Should You Pursue A Master's Degree (or Graduate Degree)?

In this video, I tell you whether or not you should pursue a master's degree or graduate degree. I tell you who I talked to, who's advice matters and the importance of weighing time and investment vs. value and experience, to help you decide between graduate school or not.

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I was at a mentoring event the other night - it was a wonderful dinner, attended by very enthusiastic, keen and excited students. Some were in their second year of schooling and others were closing in on finishing their bachelors degree. Can you guess as to what one of the most common questions would be?

"Should i get my master's degree?" or "I'm not sure what i want to do after I graduate, but i'm thinking of getting my master's or taking my GMAT."

I was in a similar situation myself in my last year of college but instead of just rushing ahead and applying for graduate school, I thought it'd be better to do some research and see if it's the right move for me.

In this video, I answer the question, "Should You Pursue A Master's Degree?" and I talk about:

- The people I targeted, that I felt would have the answers I was seeking

- Who I thought didn't have the right answers at all

- The determining factors in making the decision (investment, time vs. value, experience)

- Why there is no rush to get back into school right away

[SelfMadeMillennial]

PREACH about the academic bubble. All the people giving us advice in school made the choice to get a PhD. Real experience takes a bit of hustle to get, but is SO valuable.

[LostSoulAscension]

College is all about networking, so getting higher education expands your network to a higher tier of peers that would respect you more and put more consideration into who you are, is how I look at it. Whatever practical application that holds for you is dependent on you.

[syedali]

Masters is not about Money. Its about having more Value with peoples you work with, getting your Dream Job with less competition, Having security in life for the rest of your life and offcourse it means more money too, feeling proud in your gathering and working with Qualified peoples arpund you or wprking in a good environment and working less or managing peoples under you.
Everybody can get skills anytime with a 6 month or 1 year diploma, but for getting a degree you have certain amount of time in life to get it

[nolan]

LOL a $40, 000 a year entry for a bachelors? I have a bachelors and can’t even find a job that pays half that!

[rmenchoachupicachu]

Mine is an example of why going for a masters right after my bachelors was a GOOD choice. I did my bachelors in science in physics from 2013 til 2017. During that time I only had one internship which was in tech sales. It was not exciting work and I was constantly applying to internships during my undergrad for experience. Most places turned me away since they had engineering applicants or specific degree seeking applicants applying for the same position. Competition is fierce. I decided to enroll in a minor in CS and during that time I decided to stay on for a masters in CS. I managed to get 2 internships in Software Engineering and then Data Science during the masters very easily. This pushed me back one semester and a summer but paid me enough to start paying back my loans.


I just signed a full time for 100k+ in Texas, which is a Low Cost of Living area.
With just a Physics Degree, my options were to struggle unemployed for a few months and settle for a <50k job. The year and a half invested in grad school will be payed back in less than a year since my tuition from my state school was very cheap and CoL was low.


Sometimes, when you can even get the experience and price, grad school in a highly in demand field can open internship and Coop opportunities for you to learn and get real world experience for later employment leverage.

[feliciaaull]

Im currently doing a Masters of Environmental Management in New Zealand. It is 18 months long. I decided to do it because I didnt want to get a full-time job yet (now I realise what a stupid reason). A small reason was that I wanted to learn something different, my undergrad is in Economics. I am really really struggling and have no motivation to do any work. My mental health is at an all-time low. I dont know whether to push it out (im a third through) or stop it now.

[huetuber]

All you need to ask yourself is, would getting a Masters degree yield a significant difference in return of investment from your current position ? Because who in their right mind would want to make the same money, or worse yet a pay cut, after grad school? Remember, a Master’s is a professional degree. Meaning that the majority of people go to grad school for a specific reason and mostly to advance their career and get financial gain and stability.

[OhMyNykkers]

This is seriously the most helpful video I've come across when figuring out what I want to do with my career, practically!

[roychenfoo]

Having a masters is not really a need. Literally. Its more of a personnal satisfaction. I also had a hard time deciding if i really needed to have a MD. But at the end, i came to the realization that its better to have an extra ammo at a war when its over or not have anything at all and its still going on. What im tryna say is that, its not a waste of time or money cause youre investing in yourself (thats the best investment u can ever do) and if youre applying for a management position (bc u already have the experience) you can easliy get it cause u have the MD. Thats all. Better have than not. But all in the right time. You can get the MD while youre working. Takes up to 2 years. So after u graduate MD you also have the 2 years working exp. So its a win-win. All up to you!

[cjbaerastafa]

Experience is always undermined in academia settings, Its not until you apply for a job and they ask about your past work experience when you are SOOL.

