The Millennials are the latest -and some would say, greatest – generation to emerge in America. Currently defined as those between the ages of 18 and 29, Millennials have many recognizable characteristics that researchers have deemed typical of the generation: optimism, tech-savvy, liberal leanings, and a solid educational background. Indeed, it’s easy to see that the Occupy rallies across the nation are populated largely by people who fit this description. It’s definitely been a Millennial-based movement. And though the Millennials are making themselves heard on the streets, they’re represented the most strongly in colleges and universities: the Millennials are already set to become the most well-educated generation in American history, with 40 percent attending college. Perhaps even more remarkable than this, however, is the astounding rate at which Millennials go on to pursue graduate degrees: a whopping 50 percent of those in college say they plan on entering graduate programs afterwards. It could be a sign of the tough financial times, or just evidence of the remarkable smarts and ambition that define this generation. Or perhaps it’s a little of both.

With tuition costs spiraling upwards with each passing year, and endowments shriveling up, financial aid is at an all-time premium. Students are increasingly taking out loans to pay for college – but risk-free financial aid is always the more attractive – and smarter – option. Unfortunately, there is a great deal of misinformation out there about financial aid. These myths are propagated because they have a ring of truth, and they paint an especially dreary picture of the financial aid situation. However, things are not so bad as they seem. Strangely enough, these myths intensify around the area of graduate programs, where the financial burden on the student is perceived to be larger. In fact, grad school doles out aid to a bigger percentage of its students than undergraduate programs do. This infographic dispels 8 of the most common myths surrounding the world of financial aid.

As we steadily approach the edge of the long-anticipated ‘double dip,’ the Great Recession continues its third straight year as the central topic of economic discussion in our country. It has affected, and continues to affect, everyone in the US in one way or another – whether through unemployment, defunding of state and government institutions like school and infrastructure, or the violent fluctuations of the stock market. Unemployment, in particular, has long been pinpointed by numerous economists as the number one economic problem in our midst. And as the regrettable debt ceiling debacle begins to recede into our memory, President Obama is finally preparing to tackle job creation head on, with an address planned for September 8 revealing his plan.

Though unemployment has been wide-reaching across industries, some have clearly been hit worse than others. Certain professions, such as mail sorting and photo processing, are being phased out by emerging digital technologies rapidly rendering them, arguably, obsolete. Others businesses, such as independent record stores, are in decline because of the way their respective industries have radically become transformed – once again, thanks to digital technology.

Other jobs, however, against all odds, are on the rise. The steep rise. And while everyone knows that the tech giants are constantly hiring the best and brightest, you might be surprised to hear about a few of the others. Any interest in becoming a performance makeup artist? Now’s the time, with 40% projected job growth into 2016. Or how about dabbling in mental health counseling? There are more than societal benefits to this job, with a remarkable – though somewhat unexplainable – projected growth of 30%. So if you’re sick of your job and craving a new profession, now might be the time to head back to school and get that secondary degree in one of these 10 specializations. These jobs, according to data, have nowhere to go but up.

Why You Shouldn’t Specialize

For a long time, graduate school and doctorate programs have encouraged students to pursue a career in academia, dreaming of professorships and research grants and eventually achieving tenure. But the simple fact of the matter is that tenure-track jobs are hard to come by, and getting harder all the time. There aren’t enough of them to go around as it is, and as we look toward the future it’s easy to see that academia is not a sound career goal.

What does that mean for doctorate and graduate students? It means that your specialization isn’t going to make you an expert in your particular field of study, increasing demand for your skills – it’s going to make you unemployed. The more you pursue teaching assistantships and concentrate your energy into your dissertation, the further you get from the skill set that can get you a career in the “real world” – you know, the one outside of the university.

Once you’ve realized that the real world is the place you need to eventually head toward (and the economics say it is), the questions will start coming hard and fast. What sort of qualifications does the real world require? How can I get there and still get my Ph.D.? Should I just drop out of graduate school now?

Is My Ph.D. Still Useful?

Fortunately, a future outside of academia is still compatible with getting a Ph.D. You just have to be very aware of the fact that you probably aren’t going to get a cushy tenure-track research teaching position at a prestigious university. You’re more likely to end up somewhere in corporate America, or starting your own business. Instead of putting all of your experience into teaching assistantships and research assistant positions, look for internships outside of your university, or within the university but not in a teaching or research field. Employers look for experience, and if all of your experience is as a teacher, then that’s all you’ll be qualified for no matter how smart you are.

Getting a Ph.D. won’t hurt your employment chances, but it isn’t a sure-fire ticket to getting hired. There are lots of other Ph.D.s out there. You may feel overqualified for most of the jobs you apply for, but that’s just what happens in such an educated society. In the end, it’s the skills you picked up when you were dragging yourself through graduate school that will matter – not the degree itself. Employers respond well to hard workers and analytical thinkers. These are the sorts of things your Ph.D. will say about you. Your expertise on amazonian butterflies won’t be as important.

Remember – the “real” world is about who you know as much as the academic one is. If you don’t start reaching out early, you won’t have the necessary connections when the time comes to look for a job. This is another reason to get experience outside the university as early as possible.

Benefits of Cross-Discipline Studies

Additionally, you should give serious consideration to broadening your skill set through cross-discipline studies. Instead of focusing in on a particular area of your field, add a second area of expertise to your repertoire. For example, if your area is English, try taking some marketing classes, or computer science. With both marketing and English skills, you can make your way in just about any business, especially marketing or research companies. If you’re qualified for English and computer science, you could become a technical writer, and get jobs with big-name companies like Google or Microsoft. By combining skill sets, you create opportunities for yourself that you wouldn’t otherwise have.

Plus, by using your time in graduate school to gain more than one useful field of expertise, you get the most out of your education. Instead of spending a lot of money to qualify for one thing, that money has been spent to get you the necessary qualifications to actually become employed quickly. If there’s a specific career that you think you would enjoy, try to tailor your graduate studies to direct you toward that career path. Don’t let your professors pull you back toward teaching exclusively – it’s best to keep your options open.

