<p>Your parents, like many other people, are mistaken about the value of graduate degrees. Please do not go to graduate school unless you know exactly what you want to do with the degree you are pursuing. An MA in political science or English or history etc. will not make you more employable than a B.A. On the contrary, it can make you look like a professional student, and employers don’t want to hire people like that. They want to hire people with some demonstrated maturity who can self-organize, show initiative, and take direction from a boss. A B.A. can show that, but an M.A., for people who don’t want to become professors or who aren’t teachers seeking additional credentials for salary raises, just signals that you don’t know what to do with yourself and are just killing time while figuring it out. Any job is better than a pointless M.A. from an employment standpoint. Now, if you have unlimited money or simply want to get the M.A. for enrichment purposes, go right ahead. But your parents are simply wrong that it will make you more employable in a general sense.</p>
<p>While I believe in the value of college for many students, it’s also true that school is a very limited universe, and there is a growing tendency to stay there because it’s all a student knows. You may feel better about yourself when you get out of school and find a niche doing something for pay in the “real world.” Many people fall into opportunities after they get that first job (and with humanities students, that first job can be in a very random field for little pay, but it’s a start).</p>