[porcupine]

I will be going to grad school in the fall to work towards an M.A. International Policy Studies.

I really wanted to get into the school, and I was stoked when I received my acceptance letter despite the 50k per semester price tag since my family is well-off, but now I'm having second thoughts; will it be worth it? Or will I be better off just finding the right people and making the right connections and finding a job with my B.A. in Economics and Spanish? (As of now, I don't know anyone.)

[DareP]

I think the important question is "what do you want?"

Remember: At $50,000 a year, that's $200,000 total for four years. Even if you'd be getting paid $90,000 instead of $60,000, that's going to take you a good 6.6 years to work off - Not including interest. Realistically speaking, you're probably going to be paying that off for over ten years. Well, unless your parents are completely gifting you the $200K.

My opinion - There's a lot you can do with just a B.A., or even no degree at all. Again, it really depends on what you want. I know for me personally, I'd much rather hire someone with a B.A. and four years of experience than a doctorate with no real world experience.

[porcupine]

It's $50,000 a semester, actually, but it's a 2 year masters, so it still adds up to $200,000.

As for what I want, I like traveling, languages, and I have an interest in studying the effects of social/economic policy; I would like a decent paying job that fulfills all of those things.

[Menace]

$50K per semester? I strongly doubt that. It has to be per year. If this is not a top-ranked school (like top 5), I would not spend the money. Would it be possible to enroll in a PhD program (which pays a stipend), then drop out and leave with a masters? That's what I would do.

[cibo]

Shit man, I paid way less for my masters and I went to a good school. 200k is a shitload of cash for a 2 year degree when you realized you're not going to get that much back in salary. Unless that degree is a top ivy league /MIT /Standford, it's not worth it. Even then, I'd still call into question the need since you have a decent BA, though I don't know how good your school is.

[DonovanVC]

BA in Economics + adding language skills will definitely be better.

If you had a liberal arts BA, then I'd maybe recommend grad skool, but not with a substantive degree like you have.

Also think about your alumni network and how strong it is.

[j r]

I have a Masters in a similar area and it allowed me to get a job that I love. I also went into mad debt and that means that for the foreseeable future a good chink of my take home pay goes right to student loans. If you can live with that, go for it. I would suggest that you have a pretty good idea of where you want to be after you graduate. A lot of people go into international affairs type programs with some fuzzy notion about travelling and saving the world.

Also, is this a 1-year program? 100k per year sounds real steep for an American 2-year program. The elite international programs in the states (Harvard's JFK, SAIS, Gtown, Columbia's SIPA) are around 40k a year.

[DareP]

(04-02-2012 04:07 PM)porcupine Wrote:  

It's $50,000 a semester, actually, but it's a 2 year masters, so it still adds up to $200,000.

As for what I want, I like traveling, languages, and I have an interest in studying the effects of social/economic policy; I would like a decent paying job that fulfills all of those things.

Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention - If you just stuck that $200,000 into a 7% interest producing account, you'd be earning an additional $14,000 a year.

The pay difference between an MA and BA is around $10,000, depending on the field you're in. Data from:

http://www.cbsalary.com/salary-informati...1A5E6DEE8E

If you subtract the money you'd earn if you just saved yourself the four years and stuck the money in an interest bearing account, you're essentially netting zero as a result of going to school. Not only will you have to spend about ten years to have the pay difference pay for itself, you really wouldn't be better off than if you had done nothing but stick the $ in a world bond account.

So it'll take you ten years for the pay difference to recoup itself, then and only then does the degree start to be a positive investment.

Sounds like the worst investment on the planet to me.

P.S. Oh, and if you don't touch the money at all? Since when you spend the money on a degree, you don't have access to the money anymore, what if you treated this $200,000 the same way and locked it up in a compound interest account that you couldn't touch? By the end of 12 years (2 years in school plus 10 in the work force,) you'd have $450,000 in the account, generating $31,500 a year. That's enough to live on in almost any country without working. In other words, you can finish paying off your debts and let your degree finally start working for you in 10 years, or you can just be done and retired by that time. Which would you choose? Seems like a no brainer to me.

[Commander Shepard]

(04-02-2012 03:51 PM)porcupine Wrote:  

I will be going to grad school in the fall to work towards an M.A. International Policy Studies.

I really wanted to get into the school, and I was stoked when I received my acceptance letter despite the 50k per semester price tag since my family is well-off, but now I'm having second thoughts; will it be worth it? Or will I be better off just finding the right people and making the right connections and finding a job with my B.A. in Economics and Spanish? (As of now, I don't know anyone.)

