As the coronavirus recession continues to strike fear into American workers, some may consider fleeing the labor market toward the potential safety of graduate school.

While graduate school can be an excellent way to broaden your job prospects with specialized skills, make a drastic career change, and potentially increase your earning potential, it’s not a decision to be made lightly. Beyond the process of researching schools, filling out applications, and then actually being accepted into a program, there are a lot of tough choices to consider. How will you finance your education? What do opportunities look like for a career in your desired field? Are you simply looking to gain more knowledge on a subject, or is your main goal to make more money?

Here’s what to consider when deciding if graduate school is a good investment.

How Will You Pay for Graduate School?

While PhD programs are typically fully funded, most master’s and professional programs like law and medical school are not.  

More often than not, students pursuing master’s degrees will take out student loans from the federal government — there’s no debt limit in place for graduate students — in the hopes that the degree will earn them a higher salary to help pay back that debt. (Others may borrow expecting to have some debt forgiven). But while graduate degree holders earn on average around 20% more than those with bachelor’s degrees, not all master’s degrees are one-way tickets to a luxurious life. Before you take out six-figure student loans, do your research on how your future will likely look.

Can You Handle the Commitment?

It’s a scary time to be without a job or in a rocky industry, and it makes sense why someone might think going back to school is their only option to avoid the potentially catastrophic fallout from a recession. While it may be temporarily relieving to find yourself in a graduate program, students still have to apply themselves and work hard in order to actually see the results of their investment.

“It’s so important to pick something you’re passionate about studying because you’re not going to be sustained doing something unless you can see yourself in it as a career,” says Daniel Hughes, president of Spider Web Education, a college consultancy firm. Some degrees might sound like a fast track to financial comfort (for example, computer science), but for the most part, that’s only true if you actually complete the program. So if you’re thinking about selecting a master’s program based solely on the potential salary bump, be sure it’s something you’re actually interested in pursuing. If not, you may end up paying off loans for a degree you will never use or never even completed – according to the Urban Institute, completion rates for master’s programs are around 61% while rates for professional programs are 77%.

What Are Your Career Prospects?

Ask your admissions advisors about the university’s and program’s alumni network and use tools like LinkedIn to see what positions students that graduated from your program hold before committing to anything. It also wouldn’t hurt to shadow someone in the field to see if the day-to-day work aligns with your interests.

Are There Alternative Paths to Success?

Sometimes people pursue master’s degrees due to a perceived knowledge gap in their industry. Maybe the next step up above your current position requires experience in financial accounting that you just don’t currently have. But do you need to go back to school full-time, paying exorbitant fees and tuition prices in order to qualify for a job with a slightly higher salary? According to Hughes, probably not. “I really encourage my clients to look at how they can get to where they want to go and have the lowest costs,” says Hughes.

Full article – https://money.com/graduate-school-financial-decision/

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