Originally Posted by CFK
Sounds like he is at a LAC, but if not is he qualified to take graduate level classes? Maybe he can find a peer group among grad students in his chosen field. They wouldn't be in grad school if they weren't passionate about their field and learning.

These days, I suspect that a lot of grad students are passionate about further credentialing and potential salary increases.

However, I could be quite mistaken, since I don't hang around grad students (anymore), and I'm thinking about chemical engineering, which people went into *for* the money (which was the same with law, only worse, since you were talking six figures), I could be mistaken.