Peer Pressure

While you’re still in graduate school, it may seem like planning for a career in the outside world is a cop out. After all, the best and brightest are the ones who end up in academia, right? The rest are the drop-outs and the people who couldn’t handle it.

It’s exactly this sort of mindset that has so many intelligent and well-qualified people out of work, or unhappy in their positions. You can still aim for tenure, but there’s nothing wrong with being realistic about your future prospects and having a back-up plan. You can make more money in the business world, and you may even find that you’re happier without the constant pressure to teach and publish. Professorship is a dying profession, which makes it a poor career goal. If you want to do right by yourself, don’t listen to your mentors, urging you to follow in their footsteps. They are the lucky minority, and most of them probably still don’t have the jobs they really wanted. Instead, figure out what it is that you want, and work from there. Don’t let graduate school dictate your future, or else you’ll be unhappy for the rest of your life.

So don’t be an insect. Be a human being. Keep your mind open and your eyes peeled for opportunities, and learn everything you can while you still have a chance. Academia isn’t big enough for everyone anymore, and soon you’ll have to fend for yourself in the “real world.”

*Photo courtesy of wiki commons.

Reasons to Go

There are still plenty of benefits to getting an MBA, particularly for those who know exactly what they want to be doing with their careers. An MBA is an effective way to build credibility with those already in the business world, learn to think like a business person and pick up the business jargon you’ll need to be able to succeed around your future employers and employees, along with other Reasons You Should Get an MBA. But the true benefit in getting an MBA doesn’t lie in the networking connections or the knowledge or even the skills you will acquire while in school – these are all things that you can cobble together on your own, or learn by doing in the working world. There are two situations in which an MBA is an invaluable tool:

1. You want to work in corporate America. Nobody plays by the rules like the big corporations, so if GM is your goal, the MBA isn’t just a benefit – it’s a requirement. The old boys don’t take well to upstarts who haven’t paid their dues in university before venturing into the business world.
2. You want to make a career change without taking a demotion. Say you work in IT for a large company, but lately you’ve found yourself quite jealous of those lucky folks over in the marketing department. You aren’t qualified to work in that other area, so how can you make the switch without starting back on the bottom? Get an MBA. This will help you gain the necessary knowledge and show that you’re committed to making the change. Not to mention that your company might even be willing to pay your tuition.

For more on this topic, take a look at Is an MBA Worth It? by Gal Josefberg, or I have a Great Career; Why Should I Get an MBA? from the Job Whisperer blog, written by Cathy Martin.

Ultimately, the biggest reason to get an MBA is still the same as it’s always been: higher salaries. But the actual data may surprise you. The top 25 business schools may have the prestige you’re looking for, and there are still business leaders who value them highly, but they’re not the soundest investment on the market anymore. In fact, in a recent study Bloomberg Businessweek found that while MBAs from top-ranked schools take an average of ten years to pay back their student loans, 2^nd tier schools took as little as four or five. The fastest return went to Texas A&M, with just under three and a half years. There are a number of reasons for this discrepancy, including the fact that top 25 schools have much higher tuition rates and that MBAs attending those schools tend to have had higher before-salaries, but it’s still something to keep in mind when considering business school. Going to a lower tier school may be a much better investment for you, because you’ll have Faster Returns.

Additionally, the job market is not as soft as it once was, and pay rates and job offer numbers are both steadily rising. In 2011, 55% of business grads had job offers at graduation, which beats the previous 2001 record of 51%. Thus, with More MBA Job Offers and Higher Pay, business school is still a smart investment, if you have a clear idea of how an MBA will help you reach your desired career.

Reasons Not to Go

But there are still plenty of compelling reasons to skip the MBA and jut dump straight into the deep end, especially if you don’t fit into one of the two categories mentioned above. Just a few of these reasons are as follows:

1. The cost. While business schools like to flash the numbers around, claiming higher pay rates for MBAs, the actual difference isn’t much – and they fail to factor in the cost of university and the money lost while you spend two years in school racking up debt. If your goal is more money, and MBA is not going to be your magic trick for getting there.
2. The opportunities. If you’re already in an upwardly mobile position and can see the rest of your career on the horizon, don’t stymie your progress by abandoning it all for the ivory tower. You’ll be much better off learning by doing, and picking the brains of your bosses and supervisors along the way.
3. The mindset. Academia has a rigid system and a set way of thinking, which will get you nowhere if you want to be an entrepreneur. Keep your creativity safe and strike out on your own, making your own rules instead.

Ultimately, if you’re already good at business and succeeding in a (frankly) bleak economy, there’s nothing business school can teach you that you can’t figure out on your own. What’s more, in some environments an MBA is a “Kiss of Death” – it labels you as someone who failed to succeed on your own, and thus had to buy a credential. Be very certain that an MBA is necessary for your career before you invest the time and money into becoming potentially “over-qualified” in an area that there’s isn’t much demand for in a .com environment. If you don’t believe us, take it from the experts:

• 4 Reasons an MBA is Bad for Entrepreneurs
• Don’t Bother with an MBA
• MBA Education is an Oxymoron
• Never Hire an MBA
• Read Before Getting an MBA

Make Up Your Own Mind

Thus, you should think long and hard before going to business school. The fact is, getting an MBA isn’t the right choice for everyone. There are lots of factors that go into determining Who Should Get an MBA – and Who Shouldn’t. As a general rule of thumb, the people who benefit the most from getting an MBA are those who…

• are looking for a career change;
• are stuck in lower levels and want to advance in the business world; or,
• know exactly what they want to do, and have a set plan for how to get there.

