My fellow Americans, what is your take on the value of a master’s degree?

22 comments

1. Entirely depends on the field.

2. Currently pursuing one fam 😁

3. Escalation. A Master’s degree is worth what a Bachelor’s degree was worth ten years ago, A Bachelor’s degree is worth what an Associate’s degree was worth 10 years ago.

4. Depends on the field-I need it for my specialty (nurse practitioner)

5. I’m a civil engineer. I have colleagues my age who have masters degrees, I don’t. In the company’s experience based pay grade system the extra year they spent pursuing the masters degree is treated the exact same as the extra year I spent working. The state engineering board also treats them the same in your progression to professional engineer. When it comes to promotions and job assignments, I’m pretty sure it’s entirely based on experience, competence, and relationships – not education. When you consider that the masters might put you further into the red as opposed to $70k in the black, I don’t think it’s worth it in itself, unless you do it in 4 years with your bachelor’s working hard as an undergrad.

6. Depends on the field. I have a Master’s in psychology and that’s the minimum qualification to do most things in the field.

   I’m currently making great use of my degree.

7. Like any degree, it has value in some fields and can be useless in others.

8. Does your master’s come from a real school or an online diploma mill?

9. Depends on the field. Don’t need one in civil engineering (my field).

10. In finance it usually goes something like Top MBA program > CFA > mid MBA program.

11. Depends entirely on the field and person. I’ve seen some doctorates that are worthless.

    I have an MBA and it definitely was beneficial for me. It accelerated my knowledge and helped me gain access to high level jobs that are only available to people with master’s degrees. It opened doors early in my career.

    I might be a rarity in that I use the knowledge frequently for everything from M&A to contract negotiations to people management, but it did make me more versatile.

12. It raises my wife’s salary range from $40k-$60k/year to somewhere between $90k-$130k/year and mine from a similar starting range to about $75k/year. So even with the debt, it makes decent enough financial sense for us to both eventually get them. She’s working on hers, I’m going to wait a few more years before getting mine

13. I am a network engineer. A masters would only be useful if I wanted to go into upper management

14. In engineering, I feel like it’s equivalent to the same amount of time in industry. 15 years into my career I’ve never felt held back by not having pursued an MS.

15. Being more educated is always a good thing. If you choose advanced studies in engineering or English literature, both of those things are valuable to the individual and improve society as a whole. We don’t benefit from ignorance.

    What the financial returns are on those studies may vary. Economics or business? You’re going to be richly rewarded in many cases.

16. I have two in political science and they are useless. My PhD in the same field is valuable. No regrets.

17. Mine was mandatory in my job but also brought with it a 6k/year pay increase that will also carry over into the amount I receive from my pension. It also affects the amount I get in COLAs and other across-the-board % pay increases so some quick calculating figures my masters is valued, assuming I live to hit average life expectancy, around 300,000 more dollars than I would have made without it.

18. It depends. I have a MS in Geography and I would not have qualified for my last 3 jobs (research heavy jobs) and current salary without a Masters Degree in something. I kinda regret doing my BA and MS back to back but overall getting a MS was good decision. It had a research assistantship so it was debt free as well.

19. Depends on what you want to do when you grow up.

    My undergrad degree is an international studies type field and the original plan was a PhD and going into academia. I decided that wasn’t for me so I went back for an MBA. It was very beneficial for me

20. I have a law degree and make about $400k as a corporate lawyer. Yeah, my life sucks in terms of work-life balance but the degree was 100% worth it financially. I had about $150k worth of student loans I paid off in just 4 years.

    Some are like that, others are passion projects where you can’t expect a financial payoff. The people with those kinds of masters degrees that I meet usually had money to pay for it beforehand (whether their own or family money).

21. I may be mis-remembering, but I think some federal jobs allow a Masters degree in lieu of a year or two of experience when considering applicants for a job.

22. I always value a good education no matter what its use. A masters is certainly required in some, very needed for promotion in others, and totally not necessary in many careers. I do not use my masters, or my bachelors for that matter, for any specific work duties now, but I value my degrees as it was a lot of mind changing work and I’m proud of it.