Grad School Questions to Ask

Analyze the Cost Of Grad School
By Michelle Singletary
Washington Post
Sunday, January 16, 2005; Page F01

If an undergraduate degree is your ticket to a middle-income job, is it also a foregone conclusion that a graduate degree will boost your salary even higher?

And if that is true, is it then worth it to pile on more student loan debt to obtain a master's or a professional degree?

Some experts think so. In fact, the College Board, a nonprofit association that is best known for its SAT program, goes out of its way in a report, "Education Pays: The Benefits of Higher Education for Individuals and Society," to tout the economic benefits of higher degrees.

In the report, Gaston Caperton, College Board president, writes that "in the current climate of rising college prices and budget constraints at all levels of government, it is particularly important that the benefits of higher education receive as much attention as the costs."

In 2003, the median income for a full-time, year-round worker in the United States with a four-year college degree was $49,900 annually, up from the $30,800 earned by the comparable worker with only a high school diploma, the College Board report found.

But the median for workers with master's degrees was almost twice as much per year ($59,500) as for those with just a high school diploma. And those with professional degrees earned more than three times as much per year ($95,700) as a high school graduate.

This last set of figures is impressive. To me it says a four-year degree is the meat, but a graduate degree is your earnings gravy.

But hold on.

Is that the case for everyone?

The earnings figures cited by the College Board represent median earnings, meaning half the folks made more -- and half made less.

Recently I addressed a group of young people. Afterward, one young woman wanted some advice on whether she should get a master's degree in a language program. The plan, she said, was to attend a college in California (she lives in New Jersey). She expects to get a fellowship, but it would pay her only about $17,000 a year. That wouldn't be enough to pay all her expenses, she said.

Here's what I asked that young woman, followed by her responses:

• Do you have a budget for your living expenses while you're in grad school? Her answer: "No."

• So if you know that $17,000 won't be enough to live on in California, where will you get the extra money you need for all your living expenses? Her answer: "I don't know. Loans, probably."

• If you think you'll have to borrow, have you figured out the total you'll need and what your monthly payments will be once you graduate? Her answer: a blank stare.

• What kinds of job opportunities are available for someone with the master's degree you are pursuing? Her answer: "I really don't know."

• Have you done any research to see if this degree will in fact improve your earnings potential and offset the tens of thousands of dollars you will probably have to borrow? Her answer: another blank stare.

When I finished, the young woman looked as if she were going to cry.

To read the rest of the article click here

Advice to the Liberal Arts Undergrad or New Grad

Advice from the School of Hard Knocks

1. Whether you like it or not or you are prepared for it or not, you will be thrust into the marketplace after you graduate, where what you are worth is determined by how many skills you possess that the market needs and values. How you survive and thrive in such a world is entirely up to your own individual effort, creativity and resources at your disposal. If you end up failing in the marketplace you will not get anywhere assigning blame to anybody but yourself.

2. As you get older you will experience a conflict between the pull of the marketplace and how your Liberal Arts education envisions how the world should run and where you fit in it, given what you have accomplished in school. You will learn with much sadness that what the Liberal Arts education values and gives accolades is pretty much near worthless in the marketplace. The only real value your Liberal Arts education has is the piece of paper that says you're a college graduate.

3. You will learn with much frustration that in the world outside of school, it is by the rules of the marketplace that you will have to operate, whether or not you agree with it or whether or not you like it. If you should choose to rebel and not play by the rules, you will: (a) suffer consequences that will affect your career and prospects for one; (b) still have to earn money to live and make a living.

4. Life will get easier once you learn how to operate within the rules of the marketplace. In fact, you might even thrive and earn lots of money if you learn how to play the game correctly.

5. Advancing in the marketplace will take some investment on your part -- whether it be skills training, graduate school, or continuing education. What you'll find out is that once you are an adult and independent, that your parents won't be as accommodating in paying for your post-graduate education. You are stuck with having to take on loans if you choose to take on additional education. Again -- the rules of the marketplace will rear its ugly head no matter what you decide.

6. If you agree with the rules of the marketplace, you will have no problem navigating it. If, however, your head has been filled with values and beliefs counter to the rules of the market by your Liberal Arts education you will have a hard time in the world. Especially as the necessity of making a living and progressing in the world clashes with your self-professed values. You might want to take on a career more in line with your beliefs. The lucky ones are able to do just that. However, there will be a price. Most of the time, the values-based professions won't pay as much as the market-based ones. And the competition for such jobs are just as fierce as in the market-based jobs. And of course, advancing in such fields may require an advanced degree which means more student loans for you to bear -- ka ching!

7. What are you supposed to do about it, you ask? To that I answer -- absolutely nothing. There is absolutely nothing you can do about it. Short of a major catastrophe or a revolution, the social order and the marketplace that rules it will remain as is. You are nothing more than a small cog in a very big machine. All the ideas that your education put in your head that filled you with hope of changing the world are just that -- ideas. Thinking about it is one thing. Implementation is quite another. What you'll find is that there will be a conflict in what you think and what you can actually and have the power to implement. In the meantime, the rent will need to be paid as well as your student loans. You will still need to put food on the table.

Me? I choose to just concern myself with the necessities -- rent, food, paying loans, staying out of debt, and making a living. You might look down on me or even condemn me for selling out or giving up. That's your problem, I say. If you're so intent on changing the world then go ahead and change it. But don't bother me and lay a guilt trip on me. One last thing: you will discover that whatever you do or however you end up in the world -- you might become homeless, destitute or even dead -- the world won't give two shits about you. It's not gonna hold out its hand to help you. How you end up in the world is entirely a result of the choices you make. And the power of the marketplace will always affect these choices, no matter what it is you choose to do. I choose to accept the world and people as they are and go from there.

Copyright 2004