Don’t go to business school just to fill a gap in your life plan, and definitely don’t go if you already have a Big Idea and the resources to act on it. For entrepreneurs especially, getting an MBA costs more than it earns, particularly if it means someone else gets to your idea before you do. Plus, an MBA isn’t a particularly academic pursuit – if you like university life, you’re better off going into economics or even mathematics. Business school is all about the real world, building skills for leadership and networking, and it’s not a friendly place for people who want to focus on academics alone.

If you still think an MBA is the best option for you, but you’re not sure about your finances, take a look at Forbes.com’s MBA Payback Calculator – a nifty little tool that helps you calculate the cost of your MBA and how long it will take you to pay it back, based on your current salary and projected starting salary after graduation.

The day is finally here. The letter comes in the mail. Excited, you tear it from the mailbox, then, trembling, gently break open the envelope and peer inside.

Your heart drops. Your throat goes dry. Rejection. And all you can think is those two horrible little words:

Now What?

Don’t panic! You’re not alone. Today, the application pool for graduate school is tougher than ever. With job opportunities apparently hard to come across, an increasing number of college grads who might have gone into the workforce in other years are going straight to graduate school instead. You have stiff competition, and they’re getting just as many rejection letters as you are.

But here’s the good news (yes, there’s good news): that rejection letter may have done you a favor.

Despite what professors and other academics want you to think, being smart doesn’t mean you necessarily have to go to graduate school. In fact, for many people graduate school is the biggest mistake they could possibly make. It’s a huge commitment, both in time and in money, that doesn’t necessarily mean a brighter future. Let’s look at some of the numbers:

Statistics

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 1.6 million bachelor’s degrees were awarded in the United States in 2009. But that same year, only 460 thousand first-time graduates were enrolled in graduate schools. While these numbers are higher than they have ever been in the past, the fact is that there simply aren’t enough graduate school positions available for the number of college graduates who want them, even after you factor out those students who don’t even apply. Your rejection doesn’t mean you’re a failure; it means that you’re just one of the unlucky ones.

Meanwhile, the job outlook for college graduates is actually better than is has been in past years. 73% of students with bachelor’s degrees were employed in 2010, with students willingly not in the labor force accounting for 18%. Those with a master’s degree or higher had employment rates of only 77% – a 4% different paid for dearly in tuition fees and time. As it turns out, going to graduate school isn’t as beneficial for your career outlook as many people would have you think.

What do you want?

Given that graduate school won’t help much with your future job prospects, that leaves only your own personal desire to attend. You may protest the implication – of course you want to go to graduate school. You’ve always wanted to go. Why else would you have worked so hard all those years?

But the sad fact is, the academy has a tendency to push people toward graduate school when they should really be striking out on their own. In some ways, it works almost like a cult: it demands all of your time and attention, minimizes your contact with the outside world, indoctrinates you into one way of thinking, and, worst of all, convinces you that not going to grad school means “not living up to your potential” – emotional blackmail.

Of course, the link is only superficial. Going to graduate school does not make you a kool-aid drinker, but it is something to think about: what are your real reasons for wanting to go? Is it because you like the challenge, because you love your area of study, because you can’t imagine life without 60% of your time spent with your nose in a book? Or is it because you feel pressure from professors and peers, because you think if you don’t go, you won’t have a future?

Questions

Before making a decision, ask yourself these questions:

1. Can I handle the time commitment that grad school represents? Too often, college grads think they’re prepared for graduate school because they survived college, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The sheer magnitude of required work in graduate school is enough to crush the average college student, so be prepared.
2. Do I know what I want to do? Having a career in mind is key when deciding whether or not to attend grad school. The simple fact of the matter is that some careers care more about experience than education, and your enrollment in grad school will only mean time you weren’t working. Make sure you know what kind of credentials your profession looks for, because you don’t want to waste anyone’s time or money – especially your own.
3. Where did I get the idea for grad school? This may seem like an obvious question, but it’s an important one to consider. If graduate school was your own idea, and you’re sure that it’s what you want, then by all means go for it. But if graduate school was suggested by a professor, friend or even a parent, think twice. Are you really going for yourself? Or are you just doing it to make someone else happy?
4. Am I hoping graduate school will balance out my useless degree? It’s common to think that a “useless degree” (you know which ones) means that you won’t be qualified for anything straight out of college, and will thus have to go to graduate school to make something of yourself. But this is a myth. In fact, just having a bachelor’s degree of any sort means that you have gained tons of important skills: knowing how to write, the ability to keep track of and meet deadlines, planning ahead to ensure that all of your requirement are taken care of before the fun things, etc. You may not be able to find a job in the field you majored in, but you’re more qualified than you think. And besides – is a master’s degree in the same subject really any better?

So when that rejection letter comes, don’t hang your head and sink into the pits of despair. Instead, use it as an opportunity for reflection. Maybe graduate school isn’t right for you. Maybe you are ready for the real world after all.

*Photo courtesy of wiki commons.

The first step to resolving any conflict is, of course, to recognize that there’s a problem. But as shown in documents like the Higher Education Employment Report, the problem isn’t as bad as everyone is making it out to be. Academic jobs are actually on the rise again, and while universities are still favoring part-time and adjunct positions over professorships, hiring increases have occurred across the boards. Of course, jobs in higher education only account for about 1.31% of jobs in the United States, while almost 11% of Americans have masters or doctorate degrees. Thus, many PhDs are forced to look outside of the academic sphere for employment, and they’re seeing great results. For example, the owner/manager of Sellout – a website dedicated to helping people leave the ivory tower.

In this guide, we hope to give you the information and tools you need to find the employment you really want after your graduate career is over, whether its inside the university or out in the regular job market.

