Are masters degrees the new bachelor's?

11 Comments

1. AnonymousSeptember 9,2024 at 3:00AM UTC

   My experience has been that an advanced degree is more useful/relevant if your undergrad was in a different discipline and you're trying to level up in a new area. Some employers will cover tuition or give a substantial raise for graduate degrees, but many do neither. You need to look at your options, specific to your situation, to determine whether the cost and effort would be worth it. I agree that having infants/toddlers is really hard on top of a full-time job, much less adding school to the mix. You still have time. I finished my undergrad in my mid-30s and my master's in my early 40s. Very different disciplines and I did find my graduate degree to be helpful (and rewarded). That said, I have many colleagues with only a bachelor's who have higher roles and make more money than me.

2. Tami L CannizzaroSeptember 9,2024 at 4:45PM UTC

   According to the US Census, as of 2021 approx 14.4% of people 25 or older in the US had a master's degree. I'm not sure how that compares to previous years; my guess is that it's increased over time. Other data indicates that over time, people with a master's degree earn about 16% more median weekly income than those with a bachelor's degree. So there's that. That said, it's a commitment, whether you pursue in-person or online. Another option to consider: Graduate Certificate programs offered by many universities. These tend to be much shorter in duration (less than year) and are geared towards working individuals who find themselves in a different role and want to enhance their skills. I would check this out and see if there's a graduate certificate in the data field that might suit your needs.

3. AnonymousSeptember 9,2024 at 10:45PM UTC

   I’ll speak from a higher ed perspective. If you are going to get an advanced degree and you work in data analytics, consider a masters degree. If you think just having a masters will pay you more they may depending on where you get your masters. And if you ever want to work in higher ed a masters will help you but doesn’t mean you make more. I make more with an undergrad degree than those with masters.

   Think about getting a data analytics certification from an accredited and well respected institution. It’s a very hot skill to have and can help you down the road. Accounting degree with analytics experience and a certification stands out. Also enrollment increased in 2020 and 2021 as people lost jobs and went back to school. Which is why it went up. A certification holds weight. Or look at MSBA or a MBA. Hope that helps! Good luck to you!

4. AnonymousSeptember 10,2024 at 5:11PM UTC

   This does help. Thank you!

5. AnonymousSeptember 10,2024 at 8:42PM UTC

   You're very welcome! If it were me, I'd go the certification route. MSBA is fairly new. Every company seeks data analytics. Smart move on your part to be a part of that! :-)

6. AnonymousSeptember 10,2024 at 11:34AM UTC

   There is an online MS in Data Science that is offered through one of the public universities in my state. It's $20k total. I think I may approach my manager as the company offers tuition reimbursement up to $10k per year, with management approval.

7. AnonymousSeptember 10,2024 at 12:30PM UTC

   My reasoning is a lack of graduate degree may end up limiting my advancement opportunities in the long term.

8. AnonymousSeptember 10,2024 at 12:40PM UTC

   I just completed my MBA and recently my position was eliminated. I had been thinking of switching to another IT arena, so I've decided to go back and get an MS in Cybersecurity and not focus as much on looking for another position right now (I have 30+ years in IT systems delivery & Program management). If you feel the graduate degree will help you professionally, then go for it, but don't do it just to compete with your team memebers. A graduate program is a ton of work and commitment and if you jump into one just "because everyone seems to have a graduate degree", you will potentially set yourself up for a lot of money spent and regret after or possibly not even finishing it.

9. AnonymousSeptember 10,2024 at 5:04PM UTC

   I am not considering jumping into it "because everyone seems to have a graduate degree." Moreso, seeing how many in the department have a masters, I'm wondering if having one will open more doors for me in the future.

   I have been looking at two masters for a while: MS in Analytics and an MS in Data Science. I decided against pursuing a graduate degree before because employers prefer experience plus degree over just a degree. Now that I have landed a role in data analytics, I think a masters might finally pay off. I know plenty of people with graduate degrees that are borderline useless because they didn't have the experience to pair with it and couldn't get a job in their graduate field of studies.

10. Sandra SwearingenSeptember 11,2024 at 3:24PM UTC

    In healthcare the new masters is the doctorate. After 45 years I have seen my field go from associate to bachelors, to masters, to doctorate as the requirement for the good jobs. You just have to go with the flow and figure out what most of the top people have for degrees and remain competitive in your educational preparation.

11. AnonymousSeptember 12,2024 at 8:34PM UTC

    You should look carefully into this. Graduate degrees are VERY expensive and don't always have a good ROI. Research this carefully. I say this as someone who got an expensive graduate degree that turned out to be pretty worthless. Sometimes there are much less expensive programs you can complete that offer better ROI, particularly with more technical fields like data analysis.