Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Having MAJOR second thoughts about graduate school

filtherton · 04-27-2010, 06:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cimarron29414

It isn't $50K. It's $50K + 3 more years of earning potential. So, let's suppose you get our of school with a BA in Psych. Most likely, you get a job as a state-funded counselor and earn (for example) $40K. In 3 years you have grossed $120K.

...No you haven't, you were in grad school. So, you now have $170K to make up. So, you get out of school with $50K in debt plus $120K in lost earnings. If you get a job as a...guess what...state-funded counselor and make $44K because of the masters, it will only take you 30 years to make up the lost wages if you never receive a raise. So, let's factor in raises (and that your masters will get you better raises) and knock it down to 15 years. So, you will spend the first 15 years of your career BREAKING EVEN on wages, not to mention the student loan.

But wait, there's more. Because of the debt and the 3 years of no wages, you have delayed the front-end loading of your 401K - the place where the very best growth potential exists because that money sits there the longest. You pay nothing in for your first 3 years and you suspend paying in your full potential because of your debt. That right there could LITERALLY cost you $1,000,000 in lost investment earnings. Do the math, it is staggering.

So, uh, your masters didn't cost you $50K. It cost you something like $1,170,000. If you think you will EVER recover that kind of money with a Psych degree, you need to see a shrink.

On the other hand, these days it's quite possible that you don't get a job in your field and end up working somewhere without a 401k for $15,000/yr (if you're lucky). Grad school would make more sense in this context and you wouldn't be out a hypothetical 1,000,000.

My suggestion would be to follow your dreams. If you don't have kids or a debt besides student loans, you might as well- especially in a dire job market such as this one. I'd even consider a non-psych degree if there's something you'd rather do. There's no reason your grad degree needs to be the same thing as your undergrad.