Quote: (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.
16 Countries in Under 2 Years and Counting - How I Fund My Travels:
http://www.EarnOnTheRoad.com