Academic Positions

When applying for an academic position, it’s important to understand how the game is played in a university setting. It doesn’t work the same way job searches in the outside world do, or the way it did when you were putting yourself through school with part-time work. Instead, you have to focus on finding mentors who you look up to, winning their approval and finding positions through those connections. Additionally, you have to conduct yourself with the proper attitude, viewing the environment you enter as more of a family than a job. Spend some time studying the Etiquette for Entering an Academic Job Market before you start actually applying for positions, to make sure you don’t commit any major faux-pas when you’re marketing yourself. Listen to any Academic Job Search Advice you’re offered, because with the market the way it is, any hand up is a godsend, and make sure to apply early and often. Here are some basic tips:

1. Apply about a year before you actually need the job, in October or November. Getting early attention marks you as an eager applicant, and means that you’ll have fewer applications to compete with. Most schools stop accepting applications in January, but keep applying into late winter anyway – you never know who might take a liking to your CV.
2. Make sure all your papers are in order before you start applying. And that means all of them. Polish your CV, draft your research and teaching statements (six or seven times if you have to), and let your letter writers know well in advance what you need from them. Keep them posted throughout the process, too – people like to know how things turn out.
3. Have a back-up plan. Lots of fields go through tough years where nobody is hiring anywhere in academia, and you’d be lucky to get an adjunct position, much less a professorship. Don’t panic, though. Take a couple of years to do something else while you’re waiting for the market. Join a start-up, become a post-doc, do some traveling – whatever appeals to you. But don’t stop looking for work in academia, because you don’t want to miss it when the market comes back.

For more tips, take a look at Tips for a Massive Academic Job Search. There are plenty of resources to help graduate students find work within the academic sphere, so don’t panic if things look grim. Here are a few sites to help you out:

• Academic Careers Online
• Academic Employment Network
• Chronicle of Higher Education
• Higher Education Jobs

Non-Academic Positions

For those of you willing to leave the cocoon of the ivory tower – or just tired of being trapped up there – the broader job market might be a better option, though certainly not a more secure one. Job outlook across the boards is pretty grim, though it’s picking up these days. If your ultimate goal is outside of academia, there are a few career paths that you should consider especially. These are the fields with growing employment rates, in spite of the bad economy:

1. Computer Science – The world is becoming ever more digital, and it shows in the job market. If you’re a whiz with computers, then a masters or doctorate in computer science is going to be worth your while after university.
2. Nursing/Physician Assistant – No matter what the economy is doing, there will always be a need for medical professionals. For those not willing to go through the hassles and struggles of med school, nursing is a great alternative that offers quite a bit of job security.
3. Civil Engineering – Engineering has always been a fairly safe career route, but with an ever growing population and the demand for more space, civil engineers have their hands full designing roadways and buildings to accommodate everyone.

For more information about growing careers, take a look at Forbes.com’s Best Master’s Degrees for Jobs.

Once you’ve graduated and it’s time to look for non-academic work, there are some things to keep in mind. Job searching is very different in the “real world” from the way it is inside of academia, and if you spent your graduate career firmly entrenched in your research or teaching it’s unlikely that you’ll have the connections you need. While you’re still getting your degree, be sure to branch out and accept internships outside of the university, and try to network with people who have jobs you want. Find out how they got there, and ask their advice on what you should do. Use these resources to help you get everything straight:

• Beyond Academe – A guide to finding work outside the university for history graduates, but the advice also applies to masters and doctorate students in general.
• Developing a Nonacademic Career – A detailed guide to the differences between academic and non-academic job hunting, from the Modern Language Association (MLA).
• Non-Academic Career Guide – A graduate student career guide from the University of California-Irvine.
• Overcoming the 3 Barriers to the Post Academic Job Search – Julie’s blog is an exercise in figuring out what you love to do, even if it means leaving behind the career you always thought you wanted. A great read for those hesitant about choosing a non-academic career path.
• Recasting Yourself for Non-Academic Jobs – A helpful article for PhDs who think they aren’t qualified for anything outside of academia. Hope is not lost!

*Photo courtesy of Guillaume Paumier / Wikimedia Commons, CC-by-3.0.

History

Spoiler alert: English came from everywhere and includes pretty much everything.

1. English came from Germanic roots: When tribes from what is now Germany came to the land that would be England, they brought with them the language that would eventually grow into the dialect we use today.
2. There are three basic eras to English formation: Old English, which ran from the 5th through 11th centuries; Middle English, which lasted until the 15th century; and Modern English, which takes us to the present.
3. Beowulf, whose author is unknown, is the most well-known remnant of Old English: The epic poem survives in a single manuscript dating to sometime between the 8th and 11th century.
4. Half the words we use today have roots in Old English: Although Old and Modern English look incredibly different, words as diverse as "water" and "be" are merely forms of words that came into English use centuries ago.
5. English disappeared from written language for a while: The Norman conquest of England in 1066 established Norman French as the upper-class language and relegated English to peasants. Churches keep records in French, and novelists write in that language. Basically, English stops being a written language for more than 100 years.
6. English literature didn’t reappear until after 1200: Changing political climates led to the Provisions of Oxford, a constitution-like document written in English in 1258. By 1300, English as a language had taken hold again.
7. We owe our language to the Great Vowel Shift: Danish linguist Otto Jespersen coined the term Great Vowel Shift to refer to the period between 1450 and 1750 during which pronunciation rules for English changed drastically. This is when things started to sound the way they do now.
8. The Great Vowel Shift is just what it sounds like: The shift wasn’t just a change in thinking, but an actual relocation of vowel creation in people’s mouths and throats. We didn’t just pronounce things differently; we physically made different noises. The GVS was revolutionary.
9. "Checkmate" is more literal than you think: The chess term is an alteration of "shah mat," a Persian phrase that meant "the king is ambushed."

Usage

English is constantly changing and being used in new ways.

10. "Set" has more definitions than any other English word: Twenty-five as a transitive verb, 11 as intransitive, 24 as a noun, and seven as an adjective. That doesn’t even count phrases.
11. "Irritate" and "aggravate" are different words: "Irritate" means "to annoy"; "aggravate" means "to make worse." A lot of word pairs are easily mixed up, but most people don’t even know this is an error. But take it from a militant grammarian: it is. Oh, it is.
12. There are more than 125 English dialects worldwide: Each dialect uses English in its own way, from pronunciation to construction.

