Graduate school is a significant undertaking both in terms of time and money. During the last few months, I’ve felt some pressure from concerned family members about going to graduate school. I know they only want the best for me, but I’m glad I followed my gut instinct and pursued more work experience instead. A business school education has been a professional and personal goal of mine since graduating college, but right now is not the time for me to go. Bottom-line: I only get one chance at an MBA, so I wanted to do this right.
The answers to “Should I go to graduate school?” and “When should I go to graduate school?” depend on the individual. I know very successful people with no graduate (or even college) degrees. I know very successful MBAs who had only two years or three years of experience before they headed to business school (if you are a college student looking to get an MBA a few years after graduation, check out Harvard’s 2+2 program). But I knew going right now wasn’t the right decision for me. I wanted more experience before I go because I’d have more to contribute to and more I can gain from an MBA experience if I have a few more years of seasoning. From a financial standpoint, I’d like a few more years to bolster my savings so that I can minimize the loans I’d have to take out.
Graduate education, be it medical school, law school, business school, or other masters programs or Ph.D. programs, exacts a hefty price. Medical school takes four years and often costs $200,000+ in tuition and living costs. Law school is 3 years (full-time) and 4-5 years (part-time), and the costs cross into the multiple six-figure territory as well. Business school is shorter at 2 years, but the average total cost for full-time students range from $100,000 to $140,000 for the two year program.
Given the costs, it’s very important that before making such a big commitment, people understand what they are getting into, and what the purpose for such a commitment would be. Here are three helpful questions I’ve asked myself to determine if graduate school is right for me, right now:
What will you do with a graduate school degree?
- You don’t need to map out your career from graduation to retirement, or list out every possible contingency, but it’s a very good idea to carefully consider what you can do with your graduate degree once you get it. The point of graduate school can be for personal enrichment or career advancement, although for most people it’s a combination of the two. But unless you have a substantial trust fund, you can’t make a career out of being a “professional student.”
- Do you need a graduate degree? How will it help you achieve your goals? Some fields require a degree to enter – i.e. if you want to practice law, you need a J.D. If you want to become a pharmacist, you need a Doctor of Pharmacy degree. If you want to teach at the post-graduate level, you need a Ph.D. and published research. You do not need an MBA to do business, although an MBA can be particularly helpful for career changes.
When is the right time for you to go to graduate school?
- Some students decide to head to graduate school right after college. Some decide to wait a few years or decades between college graduation and a J.D., an MBA, or an MD. If you go to graduate school right after college, you will still be in the “student mindset” and will be able to start your post-graduate career sooner (i.e. if you are studying to become a lawyer, a professor, a doctor, a pharmacist, an accountant, etc.).
- If you go back to school after working, however, you have the chance to save for graduate school and gain valuable work experience. Business schools especially prefer work experience (average age of a business school student is 27 to 28 at entrance), although the quality of work experience and the candidate’s maturity matter more than the quantity of experience. Make your decision with all these factors in mind.
How will you pay for graduate school? Is the debt load sustainable?
- Don’t think about graduate school without also consider how you will pay for it. Many “professional” schools (medical school, law school, business school) in the U.S. may not offer much in terms of grants (i.e. money you don’t have to pay back). The expectation is that you will be able to make enough after graduation to service your loans. (From my limited understanding, many Ph.D. programs offer tuition grants and living stipends for their students, so the financial outlay is more reasonable at these programs.)
- You can get more money out of these places if you are a stellar candidate whom they want to attract (many schools have a full-tuition or half-tuition fellowships that are awarded to the top sliver of students), or if you seek out outside scholarships. You can also apply to be a teaching assistant. Many schools offer loan forgiveness programs for students who go into nonprofit or government work. If you are considering this line of work, be sure to ask about such programs.
- If you go to school part-time, you will have your income during school. But it will take you longer to finish your degree. If you go full time, you will lose X years of income. Some schools may also discourage full-time students from seeking work during the school year.
