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I don’t have a masters degree, but I have a JD and I don’t practice law, does that count?
It’s worked out pretty well. About $60k in debt that I paid off in 8 years and I make around $350k total comp 15 years out. Not biglaw partner money, but I don’t work 90 hours a week either, which is great.
Specialized in IT Management. Before I graduated I got a job offer for ~22% more than I was making with a bachelors. Low cost of living area, so the pay is lower than average, but it affords me a decent life here.
History. And no. But in my defense I started college/university pre-2008 when we were all told “just get ANY degree and there’ll be a job that will support you when you’re done” and I mostly got my masters to wait out the post-2008 crash and hope things “went back to normal” and they never did.
I already had a career when I did my Masters in International Relations. I really just did it because I had the GI Bill and you pretty much get paid to go to school and I already had my Bachelors. It might’ve helped my resume a bit in making me look more well rounded. I’m hoping I can switch to a more chill job when I get older – like teaching at a community college or something. Then the Masters will hopefully benefit me.
Public Administration, specifically in public finance. Yes, I have no debt and a comfortable salary that lets me WFH with good work-life balance. Having said that, starting my career was brutal.
Yes. MBA double concentration in org development & marketing.
Yes it has worked out. Especially given that my original plan was PhD and academia.
I have a masters, I also work on a salary schedule, so I could look at the schedule and figure out how long it would take to pay off the masters, and how much more I would earn over a career. At this point in my career, I’m making $20k more than if I didn’t have a masters.
I have a Library and Information Science (MLIS) degree, but I couldn’t find a job that paid even close to what I was already making in IT. If I win the lottery, maybe I’ll quit IT and work at a small library somewhere.
Regulatory affairs (pharma drug approval/regulations). Within 4 years of finishing my degree, my salary has doubled. I now have an extremely flexible, WFH job with great PTO and benefits. So I’d say it’s worked out very well.
Communications
No. No it did not.
My wife has a Master’s in Nursing and is a NP. Makes enough to support our family of four.
I have an MBA and yes, I’d say it has worked out. Not too long after I got the degree, I landed a new position as an engineering manager, with substantially higher pay than before.
Not me but my daughter and son-in-law have been out of college for 15 years and their job paid for both Masters of Software Engineering and a MBA. She’s starting a new division for a large aerospace company (which she will head) and immediately has to poach or hire 150 engineers let alone support staff and office people. Her pay, bonus, and stock should easily reach 400,000+ in her first year; I’d say it paid off and not bad for under 40 years old living in the very low COL midwest
I have a masters degree in accounting. It’s not the most exciting or prestigious job, but I was able to buy a little house this summer so I’m doing well I think.
Computer Science, and yes. The extra couple years delayed payment on student loans while I found work to pay them off, and explored concepts I still use professionally.
I have a Masters in Political Science. It was part of a 5 year, dual degree program, so the costs weren’t bad. I didnt stay in the industry, but the degree taught me how to research and write (and argue) well, which are skills I use all the time.
Cybersecurity. It has helped to get more attention from recruiters, but I don’t feel as if I’m really using it in the sector of tech that I work.
JD/Law degree. It has worked out for me personally but I’ve followed a non-traditional path. I also went to a non-prestigious school so several of my classmates started out making less than people with Bachelors and are saddled with 6 figures of debt.
That’s why a lot of lawyers, and other professions as well caution about taking on very expensive degrees for the hope of finding a well-paying job because its definitely not guaranteed.
Fire protection engineering. Yes.
Molecular biology, and fuck no not at all.
I was a med school hopeful, like most other biology majors. Didn’t get in anywhere stateside so tried my shot in the Caribbean. Flunked out after 3 semesters. Had a couple jobs after that that I enjoyed, but the pay was shit so they weren’t sustainable. The most I ever made in my field was $15/hour. Now I’m a 30 something year old pizza man with a quarter million dollars in debt. Wish I had skipped college altogether.
🥲🔫
Rehabilitation counseling. Eh. The degree was pretty much a joke, but not very hard. And the government is so desperate to get people into the field that they’ll pay for the degree so long as you stay working in the field 2-4 years after.
Most of the work is government paper pushing. It’s stable, but the pay kinda sucks unless you can get with the VA then it’s ok. I got a job as a counselor at a tech college now and it’s way better than working for the state. The pay is still OK but at the very least I’m not buried in debt
Mechanical Engineering. Delayed my entry into the work force by one year at a cost (to me) of $20k. Hard to say where my career would have gone had I not taken this route, but comparing myself to my peers from undergrad, I would say that it was a net positive.
Well, I got a master’s but mostly just as an assumed step on the way to a Ph.D. since that was how our astro program was structured. Worked out fine for me, though.
Got to do some cool research without going into any debt, and in the end I was able to pivot to a more normal job doing business pricing stuff since I didn’t feel like jumping through the hoops necessary for landing a permanent academic job.
