<p>I’m at that point in my life, where I’m uncertain as to whether or not I will attend graduate school. I have no interest in spending another two years in school, but I fear that I will not be able to achieve much success in the work force without a graduate degree. Therefore, if I attend graduate school, it will only be because it is “required”, rather than something I have an interest in pursuing. </p>
<p>Many of the jobs I’m interested in, say they prefer (meaning require), a masters degree. I’ve also seen statistics showing an increasing trend in the number of people going into college over the years, ergo a bachelor’s degree is little more than a piece of paper everyone has. </p>
<p>I pose this issue to the parents section, because I assume many of you have established careers in the work force and are best qualified to answer this dilemma.</p>
<p>I know many people, who have had extremely rewarding careers across the globe without a Master’s degree.</p>
<p>What is your undergraduate degree in?</p>
<p>I have a bachelors degree and am very succesfully employed without a masters degree. I think a bachelors degree is generally sufficient for most jobs out there. There are certain fields that require a masters but I can’t name very many off of the top of my head.</p>
<p>Depending on your interest in a master, you very likely can go back to school later on at some point should you desire. I am currently working on a masters, but it is part time while I work full time. I also started it six years after completing my undergrad. I collect a full paycheck and my employer is paying tuition costs.</p>
<p>You may also want to see my thread: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/883759-enough-grad-school-talk.html?highlight=grad[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/883759-enough-grad-school-talk.html?highlight=grad</a></p>
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<p>Unfortunately, when the job market is tight, “prefer” often does mean “require.” If a hiring manager gets a number of candidates with masters degrees, he or she may never look at the applicants with “only” a bachelors.</p>
<p>Hmmm…options–apply anyways for those jobs you want with only a bachelors and hope for the best; apply for lesser jobs (or the same kind of job at a lesser company) that would only require a bachelors and get experience (which could balance out the need for a masters); or get a masters (either now or after you have tried options 1 & 2). </p>
<p>Sometimes working in the field for a few years can give you a better idea of what masters degree to obtain to best further your career.</p>
<p>I would not go to graduate school right away. A lot of students have this impression that they have to rush into grad school immediately. What they don’t realize is that in grad school, unlike college, a big part of it is learning from your cohort. People share their experiences, learned usually from ON THE JOB, hands on, workforce experience, and discuss and debate in that way. They network in that way. They learn in that way. What you learn from your cohort is just as if not more important than the classroom work in grad school. </p>
<p>As a new college graduate, with little real world experience, you’ll be a marginalized part of your cohort at best. You’ll probably be younger than most of the others, you won’t have much to share when they’re discussing research they’ve done or experiences they’ve had on the job that apply to what you’re studying. You won’t learn as much and you won’t be able to give as much to the learning community. </p>
<p>Unless it’s a specialized program that you’re SURE you want now. Wait. Wait 2-3 years, get a job (there are jobs out there. Maybe not your dream job right away but there are jobs). Grad schools actually prefer that you do this, some even require it. It sounds like what you really need to do is expand your job search horizons a little bit, and try not to be so picky. Remember, you can build towards your dream job or even a job in your field. Start small and get some experience and something on the resume, get a feel for what kind of training will actually be useful for what you want to do, before you march off and take on more debt for grad school.</p>
<p>^
That’s not an entirely fair shake, Smithie&Proud. I’ll be entering a PhD program straight out of undergrad, and I’ve run research studies, presented at (national) conferences, and been an author on published manuscripts. I’ve also taught at the college level and had pretty good clinical experience (well, as good as you can have as an undergrad, anyway. I’m sure I’ll have tons of things to learn from my cohort-mates, but I’m not coming in without any background, nor would anyone in my cohort be, due the selectivity of programs in my field.</p>
<p>psych_,</p>
<p>There’s nothing wrong with doing a PhD straight out of undergrad work. SmitieandProud was speaking to a person who felt like she should get a masters but was tired of school. Smitie’s advice was good - there is nothing wrong with waiting a couple years. I agree with this.</p>
<p>People straight out of grad school have no experience, plain and simple. Experience you gain working in a specific job for a length of time. Experience with one thing doesn’t count toward another thing and it’s often not transferrable to other groups or companies. Experience means something only to people who see the experience you have and want to appreciate that.</p>
<p>Degrees last forever. They mean something to everyone you meet. They transfer from one company to another. But they don’t substitute for experience.</p>
<p>Teaching, publishing, and presenting will count as experience if you are aspiring to be a professor…but not as experience if you are planning at working at (most) private companies.</p>