[rubenortiz]

You should get as much education as you can. Why? It's better to be a Samurai in a garden, than a gardener in a war!!!

[smahane]

Even my dog, barked at me that i suppose to get a master degree!

[CeeJayLive]

I got my bachelors in accounting but I want to be a chartered business psychologist so I'm going to graduate school next year for that...

[thundrwaffle]

Thank you, listening to you eased some anxiety that I have

[gaiavaleriacuratolo]

Hello, I hope I'll get an answer ...
Graduated 8 months a go from a 4 year bachelor degree, I made the mistake of taking a degree that is very broad in the sense that it does not focus on one particular sector of a business. I thought that since I have to specialize I'm going to right ahead and ask for internships in exactly what I want to do ( I want to enter the hospitality sector and more specific HR). But it's been 8 months and all the answers I received were pretty much saying I am not qualified because I lack experience or simply that I do not match the candidate theyare looking for ... weird right ( considering I'm asking for an internship ). So now I am currently looking for masters because I feel like I'm never going to move on with my life and actually achieve anything if I don't have a piece of paper / title .
Am I making a mistake?

[sdpy]

Dang. No closer to finding an answer. I did my B.Sc in Biology and am considering doing a masters, but only because of more job opportunities. In reality, I just need to find a good paying job that I have the requirements for.

[zynbalalawi]

Life is a PUZZLE, and it works differently for each one of us. I thought the same after I graduated with honors in BA. It took me a year to get an entry level job in a different field. Changed the job to another type of an entry level (administration this time). Right now I’m thinking of doing a post graduate diploma (since MA are more demanding in terms of qualified requirements) In order to get a better job and work a career ladder in the related field that I’m currently doing.
My issue is that I’m looking to do my post graduate certificate abroad and the universities are considering my working years as a “GAP”, making excuses of how I should’ve done an MA right after having a BA.
So technically, the universities out there are not always there willing to accept you whenever you think you’ll continue (at least for overseas!) why nobody tells us this stuff!!!!
The moment you graduate with a BA you’d be up to these challenges:
1. Getting employed
2. In a related job
3. Well paid
4. Your unemployed time or even the employed years will be considered as a GAP if you decide on continuing your Post graduate studies later and will put you through complications

Just laying this out here for those who don’t know of how it goes down the road to take it in consideration for future decisions.

[mikojavier]

I literally cried when you mentioned "a life you are proud of..."

[brettpatetto]

Degrees such as masters P.hD BAA degrees are a waste of time. College is a waste of time. People struggle spend 4 long unnecessary years in school to have there dream job or further there education. Time does not stand still. And student loans are sometimes impossible to pay back. Life is hard enough. You don't need college to be successful and wealthy. I barely made it through HS. I stated making money at 19 and went from there starting at the bottom. I stayed in the same industry for 23 years and found a little charm would help. I did not find it difficult to move up. I then saved enough money to start a small on line business and 15 years later I am making an average of 1000.00 a day, ( not inlcuding my career) There are many online services that provide fake on line degrees and transcripts. What I found real upsetting is that many jobs that require a degree have you do such basic work input data and answer phones. I was interested in starting a business helping people. I have always been gifted in psychology. I also studied health witch helped. So I chose the field of Human Behavior to get into. I spend a month prepping my self everything I needed to know on line. I have had a successful practice and many job offers. Honestly I have ADD. I lack to ability to retain information and concentrate. How ever I have other talents that are priceless. I know for fact that there are many people that are fed up because they can't afford college dont have the time can't cut the grade and just want to get the ball rolling. I even know of a HR DIRECTOR that got her fake degree on line. I got a fake degree on line to work as a lighting engineer assistant and program director. I actually did a better job than people that have a real degree. So choose your path wisely and remember there are so many other ways to become independently wealthy and successful. In fact the some of the wolds wealthiest people dropped out of HS. Good luck what ever you do this is my experience.

[KTOWNKD]

I agree and disagree. Frankly I feel a Bachelor's should be done full time, but anything above that should be done part time. I decided to take time off post-undergrad and found when I went back 4.5 years later to pursue a JD in law school, it was so much harder. It's not the same case for some, but many of my fellow classmates that were re-entering academia after a break found it difficult to cope with learning materials and concepts. Albeit yes, it was law school. All the same, being used to working full time, swapping out a paycheck for a book, and endless lectures was actually difficult to adjust to. One would think staff meetings would be similar, but it was clearly different. Realistically it depends. I made it for a while without any graduate diplomas or certifications. And it does help having a working background. But the lesson is, it depends on you as a person, your mentality, and you're desired field. If you want to become a lawyer, law school or law study (depending on where you are) is inevitable. But an advanced diplomas in engineering, that is a choice.