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This post was featured in Carnival of Personal Finance #252
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I really appreciate how you laid out the pertinent questions in this post. There are many factors to consider, and there is a lot of variation in situations. I headed straight to grad school, because to by a psychologist in my province, one must have a PhD. Lots of people I knew started working after their MAs (because we lived in an underserviced area that would gladly take masters level employees under PhD supervision) and never finished their dissertations. I didn't want to be an ABD (all but dissertation) person, so I turned down a good job in my last year and plugged away and got done on time (a rarity in my type of program). It was tight financially, but now it is worth it, as I was able to get a good-paying job as soon as I finished my schooling, and I didn't have to pay pricey continuance fees, as many of my peers did.
Congratulations for finishing on time and getting a good job! I've met a few ABD professors in college – must be difficult to work and try to finish a dissertation at the same time.
I have been toying with this for a few years now. While it's not completely necessary to have a graduate degree in my current field (fundraising), and while I'm not totally sure I'm going to stay in it forever, in my job search I have been noticing a lot of places want you to have a Master's degree (or x amount of years of experience). I'm wondering if a Master's will help make me a more attractive candidate, but at the same time, it's really expensive.
Sounds like you've made the right choice. How many years experience do you have now?
I went part-time, and it took 3 years instead of just under 2. If I could, I would have done it in 4 years, b/c I had so much fun going the last two years due to all the electives, and the professors acted like personal consultants for my real life work.
Also, don't go to grad school if you don't plan to work for at least 10 years after your degree. There are a lot of folks who go, spend 2 years, and $80K in tuition and then stop working after 3-5 years due to family. Doesn't seem to make sense.
Best, Sam
This is a good post! I'm forwarding it to my sister's friend right now. They both just graduated and her friend is looking into grad school…and she plans on taking student loans out and not working. I think she is in a rush to go back to school so she won't have to start repaying her current student loans. This is a good post and gives us a lot to think about before we consider the next step in our educational career.
Thanks for passing this on. I'm wary of taking on more loans, so that's an extra incentive to be certain before going to graduate school.
I am a grad student who is going on year 7, which may seem crazy to some. Why have I been in school so long? Well, I am now working on my PhD in counseling, which will be my 3rd graduate degree. During my MA and EdS program, I had worked full-time and became a licensed counselor. Do I look back and wish I had more money at this point? Of course! But I do not view going to graduate school in terms of money. Yes, it is costly…very costly. But my career and passions required higher degrees. Of the past 7 years, money has been tight at times but I rather know that one day I will reach my goals and enjoy my job, rather than working just to make a living. If grad school is right for you, you will know it.
It's great that you are passionate enough about a subject to study it for almost a decade… I admire that. Out of your three graduate programs, which one do you enjoy the most?
It's hard to say, b/c they brought me to different levels of my career. MA & EdS with becoming a licensed counselor & the PhD will provide me with more opportunities (i.e. teaching at the university level, researcher, consulting, etc.). I can tell you though, getting a PhD is definitely the most challenging. Being a doctoral student is pretty much a full-time job. In the midst of writing 3 papers at once, you may hear me cursing and complaining that I should have just gone to med school instead.
Funny you should post this. I had stuggled with similar questions from myself before I decided to apply for my masters. Part of the questions I asked myself was how I was going to pay for it; would it be worth it; did I even REALLY want it. etc. Brillant post.
Have you heard back from your schools? Do you know what the next step is?
Great post!
I have the same thoughts reeling in my head. I want to buy a place, but I want to do my masters too! I'm trying to save up enough to contribute to the mortgage for the two years that I'll be doing my masters.
One thing to think about is: DO IT BEFORE KIDS! =) (especially for us young women)
The vast majority of women in business school don't have kids.. although I have read an excellent, excellent blog by a lady at a top b-school who had TWO kids while she majored in finance.