Phrases

Our speech is filled with special phrases and expressions, but most people don’t know where they originated. Here’s the truth behind some of them. Impress (or irritate) your friends!

13. No one knows who came up with "the whole nine yards.": The most widely cited story to explain the origin of this phrase, which means "completely" or "using everything," is that soldiers in World War II started using it in reference to firing the entire length of an ammunition belt on an anti-aircraft gun. Yet there are no written instances of the phrase before 1962, and many other stories and theories have been advanced. Everyone knows what it means; no one knows how it got here.
14. God, actually, is in the details: The idiom "the devil is in the details" is meant to imply that there’s always a catch to a situation, usually hard to find. But the phrase is actually an inversion of the earlier "God is in the details," which means that the most important part of any job or project is the details, and that work is worth doing well and thoroughly. No one knows who came up with the original, either; it’s been sourced to Gustave Flaubert and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, though incorrectly.
15. "Five by five" isn’t measuring anything: At least, nothing physical. The phrase refers to the two separate five-point scales, one for signal strength and one for clarity, used to refer to radio communications. "Five by five" means you’re getting the best of both, and it’s used to mean you understand someone’s point.
16. It’s "hear, hear." Trust me.: The phrase is short for "hear him, hear him," meaning you want people to be quiet and pay attention to someone saying something important. It’s not — repeat, not — "here, here." Everyone knows where you are.
17. "Kangaroo courts" have nothing to do with Australia: Despite the linkage with Australia’s most famous animal, the phrase "Kangaroo court" is 100% American. The term sprang up (ha) shortly after the California Gold Rush, referring to sham trials where justice proceeds with giant, kangaroo-like leaps that skip over facts and due process.
18. The Devil’s advocate was, well, just that: Although "playing devil’s advocate" now means to take a position just for the sake of argument, the spiritually tinged phrase has its origins in the Roman Catholic Church. When considering someone for sainthood, the Promoter of the Faith, aka the Devil’s Advocate, would take the opposing view and try to poke holes in the case supporting that particular canonization.

Letters and Trivia

The more you research the language, the more you realize just how much of it has been borrowed from other tongues.

19. Dozens of nations have English as their official (or co-official) language: These include the U.K., Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and Australia.
20. English is the most widespread language in the world: A higher number of people speak Mandarin, but English covers a great area.
21. The letter combination "ough" can be pronounced eight different ways: Here’s a sentence that captures them all: "A rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough, coughing and hiccoughing thoughtfully."
22. English has borrowed words from almost 150 languages: Everything from "ivory" to "banjo" and hundreds of other words started out in other languages.
23. William Shakespeare made up many of his words: The pre-eminent English writer invented nearly 2,000 words and catch phrases.
24. More English speakers reside in the U.S. than anywhere else: More than 250 million Americans speak English (and it’s the first language for 215 million of them), placing it easily at the top of the list. Second place? India, with 125 million.
25. The actual number of words in the English language is up for debate: Some dictionaries claim there are 600,000, while others say less than 500,000. Either way, it’s a lot.
26. Only one eight-letter word contains just one vowel: It’s "strength."
27. Lots of bears in the Arctic: The Arctic gets its name from the Greek word "arktikos," which means "northern" or "near the Bear," and is turn derived from the Greek word "arktos," which means "bear." The name refers to the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the Great Bear and Little Bear. The Little Bear contains the North Star.
28. There’s a reason typists practice using "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.": It contains every letter in the alphabet, making it ideal for mastering keyboard layout.
29. Charles Dickens holds the title for best-selling English-language single-volume author: His A Tale of Two Cities, first published in 1859, has moved more than 200 million copies.
30. J.K. Rowling’s no slouch, either: When it comes to multi-volume book series, Rowling’s Harry Potter septet wears the crown for English-language sales, with more than 400 million copies sold. (And that doesn’t even count the ancillary companion books.)

Word Origins

Ever wonder where words come from? Some of these inventions and origins will surprise you.

