<p>Reading a newspaper from one the xUSSR countries I learned that it is widely acknowledged there that studying in college/university/grad school gives only knowledge. It cannot give neither understanding nor wisdom, because as they claim such things have much to do with one’s life experience and inherited talent.
So I what do you think about it? Does earning your PhD in Harvard help you to gain wisdom or knowledge only?</p>
<p>Family motto: “Its what you do with it.” Yeah, you can learn a lot in college, but if you don’t apply it, if you don’t have the personality, its no use. My parents always point out Ph.D’s doing the work of BAs, MDs who can’t keep jobs, and MBAs doing the work of someone with a correspondence degree. In the real world, does your education put food on the table? I most definitely believe life exeperience and inherited talent are what give wisdom. But college itself is, to me, a experience–simple, forced interaction with lots of different people. You can learn a lot about people, and develop people skills–if you want.</p>
<p>Earning a PhD at Harvard or anywhere else requires knowledge. Wisdom comes only through experiance and you gain that while in college, but not during classes. It’s what you do with your time that gets you wisdom… its why (most) colleges don’t like people who just have 4.0’s uw and no EC’s… People have to start realizing that knowledge and what your GPA is or your SAT scores are isn’t that important, but personality, wisdom, leadership, stuff that can’t be seen on paper, is what is most vital for future life.</p>
<p>What they said… </p>
<p>You can get good grades and “learn” a lot through studying, but you are only gaining knowledge (which really is just permanent memorization) and not wisdom.</p>
<p>Experience is key.</p>
<p>I’m not a religious person at all so don’t take this a preaching but Solomon in Proverbs 4:7 said </p>
<p>“Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding”</p>
<p>Now there is no mention of knowledge, but I think we can all agree that knowledge is different than either wisdom or understanding. It could have easily have said that “experience” is the principal thing. </p>
<p>Wisdom I personally tend to think of as application of knowledge AND understanding. It’s one thing to know the facts of the Boston Tea Party, it’s another thing to understand the events and why they happened, it’s another thing to appreciate the consequences and implications of the event and what it means some 225+ years later. In a more colloquial sense wisdom is much more personal and far less academic than that, but still is that sort of combination of gross knowledge combined with an understanding and finally experience that will allow one to be wise.</p>
<p>Principally, i think earning a PhD from harvard would give you knowledge</p>
<p>But the process of earning that PhD would be rigerous, so indirectly you would gain alot of wisdom</p>
<p>I agree with bmans, to earn any degree from any Ivy league is a chore in itself, you’d be learning as many life lessons as biology lessons…</p>
<p>You certainly do learn SOME wisdom through studying–i.e., the wisdom of not procrastinating or how to deal with roommates–but the most important learning processes occur outside the classroom, through your interactions with people around you in roommate situations, work, leadership roles, mentors, etc.
One great way to learn wisdom is to take some leadership roles, get a mentor and mentor someone else. You’ll be amazed what you learn from ALL THREE roles! (student, mentor, and leader)…Also, learn to be teachable and you will ALWAYS be learning!</p>
<p>my education mainly gave me knowledge
however, my major is in physical sciences – through it i learned to appreciate complexity of the world and to think out of the box more often – so i’d say it also gave me wisdom</p>
<p>going to college is supposed to endow one with ‘life smarts’ so to say – i don’t know whether or not that is wisdom or knowledge – what is wisdom anyhow? – i think it means different things to different people – some think that wisdom is the ability to get on in this world, to not get into sticky situations, to command power and respect, to earn a lot of money – others think that it is the ultimate intellectual enlightenment, the apex of clarity of one’s mind – and yet for others it might be that they’ve came that much closer on their path to nirvana – depending on definition, you might get more or less wisdom out of earning a degree</p>
<p>rytis, the very fact that you ask that question leads me to believe that you will find wisdom through your college studies. However, wisdom is more likely found through the critical examination of failure than the diligent mimicry of success. </p>
<p>I’m like a fortune cookie today.</p>
<p>Stryet, wisdom is not about the size of your paycheck or your job title:</p>
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<p>Agree with this.</p>
<p>“Family motto: “Its what you do with it.” Yeah, you can learn a lot in college, but if you don’t apply it, if you don’t have the personality, its no use. My parents always point out Ph.D’s doing the work of BAs, MDs who can’t keep jobs, and MBAs doing the work of someone with a correspondence degree. In the real world, does your education put food on the table? I most definitely believe life exeperience and inherited talent are what give wisdom. But college itself is, to me, a experience–simple, forced interaction with lots of different people. You can learn a lot about people, and develop people skills–if you want.”</p>
<p>Stryet, this is foolish reasoning. These is merely ancedotal evidence. I mean, do you really think you’ll find many Phds working poor jobs? People will land in jobs matching their educational experience. I believe this to be true. And stop being so arrogant. Just because your family has a motto does not mean it applies to every collegate situation…I believe they call this a hasty generalization.</p>