Library and Information Science. I got it in 2011. I keep my expenses very, very low. I’m in a lot of debt. If I HAVE to buy “new” things I go to the thrift store (I haven’t bought a pair of new shoes since 2009). I never, ever eat out or order delivery. I don’t go on vacations. I’ve never been able to make more than 52,000 a year. I work full-time at a great library in Florida. I’ve managed departments. I don’t like being in charge of other people. I don’t want to be in Administration. I just like helping people when they need it. I love what I do, but yes, even in a *good* economy I’d be poor (but I’d survive)
I started a second part-time job as an archivist at a university nursing school last week
If I’d wanted to be rich I would have gone into a different field. I love being a librarian. I’ve never wanted to be rich, I’ve just wanted to be able to pay my bills and not starve to death while doing something I like to do. So far, so good on all three counts
Not me and not an American. But my wife has an MBA in international business. And yes it did. She basically walked into corporate banking and skipped about a decade of working the lower jobs to get to where she is.
I moved abroad to the UK to do my Master’s in International Politics. I ended up staying and now work in govtech consulting in London. We contract with the UK governments to deliver IT, digital transformation and policy design projects.
It was definitely worth it for me as it allowed me to shift career into my preferred industry and it allowed me fulfill my dream of living and working abroad. UK grad school, being only 1 year, was much cheaper, even with the international student fee.
Master’s in GIS (Geographic Information Systems, basically making maps and writing code). It was from a professional program so note very expensive.
Getting that first job was difficult and it took 5+ years to go from first job to something *really* good. I work for the government so without a master’s, I probably would have been weeded out. For the government, it doesn’t matter *which* university you attended, having the degree is a check box. I think it is a good job, good money, but probably couldn’t support a whole family off of it alone.
Accounting. Yes, it has. Was able to pay off my student loans in just a few years, was able to buy a house ~5 years out of school, am supporting a family of 4 with just my paycheck in a nice neighborhood with good schools. Am in my mid 30’s, and I still have a much-higher ceiling on earning potential that I can/should eventually reach. Also have very good job security in this profession right now, as schools are turning out fewer and fewer accountants in recent years.
I have an MBA from the Rochester Institute of Technology. It didn’t pay off right away in my post Masters career, but over the longer term it’s opened a great number of doors for me in the world of finance and government work.
I want to say one of the things it did was make me focus my mental acuity on mathematical skill applied to accounting, finance, and management science. My background before was in technology, so my skillset is IT/programming + MBA.
Nowadays, I actually DO a lot of the tasks that degree taught me. However, the more lower rungs of the ladder I had to climb to get where I am now didn’t exactly require the degree. Around five years out from earning the degree, I was making six figures and I’ve made increasingly more, mostly through job hopping – but sometimes within the same organization.
Biology, and sort of. I did a thesis-based Master’s of Science, which is basically just half of a PhD where you do novel research and write up a manuscript with intent to publish it as one or even two scientific papers. I got my dream job at a natural history museum and the pay hasn’t been great ($41k/year when I started), but we’ve had good raises the past few years ($51k/year after 3 years).
My master’s was funded by the biology department at the university. Because I did thesis-based, I was also expected to teach or work as the graduate assistant in the museum collections. I was paid a stipend ($18k/year) and my tuition was covered for the 2 years. So while I don’t make a lot of money, I have zero student debt.
My biggest advice to folks considering a master’s is to look for programs that are funded!! Apply for fellowships!! Do not pay out of pocket for a master’s or get loans. Shop around and find the right program for you.
ETA: I did a Master’s of Science specifically. One thing I’ve learned is not all master’s degrees are the same. Not even close. Many master’s programs are just a year or two of some classes and maybe a big final project. A Master’s of Science, like I said, is just a shorter PhD. It is the same type of work, just on a smaller scale.
I got an MBA. Work paid 100% for it. I make ~$250K per year at 45. Only debt I have is a mortgage.
Cybersecurity, and yes it has
MS in Geography (‘13). Yes, it was worth it. My tuition was covered by a grad research assistantship. I am a data scientist in NYC currently. My last 3 jobs you needed a Masters in anything to get an interview.
MBA focused on supply chain management and data analytics. I liked my school and program but it was expensive and wish I explored more schools closer to me.
Since graduating I have had 2 jobs, one as a business analyst and one as a data analyst. The BA job was in fintech and while I liked my coworkers and the company was huge, I felt micromanaged and the work was not what I thought it would be. I left after a year during the “Great Resignation”
My current job as a DA which I’ve had for the last 14 months is much better as a job and I like the pay and benefits a lot more,but it is hybrid, coworkers are a mixed bag. The company is in logistics and trucking freight and has not been doing well this year due to too much competition and it’s hard to stick out. While my role is critical in this office (Me and my manager are the only DAs for the whole group) I do not see much of a future here and plan to begin applying to other stuff in early 2024 when I hit 2 years.
