Posted on 03/30/2022 8:53:10 AM PDT by karpov
Preston Cooper, a researcher at The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity studying the economics of higher education, recently published a wide-ranging analysis of almost 14,000 U.S. graduate degree programs. In his investigation―which used a similar methodology to a related study he conducted on the value of undergraduate degrees―Cooper calculated the return on investment (ROI) for graduate programs across the country, determining which degrees pack the best payoff and which ones are likely to yield negative financial returns. So, how do North Carolina’s schools stack up?
While Cooper found that more than forty percent of master’s degrees have a negative ROI, many master’s programs―particularly in medicine, healthcare, and the biological sciences―can be extremely lucrative. UNC-Chapel Hill’s master’s program in clinical sciences and medical studies yields a net lifetime ROI of $4,180,321, with its degree in dentistry and oral sciences trailing not far behind at $4,025,886. These highly successful programs reflect broader national trends at play. In contrast to the large percentage of negative ROIs for master’s degree programs in general, just three percent of degrees in computer science, mathematics, or engineering demonstrate negative returns. For nursing programs, it’s just five percent, and for master’s degrees in the biological sciences, it’s twenty-two percent.
The list of high-performing master’s degrees isn’t exclusive to STEM programs, though: at Duke University’s prestigious Fuqua School of Business, graduates in international business can expect a median lifetime ROI of $4,555,280. But this is more of an exception than the rule. According to Cooper’s research, about sixty-four percent of business-related master’s degree programs have negative ROIs. The small minority of high-payoff business programs that defy this trend can mostly be found at expensive, elite institutions like the University of Pennsylvania, Yale, the University of Chicago, and Duke.
(Excerpt) Read more at jamesgmartin.center ...
I am currently finishing by Masters in Biblical Studies, preparatory for a position as a Pastor in a church.
Most churches will not even consider someone who does not have a Master of Divinity degree.
Although I do have to admit some of the classes were incredibly helpful and interesting.
As for the pay angle, it will not pay for itself and I never considered whether it would. I just want to be a pastor.
I got my MBA early in my career in 1979. It was very beneficial to my career and especially for my financial life after early retirement.
I got my MBA in the late 1980s at night school in a top 20 program. Not elite, but well-recognized.
There probably is more wokeness today in some parts of the curriculum. HR and Organizational Behavior were areas that already seemed long on theory and short on data 30 years ago and are probably worse today.
But microeconomics is free of real-world concerns. Macro is non-judgmental. And finance is just a set of equations that explain why money tomorrow is less valuable than money today is. Accounting is not woke.
My real problem with the MBA is that it could and probably should be one year, not two. My brother calls it two semesters of vitally important material, crammed into four semesters. And that’s at a time when you really want to be working. That’s why night school worked for me.
I couldn’t do what I do without a masters
For me, it definitely was. Although, between my undergrad and master’s degrees, it took about 10 years to do.
Unfortunately, most kids are not shown this study.
They are told they MUST get college degree, spend lots of money and time learning useless things and then end up with lots of student debt, bussing the tables.
If they learn plumbing or electrician trade, they will be a lot better of!
In this case the ROI for me was to become a Pastor. I will retire from my fulltime job this summer and start looking for an independent Baptist crutch who can handle an old guy with a lot of experience worldwide.
If they yield greater ability to produce would be worth it.
Too many are just more classes with no tangible improvement other than self esteem.
“Only worth it if you can get your employers to pay for it.”
The best way. Also, if your employer is willing to pay your way it’s a good indication that the degree is worthwhile.
Not if the degree is in something ending in the word STUDIES!
Good post on the MBA degree.
Most of the courses are very practical and give you the tools you need to work in many different departments in the corporate world.
They also teach you a lot of “street smarts”—helping you identify liars and con artists and folks who are faking it.
The most important thing I learned was that the organization chart on the wall is not the real organization chart—there is an informal organization of people who actually get things done—and if they can find each other (often by word of mouth) the “impossible” tasks suddenly become doable.
In most organization the real “doers” are probably less than a quarter of the workers—identifying those folks is mission critical for almost any task—they can mentor you and help you in countless ways.
Equally valuable is identifying the clowns and idiots—if you can avoid them you will be much more productive—and happier!
The comment about Duke reminded me about a school in Phoenix. In the 1970s in was called Thunderbird School of International Business. You had to have a language and at the end of the year they had a job fair where teams built a sales program for a U.S. Corporation in a foreign country. Over the years many tier 1 corporations built a large part of their overseas teams from that fair.
My father ran a manufacturing plant. I asked him how many people worked there. He replied, “About half of them.”
Corporations like graduate degrees. They are usually useless degrees as they rarely add anything to a person’s knowledge, but companies want them so people go and get them. Most graduate programs are participation trophies in that if you spend the time and submit poorly written papers you will pass.
Definitely for grievance-studies majors.
Most people are not going to be doctors or engineers or biologists. That is the only thing I can see going to college for 4 years.
Anything else should take less then a year to learn. You get hired at a company and someone there tells you how things work.
It is what you do with the knowledge you have learned that matters. You can be book smart but dumb as a rock.
Experience counts.
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