Then there's always the question, "Do you actually want to learn something?" I went back for my M. S. in computer science because I wanted to move to a new level of understanding in the field (not simply to learn a new programming language or operating system). That's exactly what it gave me, and I find my work much more rewarding now, although there were no particular financial incentives. I went to a state university, it cost only a few thousand a year to go, and took about 3 years since I was also working 15-20 hours a week and had a long commute. I did get an unexpected 30% raise on completion, and now make 6 figures, so I guess it was worth it financially as well.
It bothers me somewhat when discussions about college boil down to money and nothing but money. Specific knowledge, exposure to a broad range of ideas and minds, and development of critical thinking abilites are worthwhile in themselves. Even if I made $10/hour, I'd be glad for the years which went into my B.S., at least. I wouldn't be the same person without those years, and life would be a poorer, narrower experience.
I think undergraduate education has the dual role of vocational preparation and development of boarder, critical thinking skills. Graduate programs seem to me to prepare someone for a specific type of occupations. The trend of colleges toward specialization / career preparation is an excellent. I'm ruminating on a post about it, and I have to say I'm a bit conflicted on the issue. As a liberal arts graduate, I highly value the education that I got. I also know that that education came at considerable monetary sacrifice by my parents, money that they could've done something else with…
I finished my MBA about two weeks ago. I got a raise just before I finished, and if I never get another compounding raise, the payback period will be about 13 years. However, I am sure I will get more raises, with my new salarly as the base for additional percentage increases, that will shorten that.
I waited a year before going back, and I worked full time concurrently with a full time course load. Needless to say, I was very busy. However, I have the MBA for life and I am sure it will always keep opening new doors.
My advice, get in there and get 'er done. I agree with young andthrifty, I am glad I did it before I had kids or a mortgage to worry about.
Congratulations on the degree!
Great post WH! I'm applying for Fall 2010 admission for a PT MBA program. I can't see myself giving up income and I also really like my current job, so the decision was pretty easy for me. I do think having additional work experience does help you take more advantage of the courses and the information they provide, but at the same time, spending too much time before going can allow LIFE to get in the way. I've heard of people going back in their 40s and making it work for them, maybe its just me. But I know that I have the passion now, so I'll try to work with it now!
Best of luck on your applications.. I can't wait to read the good news on your blog. Are you done with the GMAT yet?
I would just caution you away from being tooo cautious. I was very nervous to start my MBA program — I started a top-5 program after just three years of nonprofit work experience, and not much savings. But now that I am finishing up my first year I am confident it is worth it.
About 50% of my tuition/room and board is covered by grants and scholarships from my school, and I am not any exceptional candidate. So as of now I will graduate with 80K in debt when I am 27. However, prior to starting school my annual salary was in the low 60s, and the summer internship I have secured (90% of interns get full-time offers) offeres a starting full-time salary of $130 plus bonus.
I am not going into banking, but rather something I am really excited about and feel confident that I can limit to an average of 60 hours per week. For that amount of hours, I think the pay is excelled and I am glad I am going to be able to put in those hours for a few years before I want to have children.
Everyone has a different story and perspective, but I had the same fears you did and I am just saying, sometimes you just have to go for it!
Congrats on the internship offer!! (if I'm correct, I think we spoke via email last year, right? Glad bschool has turned out to be such a great experience for you). Do you mind if I email you with my bschool questions when the time comes?
I'll be 28 when I enter bschool and 30 when I graduate, which in an ideal world is a couple of years older than I'd like. But I'm really excited about my job opportunity right now, and I think it'll prepare me much better personally and professionally when I enter an MBA program. I think children (if any) are getting pushed further and further down the line… oops.
Sure, feel free to email!
Well-Heeled:
You’ve written a string of good posts, but didn’t feature any in this week’s round-up so I could promote some other sites.
This one particularly peaked my interest since I’m in the same conundrum. Not only am I stuck wondering about the same questions, but this may end up being a total career change – which is a big scary X factor.
Congrats on the new job & best of luck with your schooling decision!
I'd definitely be interested in reading about your grad school / career change decisions. Will you blog about it? And thanks for the congrats.