<p>I think having just a BA by itself now was like having just a high school diploma in the 1950s and 1960s. In other words, yes, sure, it’s great to have a BA, but a MA will make you stand out completely (because, well, face it what real “valuable” work experience are you going to have at 21 when you’ve spent 95% of your life thus far in academia?). I read somewhere that less than 10% of the American population have a degree higher than a BA. Therefore, having a MA already places you in the more-educated group of American society. </p>
<p>Now, the catch is, if you’ve been saddled with a lot of debt from your BA years, going for a MA when you haven’t found a job right after your BA is quite a hard initiative. And there’s also two additional issues relating to pursuing a post-BA degree:
- Not all MA programs are created equal.
- Probably about half of all non-JD, non-MBA, and non-MD programs are geared towards people who are interested in pursuing a PhD.
2a) Is a PhD worth it? Could you pull it off, both academically and financially? Sure, most PhD programs are paid for but you will still have to pay for those miscellaneous things and times this amount by 5-7 years…
2b) If you want to drop your PhD program after 2-3 years and just get a MA, sure, that’s fine. However, we all know that a MA will too soon be irrelevant too… the pace of globalization, mass access to education, and the expanding global middle class are really putting a strain on ease of life here in America. </p>
<p>What are your thoughts on post-BA degrees? Are they feasible?</p>