Posted on 02/27/2015 7:53:40 AM PST by SeekAndFind
In many fields, graduate degrees offer distinct benefits for your extra years in school.
Employees armed with a graduate education are often a more attractive hire and can make a higher salary than colleagues who have only a bachelor's degree.
However, for some industries the benefits of going to graduate school are comparatively low and don't justify the extra investment.
Using the recent "Hard Times" report from the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, we examined salary and unemployment data of experienced college graduates and experienced holders of graduate degrees. These are workers whose ages range from 35 to 54.
For roughly 50 fields, we calculated how much more money a graduate degree would bring and the difference in unemployment rates for those with a post-college degree. These figures were then combined to determine which graduate degrees were the most "useless" — basically, which give you the smallest boost in salary and employment.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Yet government backed loans do not distinguish between majors and degree fields. A prospective poet is treated as having the same loan payback risk as the petroleum engineer.
We could expand this conversation to talk about useless bachelor degrees. Why do some people major in philosophy? How many job opening are there for philosophers?
Why major in women’s studies? While studying women may be fascinating on some level, how many job opening are there for studying women?
It’s crazy how we encourage more and more people to go to college, but don’t talk about how much debt people take on, or discuss what they are majoring in.
4. Commercial Art and Graphic Design
An experienced graduate-degree holder earns 16% more than a college graduate, and the unemployment rate is 10% lower.
Experienced college grads earn an average of $56,000 a year, while experienced graduate-degree holders earn $65,000 a year, on average.
7.1% of experienced college grads are unemployed. 6.4% of experienced graduate-degree holders are unemployed.
*Numbers from 2010-2011
I have a two year degree in Commercial Art from a community college. At one point (2010) I was approaching 6 figures, including my annual bonus. Layoffs (2 since 2010) have done their damage, but I’m still in the post-graduate income average range.
HR #1. Shocker. In my experience over 20 years at 4 different companies I find all HR people, regardless of degree, completely useless.
I call BS on the STEM graduate degrees. The difference would be going back to school in later life for the graduate after getting 10-15+ years experience. That may not benefit you. Had I got a Masters in Computer Science younger it would be beneficial but waiting until my late 40’s and older would reap small gains.
Also, I think the gap has closed because many H1B folks tout their Master’s degree from the University of Curry and still have no practical skill only theoretical.
Some interesting professions on the list. Chem Es and Civil Es.
Any degree with the word “studies” in it pretty much seals your fate employment-wise.
I know a guy who has a doctorate in philosophy who is a top stock analyst for a brokerage house.
I myself studied Latin and Greek, and ended up in IT as a C++ programmer.
I wonder how economically solvent automobile insurance would be if they didn’t take into account the make/model of car you were driving?
Wymyn’s Studies.
Wow, I didn’t realize that MCSW were so poorly paid, $44 to $58 thousand per year.
They must take it out in their ability to disrupt families.
Oddly, many of the “useless” degrees on the list are “hard science” degrees like chemical engineering, computer science, information systems, and civil engineering.
The advanced degrees are most useful in academia. They are always surprised when they go out in the real world. They flash their PHD and no one is impressed.
Excellent points. Philosophy isn’t a practical course and women’s studies just indulges the emotionally immature who have either daddy issues or had one too many boyfriends and have ended up bitter and alienated and want to hold someone else responsible for their mistakes and bad choices.
Too many idiots go to university to study things that have nothing to do with the reality that in the end, they do have to end up making a living. Stupidly they don’t think to end up being mature. This is another reason I’m against going to university right away after high school.
Simplistic attack on hard skills degrees for the most part. I am sure a masters in Gender Studies is solo much better than the one in Chemical Engineering they panned.
I know a guy who has a doctorate in philosophy who is a top stock analyst for a brokerage house.
I myself studied Latin and Greek, and ended up in IT as a C++ programmer.
Then I would ask how you and others get such good jobs which have nothing to do with your college education fields of study. Did you work your way up in these fields, after starting at the bottom? Did your college experiences do anything to assist you in the professional careers in which you found success??
Chem E’s were saturate with warm bodies about 20 years ago. There is a surplus of Chem E’s now.
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