<p>I have an undergrad degree from Northwestern and have had my own consulting business for the past 17 years. I was like you after graduation – didn’t want to go to school anymore, wanted to work plus didn’t really know enough about grad school. Even though I’m doing ok now, in the past year I’ve been thinking that I really wish I had gone to grad school. But as other posters have said, work experience is key as is a real focus on what you want to do. NOW I see some awesome master’s degree programs that I’d be really interested in – (especially one at NU, but it can’t happen, especially right now. I’ve been looking around at some local colleges, but not sure I can do that either now with D starting college this Fall.</p>
<p>My suggestion to you is to get some work experience and figure out what your focus is… maybe even research masters programs and see what’s out there and piques your interest. Then, re-examine your decision in a year or two or three. You might feel differently then.</p>
<p>There is no absolute. You can be success with or without the masters. It’s about hard work and commitment.</p>
<p>My husband and I both worked several years before getting our master’s degrees. Working can help you figure out what you like and it can let you know whether you need the advanced degree. And and bigtrees noted, you might find an employer who will foot the bill.</p>
<p>@psych - if you know what you want and you have the experience to back it up then there’s nothing wrong with going to grad school right after undergrad. I wouldn’t discourage a pre-med student from going to medical school right away, and I wouldn’t encourage someone who was sure they wanted a Phd from starting that program right away. You probably will be less experienced than at least some of your cohort but you’re not coming into it with nothing and it’s obvious that you know what you want. </p>
<p>For the OP though, and for a vast majority of people who are pondering Master’s programs right out of undergrad, it’s usually not a great idea. They haven’t worked enough to know really what they want to do or to know what kind of advanced degree will be most useful to them in their professions. In your field you probably HAVE to have a PhD, but in most careers there’s no fixed path. And if you’re tired of school and not sure what you want, then you should take a few years to get some experience and figure it out. Master’s programs are short compared to Phd or Med school, putting them off a few years won’t hurt you and you can always go back to them. </p>
<p>I think the same about Law school frankly, though I know there are those that disagree.</p>
<p>For the OP though, and for a vast majority of people who are pondering Master’s programs right out of undergrad, it’s usually not a great idea. They haven’t worked enough to know really what they want to do or to know what kind of advanced degree will be most useful to them in their professions. In your field you probably HAVE to have a PhD, but in most careers there’s no fixed path. And if you’re tired of school and not sure what you want, then you should take a few years to get some experience and figure it out. Master’s programs are short compared to Phd or Med school, putting them off a few years won’t hurt you and you can always go back to them.</p>
<p>I agree- also in a tight economy- it may be counterintuitive, but those who are younger/less education seem to be hired more often than more education/more experience depending on field because use of rationale that those with advanced degrees will move to better paying job when one pops up, and as long as the job doesn’t really require the degree to do the work ( as many do not), they can pay those with " only" a BA less.</p>
<p>Also if you are burnt out now, just think of how you will feel in the middle of a grad program and decide that you are in the wrong field!</p>
<p>Teaching is a great example of a field where you don’t want a masters until you get hired.</p>
<p>Teachers are paid on a scale that varies based on how much education they have. A teacher with a masters is automatically paid more than a teacher with a bachelors (it’s part of the union employee contracts). </p>
<p>A teacher with no experience and a masters degree has a very low chance of getting hired because they will be very expensive to hire yet have no experience.</p>
<p>bigtrees – I think the question as to whether to get the MAT before or after you are hired as a teacher depends a lot on which state you plan to teach in and which school district you are applying to. The recent trend in our school district in NYS with secondary school hires has been to bite the bullet and bring on those who have a BA/BS in a traditional academic discipline and a Masters in education. Yes, it also costs a bit more initially, but – particularly in the sciences – it can provide schools with a little more flexibility in assigning classes. For example, a student who has a Bachelor’s degree in earth science education is pretty much limited to teaching earth science (the introductory science course in the NYS Regents science sequence). Someone with a BS in Physics or Biology from a place like Geneseo or Union or Holy Cross (colleges recent hires in our school attended as undergrads) and a Masters in education can teach earth science, bio, physics and chemistry.</p>
<p>Maybe school districts in NYS aren’t strapped for cash. Out west where I live, a lot of school districts are strapped for money and will be glad to hire the cheapest teacher that can teach teh one subject they need that year rather than one that can teach multiple subjects. I’m not familiar with New York at all.</p>