50k a semester? Where are you going to John Hopkins?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_H._Nit...al_Studies

I think it depends on your overall goals. If you are pursuing academia or a high level policy making position in the government than yes, your academic credentials and networking skills will be crucial, especially scholarship.

If your parents are fitting the bill I don't see why not. 200k for a masters is highway robbery though. This school better be top tier or you are wasting your time.

[porcupine]

Never mind, it is only $50k per year, my mistake.

And yes Donovan it is a liberal arts degree from a decent school, but not top tier by any means.

The school I plan to attend is Middlebury, by the way.

[trey]

I graduated from an elite grad school in December.

The most important thing I can tell you about weighing whether it's worth it or not is to consider how ready you are to use your g-school experience and network to immediately launch yourself into that professional field. Grad school is a tool - you pay for the classes/knowledge, but even more so you pay for the network (chiefly alumni, but also your current classmates inside and outside of your program). If you're not fully committed to the field you want to study, hold off until you're ready to be super active once you get to school in using the network, resources, and "current student" status to meet people and get interviews.

[j r]

Porcupine,

Here's some real talk. The dirty little secret about Masters programs is that they're basically cash cows for universities and a lot of them exist mainly to fund the PhD programs. That being said, they generally fall into two categories: professional programs (eg MBAs, JDs, MPAs, some MS s in engineering) and everything else. Professional programs are expensive, but they generally lead to a job and a career path. The others, well, it depends on the school. I don't know anything Middlebury's program. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's not really a good thing.

Here's my advice:

-Check out their career stats. Where do most of their graduates go after graduation? What kind of salaries are they making?

-Talk to people in the program now and recent graduates. You should be able to get a sense from them what the program will prepare you to do. And you should also get a sense as to whether any of them regret it.

-Consider deferring a year. You might be able to take your acceptance and parlay that into some kind of internship or overseas work. When it's time to find a job, your going to be competing with people from Harvard, Columbia, SAIS, Gtown, the Maxwell School, etc. and they're all going to have stacked resumes. That brings me to my last piece of advice...

-If you go, remember from day one that school is great, but your number one priority is finding a job. Network with other students and alumni. Get to know your professors. You should be immediately trying to set up a summer job, preferably someplace like DC or New York or working overseas.

[one-two]

Are you familiar with the one year salary rule?
http lifehacker.com/5871868/figure-out-which-graduate-degrees-are-worth-the-debt-with-the-one+year-salary-rule

[Twister]

Don't do it, man. Bail now while you can and avoid the debt.

[kosko]

Research hard before you make the plunge. If it is a reputable school you need to weigh it its worth 200K to have solid contacts. IMO especially with policy studies you just really need to show you are competent to do the work. There are ways around this. I am a self taught buff on foreign policy and affairs. I simply ... well just study the stuff on me own time. If I truly wanted to take the next step I would arm twist my way into a free internship or gig to help with research at a think tank or NGO. There are ways to get in through the back door without soughing up 200K. If you are truly meant to do this many research groups will throw you grants or opportunities to further your craft.

Masters have turned into almost useless sheets of paper as undergrads. I have cousin who goes to one of the better foreign policy programs in DC and her program is full of morons. As a Canadian you have to have legit marks to get in but Americans... welp. Half her colleges couldn't even tell what NATO stood for.


AVOID DEBT AT ALL COSTS. Think of this for second. How the hell do you expect to pay off 200K when wages are sinking and jobs are vanishing with every boomer whom retires? School is the bear trap of our generation. Some kids I read about are 500k+ in debt. Thats 25+ years of begin raped by interest and payments.

[Lemmo]

It is almost definitely not worth it. Many graduate programs, especially of the softer variety, are primarily cash generating exercises whose cost is in no way related to the increased earning power of graduates. Unless you can point to a specific job you want that requires this degree, don't do it. You can probably defer your acceptance, work for a year and get a better idea of your goals and whether this degree is necessary or even helpful (this assumes your parents are paying for it all, in which case cost may be less of a factor).

[kosko]

^ Yes and any legitimate employer will usually pay for all if not most of your Masters as they view it as a investment. A lot of older employers go back and re-up their skills but also young employees to if the firm sees value in you they will be more than willing to shoulder the cost because to them 200K is nothing they will suck off more money of your rear end in their company for your time with them lol.

It pisses me off because I remember the old days my old man would tell me about. He has 6 degrees and 2 masters school was so cheap you could just keep learning, learning, and learning.

[porcupine]

I will not have any debt, but I will definitely inquire as to what sorts of jobs will be available after graduation.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

[Seduction Sutra]

Not worth it unless you get into top 10 MBA schools or law schools. Otherwise, you're just going to waste your time.