know it’s not that uncommon.

To be clear, I’m certainly not trying to minimize the value of formal education, but the truth is, the degrees are really only meaningful in some areas, not across the board.