For many prospective graduate students, the math is often tricky: The cost of an advanced degree weighs on students’ own shoulders and indebtedness is on the rise. The median debt for someone earning a M aster of A rts rose from $38,000 in 2004 to $59,000 a mere eight years later, according to a study from the nonprofit New America, a nonpartisan public policy institute.
Meanwhile, enhanced job requirements and the desire to stand out among other applicants have been an impetus toward further study.
So it’s important to assess whether a graduate degree really is worthwhile before sacrificing a salary for an extended period and piling on debt. Generally speaking, yes, “graduate degrees provide substantial returns, on average, irrespective of the field,” says Andrew Hanson, a senior research analyst at the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.
But the spoils can vary widely. A financial services professional with a master’s, for example, makes $80,000 more per year on average than a colleague with a bachelor’s. People with a bachelor’s in communications, on the other hand, average the same as those with a master’s: $56,000.
Experience and personal factors come into play, too. The decision doesn’t hinge solely on the return on investment of a diploma, of course.
That said, it pays to weigh the financials carefully. Start with these questions.
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1. Do you need a degree? Advanced degrees are increasingly viewed as important to getting jobs and advancing, even in traditionally modestly paying careers such as library science and school and career counseling.
In some fields, the education goals for licensure are ratcheting up due to the evolution in skills required, notes Hanson. Advanced practice nurses now have job descriptions that include many of the tasks that used to be done only by anesthesiologists or other doctors, and there’s been a push to raise the entry bar from a master’s to a doctor of nursing practice degree.
The “credential creep” may seem like an arbitrary measure to screen out job candidates, but some employers regard that master’s as a measure of “soft skills — like grit, determination and persistence,” Hanson says.
Sometimes your portfolio will be the key credential. With her sights set on working in theater, Megan Savage considered grad school after finishing up at Harvard University in 2010 with an English degree.
But “everybody said this field is a meritocracy,” says Savage, 29, now director of programs and operations for the America-Israel Cultural Foundation in New York, as well as co-producer of three Broadway shows. “They want to see that you can do the work,” she says. “Every year that you haven’t done the work is another year that people have not heard of you.”
If grad school isn’t a must, it might be more efficient to consider alternative ways to up your game — to add know-how in data analysis, say, or public speaking chops.
More than 38,000 people earned graduate certificates, the fastest-growing segment of higher education, in 2015. George Washington University‘s 87 graduate certificate programs include health care corporate compliance and museum collections management and care. If you’re interested in software development, a coding boot camp might open up new job opportunities.
And it’s certainly not a good idea to opt for a pricey degree now if more school is just a way of avoiding a tough job market.
[Determine whether a certificate may be better than grad school.]
2. What will it cost? The tab may not be as burdensome as you think. “Many of us have in our heads the sticker price of $30,000 to $40,000 per year for undergraduate education,” says Sean Gallagher, executive director of the Center for the Future of Higher Education and Talent Strategy at Northeastern University.
“So we say, ‘OK, it’s two years for a graduate degree, so it’s going to cost me $70,000 or $80,000 or more.’ And while there are certainly programs at that price point, there are many programs where you can get the entire graduate degree for between $20,000 and $40,000.”
A widening array of part-time options and online programs both offer flexibility and can limit the need to take on debt. One-third of all graduate education in the U.S. today is via online education or blended learning, Gallagher says. It shouldn’t be hard, he says, to find a program “that works for your schedule and your price point.”
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3. Will a degree boost your earning potential? Besides obvious fields like law and medicine, career paths in science, technology, engineering and math — the STEM fields — as well as business and health care tend to get the biggest financial boost from a master’s or doctorate, says Hanson.
Georgetown data show that in engineering, for instance, a bachelor’s degree returns $83,000 a year on average while a master’s pays $120,000; a doctorate pays $150,000. People with a master’s degree in education receive about $23,000 more than those with a bachelor’s. And special education instructors with the extra credential will see only about $6,200 more.
A good gauge is the Bureau of Labor Statistic’s Occupational Outlook Handbook . It provides an overview on hundreds of jobs, explaining daily job tasks, education, training and projected salary.
Stephen Mangum, dean of the Haslam College of Business at the University of Tennessee–Knoxville, sums up the key factors in the value calculation: your likely earnings stream if you do not pursue an advanced degree versus your earnings stream if you do obtain one, the direct costs of the additional education and the earnings you’ll forgo while in school.
Add to the mix your concept of your life’s work and “what constitutes success.” If the bottom line favors graduate school, he says, then go for it.
This story is excerpted from the U.S. News “Best Graduate Schools 2018” guidebook, which features in-depth articles, rankings and data.
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Weigh the Cost, Benefits of Graduate School originally appeared on usnews.com