31. "Boycott" was a man: The word "boycott" comes from Charles Boycott, an English army captain in the late 1800s who was financially ostracized when he tried to evict some tenants. The word now refers to the habit of refusing to do business with someone instead of resorting to more drastic measures.
32. Twenty-five of the 50 United States derive their state names from languages of Native Americans and other indigenous people: Just for starters: Alabama comes from the Alabama tribe, Kentucky is an Iroquoian word for "on the field," and Mississippi is from an Algonquin language and means "big river."
33. What’s more, we also get hundreds of everyday words from Native American languages: Caribou, chipmunk, pecan, opossum, raccoon, woodchuck, chocolate, and so many more.
34. "Shrapnel" was also a man: Henry Shrapnel was a British officer who designed the first anti-personnel shell designed to spread little fragments of artillery.
35. Skating’s most popular term is a tribute to its creator: Although the move — a jump with a forward takeoff — sounds like "axle," it’s actually "axel," named for its creator, Axel Paulsen of Norway.
36. The inventor of the leotard was, well, Leotard: French acrobat Jules Leotard — who also inspired the tune "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze" — was notable for wearing a one-piece, skin-tight uniform while performing. It now bears his name.
37. Bloomer’s bloomers: An advocate of women’s rights (yay!) and temperance (boo), Amelia Bloomer was such a fan of these loose pants that her name became permanently linked to them.
38. Sideburns, Burnside, etc.: Ambrose Burnside, a Union general in the Civil War, sported some truly epic facial hair. It was such a distinctive look that people began referring to the style as "burnsides," which eventually slid around to become "sideburns."
39. Elbridge Gerry rigged everything but his own word: Massachusetts governor Elbridge Gerry did some extreme redistricting in 1812 to benefit the Democratic-Republican Party, so much so that one of the new districts was said to look like a salamander. Very likely someone said it should instead be called a "gerrymander" after the sneaky governor, and the term stuck. Today it refers to the practice of redrawing the boundaries of political districts for deliberate and unfair electoral purposes.
40. "Zamboni" is not, in fact, an obscure Italian word: The word comes from Frank Zamboni, a California business man who invented the modern machine in 1949. Even though the word is a trademark, it’s entered into general use, and pretty much everyone refers to ice resurfacing machines used at skating and hockey rinks as zambonies.
41. A Crapper invented the crapper, but not the word for, well, you know: British plumber Thomas Crapper didn’t come up with the idea for the flush toilet, but he did make remarkable design improvements that helped popularize water closets. As a result, his name became a noun synonymous with toilets. However, the word "crap" did not come from his name, but was of Middle English origin and first appeared in the OED when Thomas was just 10 years old. The fact that he got into plumbing was just a weird, albeit awesome, coincidence.
42. Pullover? No, it’s a Cardigan.: James Brudenell, 7th Earl of Cardigan, liked to bundle up when got chilly, and he favored sweaters with buttons down the middle over those you have to pull over your head to wear. As a result, such sweaters became known as cardigans. Not to be confused with The Cardigans.
43. If you were a "guy," you were a killer: Guy Fawkes was arrested in 1605 for attempting to blow up Parliament, an act which did not exactly endear him to law enforcement. The planned destruction date, November 5, came to be called Guy Fawkes Day, marked by celebrations in which effigies of Fawkes were burned. These shortly came to be known as "guys," and the word morphed to mean any effigy, then any person in unusual dress, and finally, when the word crossed the pond, men in general.
44. "Hooker" had many patrons: People started referring to prostitutes as "hookers" in the mid-1800s for multiple reasons. For starters, prostitutes were heavily concentrated in the Corlear’s Hook area of Manhattan, which gave rise to the term, but the word also got a boost from a popular legend that Union Gen. Joseph Hooker kept his men supplied with working girls. It’s not entirely true, but it didn’t hurt the word’s popularity.
45. Honchos aren’t who you think they are: The word "honcho," meaning boss or big shot, entered English in the mid-20th century as an altered form of the Japanese word "hancho," which means "squad leader."

Reference Books

The history and creation of the books that define our language.

46. English dictionaries are older than you think: The first English dictionaries included words in other languages with their corresponding English meaning. Richard Mulcaster’s Elemantarie, a nonalphabetical list of 8,000 words (sounds, uh, helpful), showed up in 1592.
47. The first purely English dictionary appeared in 1604: It was called A Table Alphabeticall [sic], and it was written by a schoolteacher named Robert Cawdrey. It was far from a complete guide to the language, and it would take a century and a half for the next step to be made.
48. The first major dictionary showed up in 1755: Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language was nine years in the making and remained the most popular and trusted dictionary until the Oxford English Dictionary arrived 175 years later.
49. Noah Webster got started in 1806: That was the year his first dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language. In addition to having the guts to call itself "compendious," it introduced Americanized spellings of words that would become linguistic law on this side of the pond, like "center" instead of "centre" and "program" instead of "programme."
50. The first major thesaurus arrived in 1852: Peter Mark Roget created his now-famous reference guide in 1805 but didn’t release it to the public until 50 years later. The first edition contained 15,000 words.

Controversial Cases

Professor Michael Fitzgerald is one of the leading researchers who is attempting to posthumously diagnose famous thinkers, backed up by the idea that the genes responsible for originality and creativity are also attributed to autism and Asperger’s. Take a look at some of the more controversial cases here.

1. Charles Darwin: Evolution, natural selection and the Galapagos: those are all terms that we probably wouldn’t have heard of if it wasn’t for Charles Darwin’s controversial and revolutionary research. The scientist — born in England in 1809 — is also believed to have had Asperger’s. He was a loner as a child and was obsessed with cataloging and collecting even as a young person.
2. Albert Einstein: This story reports that Cambridge and Oxford scientists have found convincing evidence that Albert Einstein probably had Asperger’s syndrome even as young as seven, obsessively repeating sentences over and over, and presenting confusing lectures when he was older. Others say that Einstein’s famous sense of humor means he couldn’t have had Asperger’s.
3. Sir Isaac Newton: Newton was reportedly quiet and isolated, and had odd social skills, sometimes giving lectures even if no one showed up.
4. Thomas Jefferson: While it’s been speculated that Jefferson had Asperger’s, others wonder if he was just exceedingly eccentric.

Math, Science, and Business

Read about revolutionaries in math, economics, business, engineering and other science fields who are autistic or who are believed to be autistic.

5. Richard Borcherds: High profile mathematician and Berkeley professor Richard Borcherds is a controversial case, but the Fields Medal winner has been noted to have severe trouble interacting with people.
6. Vernon L. Smith: Professor and Nobel laureate Vernon L. Smith is a prominent economist and is a high achiever on the autism spectrum, attributing characteristics like extreme attention to detail and focus to the condition.
7. Nikola Tesla: Electrical and mechanical engineer and inventor Nikola Tela is one of the most important contributors to electromagnetism and electricity, and is also thought to have had autism.
8. Temple Grandin: CSU professor, prominent researcher in animal behavior, and animal welfare advocate Temple Grandin has high-functioning autism and credits supportive teachers with helping her channel her learning and behavioral disability in a productive way.
9. Paul Dirac: Nobel Prize-winning physicist Paul Dirac had "very repetitive behavior" but rarely spoke and was practically incapable of feeling empathy.
10. Keith Joseph: The "Father of Thatcherism" Keith Joseph may have created his political philosophy based on his autistic tendencies and behavior, which were sometimes regarded as harsh, lacking in empathy and eccentric.

Philosophers

From Immanuel Kant to Simone Weil, some of these philosophers might surprise you.