Overall my MBA has helped a ton and even better since this month when my wife and I decided to pay off all of my loans, now we are completely debt free besides the mortgage. I need to stop selling myself short and find a more advanced role or industry that pays at least $100k for a Sr Data Analyst.
Technically have my Masters in Experimental Psychology with a Focus on Human Factors. Average pay is about 4x what I would have made with a bachelors with substantially less work, and I don’t have to deal with crazy people on the regular, though the market for it is starting to sour a bit as tech companies start laying people off.
International relations and yes, but not at first. I got a job in the field first before pursuing my masters a couple years later. I stayed in the field for a year or so after graduating before joining the military (which was what I wanted to do anyway).
I didn’t need my masters for that, but I would have needed it eventually to get past a certain point so it’s nice to not have to worry about keeping that hurdle. It also helped me get the job in the military I wanted which is quite competitive for.
Military pay is actually quite good once you start getting BAH so while I have student loans, I’m not struggling with them.
I have a masters degree in education (MSE) with an area of concentration in bilingual education and reading. I am starting my 35th year as a bilingual teacher so it helped me in my profession, but it only helped me slightly financially, as it started me a few thousand dollars higher on the pay scale. I also earned an extra $3,000 per year stipend for 10 years just for being bilingual and fluent in Spanish.
Fortunately, I got my masters for free on a scholarship/grant, otherwise I don’t know if the extra cost in tuition, books, and loans would have been worth it on a teacher’s salary.
I have a masters in education and it pays more with a masters to be a teacher than with just a bachelors. Most people who want to stay in education in the long run end up getting one.
I got a master’s degree in Management Information Systems in 2003 and it was totally worth it – it got me an IT job on a promotional fast-track. The job I got paid for more education, so I got an MBA in 2005 that I didn’t pay anything for, which got me into leadership roles. Both were totally worth it. Having said that, some of my certifications – especially the PMP project management certification and the CISSP cybersecurity cert – have also been very beneficial for my career.
I have a master’s degree and a doctorate in psychology. I work as a clinical psychologist, mostly doing therapy and teaching nowadays, and it pays quite well (I’m currently making about $225k, before taxes, and working about 20 hours a week).
I have my bachelor’s in social work and mba. I’m a SAHM…
I have an MA in history. It worked out well. I have a steady job as a teacher with a decent salary and good benefits. Most importantly, I enjoy what I do.
I got a MS in Econ in the mid 20 teens with a solid focus on data analysis and programming.
Definitely paid off for me as I was able to get into analytics and data science about when that was just stating to be a really popular career field.
I don’t have my masters but my wife got hers right as we got married. I made more than her for many years, and she was discouraged at the time/money she put into it. Then once she had about 6 years’ experience she moved to a new company and we started to earn the same amount. Her salary has surpassed mine and it is not even close. I’m starting to consider getting my masters because it changed her economic situation.
I studied clinical mental health counseling. I do not work in the field because right after I graduated, I was offered a position as the assistant to the president of
The university where I work. The pay was way better than a new counselor position, so I jumped at it. So in a round about way, it worked out financially by not being a counselor.
I have a master’s in public administration and one in applied sociology. I also got my PhD in public administration. It has worked out nicely for me and I make $150k from teaching about 30 hours a week, plus whatever work I do for my consulting and tutoring business.
My salary with just a BA capped at about $40k in 2006. With my first Master’s that went up to $60k. With my doctorate alone I hit $80k, and then with my second Master’s I passed $100k to now, ten years later, hit that $150k.
I have an MA in English, concentrating in Creative Writing. I decided to pursue the degree because I was panicking about graduating and kind of wishing I’d explored English/literature. My condition for myself was that I’d only do the program if I got a GTA, which I did. So not only was my degree free, but my stipend covered rent and food. I used the time to think about if I wanted to pursue academia instead of my undergrad degree. I love, love, LOVED grad school, but decided that teaching wasn’t for me. And fortunately creative writing is closely related to my undergrad degree. I graduated in 2019 and got a 6 month internship, meaning that I was unemployed when the pandemic hit. It took me until last year to find a permanent job, and I think a big part of my long job search was that people saw my graduate degree in my resume and thought I was overqualified. Fortunately my current job is academics-adjacent, but if I hadn’t gotten it, I would’ve taken my MA off my resume. I don’t regret grad school at all. It was the best decision I ever made. But I guess I regret the timing. Grad school put me two years behind most people my age, but combined with the pandemic I’m four years behind. That being said, if I’d known that there would be a pandemic, I think I would’ve still done grad school.
I don’t think I get paid more due to my graduate degree, but I work for a great company with amazing benefits. I get a guaranteed raise once a year, and have gotten two surprise raises in the year that I’ve worked here. And my boss likes to brag on me for having a Creative Writing MA, so I know that that part of my resume is appreciated.
Music Performance and no, not really. I don’t play music anymore but I work a middle-class job, own a house with my wife in the burbs. I can’t complain.