Not All Master’s Degrees Are Created Equal
You’ve probably heard it before: the higher the education you have, the more your salary delivers. When the economy takes a slump, students turn to the education industry as a means to evacuate their unemployment (or less-than-desirable income from their current job); a great thing for colleges that are struggling with the economy themselves and need the student body. It’s a win-win situation, right? And what with everyone walking around with a Bachelor’s Degree these days, the Master’s Degree is the next on the academic food chain. Master’s Degree enrollment rates are higher than ever.
But not all degrees pay out their investment. A Master of Arts in Literature, for example, isn’t going to glean much benefit unless the graduate is the next best-selling novelist; better off that a B.A. in English pursue a Master’s Degree in education. M.A.’s in the social sciences generally don’t do well either, at least not as well as the C.S.W. or, better yet, the M.B.A. When students pursue a Master’s Degree program, it should be perceived as more than the educational evacuation port from the bad economy:
- A Master’s Degree’s earning potential should receive thorough research (unless the graduate student is going back to school strictly for the educational experience) on its income potential so that the student loans don’t weigh the student down more than the degree’s worth
- A Master’s Degree should enable the student to make a career shift with a Bachelor’s Degree that doesn’t pay so well; a B.A. in Fine Arts can still act as the stepping stone to an M.B.A. program
But wait. Some students say that they’re not interested in the six-figures; they just want to live comfortably and enjoy the education. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The student needs to make sure that their student debt equals their salary though, just for minimalist living, or they may suddenly find themselves scraping pennies and wondering how to cover the next student loan payment. Private loans are especially notorious for driving Master’s Degree students under and do not receive reprieve from programs like the Income Based Repayment Plan.
One way to look at whether the Master’s Degree is worth it is by consciously looking into what it will do to your current salary. The Census Bureau suggests that Master’s Degrees earn $8,000 more a year than the Bachelor’s Degree; not bad when that extra $8k could pay the student loans accrued to get the Master’s Degree in 2 to 5 years. If a Master’s Degree will do this for your current career–or open doors to an entirely new career that has this kind of earning increase–then it’s definitely a thumb’s up option, especially when the economy’s in the dumpster.
One of the other things to consider: knowing that Master’s Degree enrollments are on the rise from the economy, students should act under the pretense that, in a couple more years, the Master’s Degree market will become flooded, almost to the level that the Bachelor’s Degree pool of potential employees is now. This means specialized, in-demand Master’s Degrees like degrees in healthcare and engineering are ideal choices, to differentiate from the inevitable swarm of popular degree choices entering the labor market. This also means the Bachelor’s Degree will depreciate further.
Here’s some valuable resources to read to further understand the Master’s Degree:
And what Master’s Degree choices are ideal? Check out some of these graduate programs to help get you started in the right direction:
- Online M.S. in Criminal Justice
- Online M.B.A. with a focus in healthcare
- Online M.A. in Organizational Change