11. Socrates: The oldest speculation on this list is about Socrates, who often repeated phrases and ideas, wasn’t concerned with his family, constantly questioned others, had odd social behaviors, and whose philosophies are characterized by constant analyses and questioning.
12. Immanuel Kant: Kant famously said that empathy wasn’t necessary to morality, leading some to believe he had Asperger’s.
13. Simone Weil: Philosopher and activist Simone Weil picked up on ancient Greek and Sanskrit as a girl and is thought to be autistic by Professor Fitzgerald.
14. Ludwig Wittgenstein: Another connection made between the creativity and originality gene and autism has led Fitzgerald to speculate that philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein — who studied language, mathematics, the mind, and logic — may have had some form of the condition.

Writers, Musicians, and Artists

Andy Warhol, Emily Dickinson and Samuel Beckett may have been more than eccentric characters: they may have also had autism.

15. Christopher Knowles: Artist Christopher Knowles’ work is based on his extraordinary typed-up patterns, inspired by his autistic behavior.
16. Andy Warhol: Eccentric Andy Warhol was also shy and had strange social skills. His famous pop art also followed repeated patterns, and some friends have said that he lacked empathy.
17. Emily Dickinson: The poet Emily Dickinson was a recluse and puzzling writer, and Vernon Smith believes she may have been autistic, too.
18. Henriett Seth F.: Hungarian poet and artist Henriett Seth F. has autism, and has been repeating words and behaviors since she was a toddler. She has also won writing contests since the age of 10.
19. Jonathan Lerman: Gifted young artist Jonathan Lerman is just 23 years old, and has been diagnosed with autism most of his life, but his charcoal drawings have been on display in New York for years already.
20. Peter Howson: Scottish painter Peter Howson creates aggressive politically and socially minded works of art and was even the official war artist for the Bosnian Civil War. This year, however, Howson had to appoint a legal guardian to monitor his financial affairs since his autism has limited him in that capacity.
21. Samuel Beckett: Philosopher-writer Samuel Beckett wrote important works like Waiting for Godot, which have tipped some researchers off to his possible autism.
22. Tim Page: Pulitzer Prize winner Tim Page is a journalism and music professor at University of Southern California and also has high-functioning autism and Asperger’s.
23. W.B. Yeats: Irish poet and playwright W.B. Yeats is one of the most important writers of the 20th century, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923. He’s also one of Fitzgerald’s studies in autism.
24. Daniel Tammet: Language whiz and mathematician Daniel Tammet is one of the most studied autistic savants right now, and has even written about his experiences with Asperger’s in two books.
25. Hans Christian Andersen: Danish children’s book writer Hans Christian Andersen wrote "The Little Mermaid," "Thumbelina" and "The Little Match Girl," among other favorites, but he was known for his consistent experiences with unrequited love.
26. Michelangelo: Michelangelo may have been autistic, as scientists point to his difficulty communicating with people, obsessive-compulsive behaviors, extreme attention to detail, and preference for isolation.
27. Jonathan Swift: Fitzgerald also believes the Modest Proposal writer was autistic, possibly because of his tendency to publish using aliases and great creativity and originality.
28. George Orwell: Animal Farm and 1984 writer George Orwell may have been autistic, but he is also known for his sharp wit and support of social injustice and persecution, which aren’t always characteristic of autism.
29. James Joyce: Joyce’s stream of consciousness style and troubled social life may have been products of high-functioning autism.
30. H.G. Wells: H.G. Wells was supposedly "socially insecure, controlling, lonely, cruel and emotionally immature," which has convinced some that he was autistic.

Film and Television

1. Peter Weller: Peter Weller’s best known for RoboCop (a totally underrated flick destroyed by sequels), as well as The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension and other sci-fi movies. He’s also got a master’s degree in Roman and Renaissance Art from Syracuse University, which he earned in 2004. He’s not joking around, either: He appeared as an expert commentator on Rome: Engineering an Empire, a documentary on the History Channel.
2. David Duchovny: Before "Californication," "The X-Files," and "Twin Peaks," David Duchovny was a serious English nerd. He studied English lit at Princeton before earning his master’s in the same field from Yale.
3. Dolph Lundgren: Hard to believe, but totally true: Dolph Lundgren, Ivan Drago himself, has a master’s degree. He graduated from Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology before heading to Australia and picking up a master’s in chemical engineering from the University of Sydney. All this while also studying a growing number of martial arts. He was even awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to MIT but left to start his acting career. I’m now kind of scared of his combination of brains and brawn.
4. Rowan Atkinson: Rowan Atkinson, star of British comedies like "Blackadder" and "Mr. Bean," is famous for playing idiots. But in real life, he’s anything but stupid. He attended Newcastle University and studied electrical engineering, then got a master’s degree in the subject at Oxford. It takes a smart guy to look that dumb.
5. Sigourney Weaver: Although she would later be immortalized in the Alien franchise as well as a host of other roles — not to mention the Gatekeeper — Sigourney Weaver started her professional life with a graduate degree. After studying English at Stanford, she earned a master of fine arts from Yale University’s School of Drama.
6. Mayim Bialik: She’ll forever be known as "Blossom," though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. She starred on the NBC sitcom for five years, after which she attended UCLA and majored in neuroscience, Hebrew, and Jewish studies. Even more, she eventually completed her Ph.D. in neuroscience. She still makes TV appearances, notably as a geeky shout-out on CBS’s "The Big Bang Theory," but make no mistake: She’s unbelievably gifted, and smarter than most Hollywood players.
7. Bill Cosby: The Coz has long understood the importance of education. Even as his acting career heated up with "I, Spy" and his stand-up comedy, he earned a master’s degree from the University of Massachusetts before earning a doctorate in education, also from UMass. He wrote a dissertation about how schools could use "Fat Albert" as a teaching tool.
8. Robert Vaughn: Long before he was in the regrettable Superman III, Robert Vaughn was best known for starring on NBC’s spy show "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." from 1964-1968. In addition to his numerous film and TV credits, though, Vaughn is also highly educated, holding a Ph.D. from USC in communications. He also authored Only Victims: A Study of Show Business Blacklisting.
9. Ken Jeong: Ken Jeong has been blowing up ever since 2007′s Knocked Up, having clocked hilarious performances in The Hangover, NBC’s "Community," and much more. But he’s also a full-on doctor, and in fact earned his degree before getting into showbiz. He earned his undergrad degree at Duke, then got his medical degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It’s good that he’s got that to fall back on, but given his career trajectory, it looks like he’ll be acting for a while.
10. Ron Jeremy: The man known as "The Hedgehog" (for reasons you should never learn) has appeared in more than 2,000 porn movies and dozens of legit titles, but he’s also got a fallback: He’s got a master’s degree in special education from Queens College, where he also earned his bachelor’s degree in education and theater. So who knows, he might just trade in his bathrobe for a professor’s tweed.
11. Ron Silver: Ron Silver’s had a long and varied career on TV and in film, and he was also a prominent political spokesman before succumbing to esophogeal cancer in March 2009. (Interestingly, he played a Democratic political operative in his first run on "The West Wing," while in real life campaigned for Republicans.) He studied Spanish and Chinese at SUNY at Buffalo, then went on to get a master’s in Chinese history at St. John’s University.
12. Charlie Korsmo: Child actor Charlie Korsmo made a splash with Dick Tracy, What About Bob?, and Hook, and he even returned to the business for 1998′s Can’t Hardly Wait. However, he’s since moved on with his professional career, earning a J.D. from Yale Law School after getting his bachelor’s degree in physics from MIT. He’s now a visiting professor at Brooklyn Law School.
13. Rachel Maddow: Host of MSNBC’s "The Rachel Maddow Show," Maddow got her start in political studies with some impressive education. She studied public policy at Stanford, then earned a Ph.D. at Oxford after winning a Rhodes Scholarship. She’s been on the fast track to punditry stardom ever since.
14. Ilan Mitchell-Smith: Ilan Mitchell-Smith’s film and TV appearances in the 1980s peaked with Weird Science, the 1985 John Hughes comedy. A few years later, he transitioned out of acting to pursue education, racking up a master’s degree at Fordham University and a Ph.D. at Texas A&M. He taught for a while at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas, before heading back to California to teach at Cal State-Long Beach.

