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Got A Master's Degree? You Probably Love Obama
President Barack Obama
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If you've ever laid awake at night, haunted by the due date for your master's thesis, you probably think President Obama's doing a good job. That's the finding of a new report by Gallup out today.
Over the past month, only people with some post graduate education have given Obama a steady approval rating of above 50%, Gallup found. Obama's standing among those with academic hoods collecting dust in their closets averaged 58% over the month. Among those who went out and got a real job after graduating college, his approval rating In the opening weeks of the year was 49%. High school graduates gave Obama a 50% approval.
Obama's ratings have been declining with all Gallup respondents since he took office in Jan. '09, but post-graduates have always given him a higher approval rating than others. The bump holds true through all demographics except African Americans, who give Obama around a 90% approval rating across all levels of schooling.
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CT Voter
January 28, 2010 3:40 PM
Among those who went out and got a real job after graduating college, his approval rating In the opening weeks of the year was 49%
Hah! I didn't realize that my graduate degree meant I'm working at an imaginary job. . .
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Indie Pro
January 28, 2010 3:42 PM in reply to CT Voter
Haha! Good catch!
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Powkat
January 28, 2010 3:45 PM in reply to CT Voter
Oh, come on. My senior year the question we asked each other was, 'Are you going to join the real world or go to grad school?'
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CT Voter
January 28, 2010 4:09 PM in reply to Powkat
Like I haven't heard that comment a million times before.
And my standard response, when someone says "Oh, you're not really working in the real world" (in academia) has always been to point out I'm not an imaginary person in an imaginary job.
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CT Voter
January 28, 2010 4:10 PM in reply to CT Voter
And I apologize in advance if I sound like a humorless witch--but people don't realize just how denigrating that type of comment is.
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Powkat
January 28, 2010 6:33 PM in reply to CT Voter
Sorry - we were joking. The question was really are you going to go straight to grad school or take a job and then go to grad school. Some of us went for the job because we had no money to continue school (this was before student loans were easy to get).
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hunter
January 28, 2010 6:42 PM in reply to Powkat
And then there's my roommate, who is ABD (all but dissertation) and works for a private company. CT is right; having more than a BA doesn't mean you don't "have a real job" or even that you have a job in academia. It's a funny turn of phrase that's OK in casual contexts. But when you're reporting poll results it's inaccurate and unprofessional. It's not like the pollers asked the respondents' employers and broke out demographics based on that.
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AhTrini1
January 29, 2010 12:06 AM in reply to CT Voter
LMAO
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bdh
January 28, 2010 3:45 PM
Education camps!
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taikan
January 28, 2010 4:36 PM
A lot depends on how you read the comment.
Although perhaps poorly worded, I read it as saying that graduate school is not a "real" job, and not as saying that a job obtained after graduate school (including a job in academia) is not a "real" job.
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hunter
January 28, 2010 6:47 PM in reply to taikan
Yeah, that's what the reporter was trying to say. But the actual categories in the poll don't support that. Lots of the respondents to the poll who were classified as having Masters degrees or higher did in fact "go out and get a real job" fresh out of college. Then they either came back later, or worked on their Master's part-time, or whatever. But the statement is in no way an accurate description of the polling category. I don't think it's insulting, or a really big deal...but it is bad reporting, simply because what it says is not true.
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The Commenter Formerly Known as NCSteve
January 28, 2010 4:56 PM
Yeah, thanks for the dash of anti-intellectualism there. That's great. Because we totally don't get enough of that from the Republicans.
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Sailormarlowe
January 28, 2010 5:21 PM
If you have a master, you are probably like Obama? Say what?
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Cornelius
January 28, 2010 5:35 PM
bdh - LOL - Education camps! Words DO hurt. Great place to be, grad school. Trying to get my son into one - perfect time to be there. He's been working dead end jobs (when he can find one)for 18 months. I'm sure he'll feel "better about Obama" once he gets a 2 yr reprieve from reality. It be ugly.
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jsdc007
January 28, 2010 6:00 PM
Oh dear. I guess the advanced degrees some of us obtained make us somehow imgarinary creatures unlike those who jumped right into the workforce post high-school or post-college!! But then you don't get to do cutting edge scientific or medical research, or learn the law without a Ph.D or a JD. Maybe in some imaginary teabagger universe, less is more, and more is less, but I'm glad that I don't live in that world.
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Alex Carson
January 28, 2010 7:44 PM
People with higher levels of education generally have higher approval ratings for presidents, democrats or Republicans. Probably being educated gives one a better understanding of how hard it is for a president to get things done, whereas those less educated expect a president to solve problems that are really beyond the presidents ability to solve.
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converse
January 29, 2010 8:06 AM in reply to Alex Carson
Really? Could you point me to poll in which those with post-graduate degrees gave Bush (W) higher approval ratings than those with high school diplomas?
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Alex Carson
January 29, 2010 2:49 PM in reply to converse
Yes really.
In many of the Gallup polls post-grads have lower approval ratings than those with high school diplomas, true. In many others, post grads have a higher approval rating. This is just a casual observation on my part, not sure of the exact breakdown.
But in all the polls I saw people with college degrees give Bush a higher approval rating than those with just a high school diploma. Goes to show you, more education probably leads to more realistic expectations of what a president can accomplish.
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