It is not unusual for me to visit with graduate students who sometimes second-guess their desire or choice to pursue a graduate degree. After spending grueling years earning a bachelor’s degree, some wonder if it is worthwhile to pursue a Master’s or a doctoral degree. Questions arise such as will I be able to obtain a better position for employment or be more competitive in the job search? Will my extra years of education pay off for me financially?
There is reason to believe that a graduate degree is worth the amount of dollars invested. An article in Forbes reported that 20 percent of positions require a graduate degree, whereas 11 percent of the U.S. population holds a graduate degree (http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2014/04/04/in-defense-of-the-masters-degree/). New innovative Master’s degrees have significant value for some job occupations. As I have mentioned previously regarding transferable skills, employers value talents such as problem solving, critical thinking, and technical skills that graduate education promotes. According to the same Forbes article, the wage growth in the last decade has been holders of advanced degrees which have approximately a 30 percent greater average than bachelor degree holders.
However, graduate education is not without its cost. The New American Foundation published a report that points to the growing debt incurred by those pursuing graduate degrees (https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1096326/gradstudentdebtreview.pdf). Forty-one percent of student loans obtained in 2012 were for graduate studies. What makes access to graduate education a problem is that there are fewer opportunities for financial aid as compared to undergraduate students.
Reports examining the value of Master’s, professional and doctoral degrees suggest that those who held a graduate degree fared better during the great recession. However, a picture does state a thousand words. A recent study by the U.S. Department of Labor reported the income and percent employment by degree attainment. This graph is pictured below:
(click graph to see detail)
Those with an academic doctoral degree had a 2.2 percent unemployment rate and median weekly income of $1,623 compared to the average of $827 for all workers. Those with a Master’s degree had a 3.4 percent unemployment rate and a median weekly income of $1,329. Bachelor’s degree holders had an unemployment rate of 4.0 percent and median weekly income of $1,108. I should note that a 4 percent unemployment rate is considered “full employment”.
What these data suggest is that your lifetime income from earning a graduate degree will pay off. For some occupations the income will grow steadily, for others there may be a quick rise in income followed by a plateau. The evidence is in — the time and precious resources you spend in pursuing a graduate degree will be worth the investment!