Music

15. Dexter Holland: I am going to resist the strong urge to make "pretty fly for a white guy" puns and just go straight ahead: Dexter Holland, guitarist and lead singer of The Offspring, has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in molecular biology from the University of Southern California, which makes him a whole lot smarter than you ever thought he was. He was even a Ph.D. candidate in the field, but ditched it to pursue the band. (With multiple platinum albums to his name, it’s hard to fault his decision.)
16. Art Garfunkel: Art Garfunkel gets a bad rap. It’s gotta be tough playing second banana to Paul Simon, one of the best songwriters of his era, especially when his solo career takes off while yours is significantly less popular. The upside: He’s always got higher level degrees to fall back on. After earning a bachelor’s degree in art history, Garfunkel picked up a master’s degree in math.
17. Brian May: As a lead guitarist and songwriter for Queen, Brian May came up with some of the most enjoyable rock songs of the past 40 years, including "We Will Rock You," "Fat Bottomed Girls," and "I Want It All." He’s also — wait for it — an astrophysicist. He studied physics at Imperial College London, earning high marks, but took time off from his doctorate studies to see if that whole rock star thing would work out. He returned to school in October 2007 and completed his Ph.D. in astrophysics. He’s also the co-author of a book about the history of the universe.
18. Phil Alvin: The frontman of the rock group The Blasters enjoyed cult success through the 1970s, after which he opted to return to school and finish the education he’d left behind. He studied math and artificial intelligence at UCLA, where he eventually earned a Ph.D.
19. Greg Graffin: Bad Religion frontman Greg Graffin is noted for singing with one of the biggest punk rock bands of all time, though he’s anything but a typical rocker. He double-majored at UCLA in geology and anthropology, then got a master’s in geology from UCLA and a Ph.D. from Cornell. His thesis dealt with evolutionary biology, and his academic career is one of the reasons the band’s lyrics are noted for their intelligence.
20. Barret Hansen: Born Barret Hansen, he’s better known as Dr. Demento, the comedic radio host with a penchant for novelty songs and obscure tracks. He’s also noted for helping popularize "Weird Al" Yankovic. He’s got a master’s degree from UCLA in folklore and ethnomusicology to back up his radio credits, too. His tunes might not be your taste, but there’s no denying he knows what he’s talking about.
21. Tom Scholz: Tom Scholz has the distinction of being a world-famous rocker with a remarkably normal private life. He founded the band Boston and achieved crazy levels of success, but before that he earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in mechanical engineering from MIT. He even worked for Polaroid in their design engineering department before hitting it big with the band. Since then, he’s mainly focused on charity work.

Sports

22. Shaquille O’Neal: Shaq played ball at LSU, and though he left early to join the NBA, he returned in 2000 to complete a bachelor’s degree in general studies. But grad school is where he stepped it up, enrolling online in the University of Phoenix and earning his MBA in 2005. Most multi-millionaires get the degree before the wealth, but Shaq’s a rogue like that.
23. Lisa Leslie: Online degrees seem to be popular among basketball players: WNBA star Lisa Leslie, who’d earned her bachelor’s degree playing at the University of Southern California, eventually earned her MBA through the University of Phoenix.
24. Tony LaRussa: Baseball manager Tony LaRussa, currently with the St. Louis Cardinals, is one of the winningest managers of all time, one of only a handful to win pennants with teams in both the National and American Leagues. He also holds a J.D. from Florida State University’s College of Law and was even admitted to the bar, though he’s currently ineligible to practice. Still, a law degree is probably a good thing to have in major league baseball.
25. Dick Enberg: Oh my: Dick Enberg, the legendary sportscaster, got his career started by earning graduate degrees at Indiana University. While there, he earned a master’s and then doctorate in health sciences, which likely came in handy during his decades in the booth.