Dean's World

Getting the Graduate Degree

Dean

Discussions like this one really depress me. I'd all but talked myself out of going to graduate school, but then I read over and over again that a bachelor's degree just isn't worth much these days. I've been putting off starting on my master's but I guess I really should stop.

Darn it all. I hate school.

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DSmith (mail) (www):

Dean, I doubt like heck you need an advanced degree, but of course it all depends on what you want to do with life. Note that most of the people saying this is such a great idea are people who have one themselves. Why do you think you need one?

7.30.2006 10:17pm

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Brian W (www):

Good timing Dean....just started mine literally tonight.

Find something you want to do....in this case I've always wanted to do more with international business. It's not that I want to travel (although as DeAnn and I get older, it would be a nice perk once the kids are out of the house) but it's something that interests me and I'm apparently good at.

Bachelors degrees are losing value in some fields, especially with the fly-by-night internet colleges that are popping up everywhere. Just find what you love to do and would want to study more in....

7.30.2006 11:22pm

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Maniakes (mail) (www):

An academic master's degree has a very different feel from undergraduate school. You're working on more interesting problems, and you're expected to actually do original thought and analysis and to try to answer questions that nobody's figured out the answer to yet.

A professional master's degree (like an MBA), on the other hand, is pretty much two more years of undergradute work.

Disclosure: I have a BS, an MS, and an MBA. I don't regret any of them, but I would probably be doing just fine with only the BS.

7.31.2006 12:44am

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TallDave (mail) (www):

Speaking from my own experience, the bachelor's degree was the hardest. The master's was icing, smooth and easy.

And the advanced degrees do make a big difference in the income you can claim you're entitled to (something that in IT is surprisingly arbitrary).

7.31.2006 12:45am

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John_B (mail) (www):

Speaking only from my own experience--though I could also cite a few others--the lack of a Bachelor's degree never inhibited my career in the least. Granted, I did have 3.5 years of university and 137 credit hours, but I never got the degree.

Remind me again which post-grad degree Bill Gates had that allowed him to do so well... Oh, that's right. He dropped out, too.

7.31.2006 12:52am

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Alice, Lil' Sis of the QOAE (mail):

I would recommend upgrading your technical certifications. The combination of your degree, technical background and certifications will do wonders for your job prospects. Did I mention to you that Microsoft's Virtual PC is now free? You can setup a virtual network at home on one machine and learn all the new technolgies without affecting your existing systems. Did you get the Test Prep software I left for you?

7.31.2006 10:15am

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Dean Esmay:

No, I didn't. Maybe I need to look at that.

Dean

7.31.2006 11:23am

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TallDave (mail) (www):

Yeah, certifications help quite a bit too.

I know people doing essentially the same job in a salary range of $40,000 to $120,000.

7.31.2006 1:45pm

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Kristian H. (mail) (www):

I am very happy I got my MS in CS (though it was a bit of a journey, I was in a PhD in Math program, and they made the mistake of teaching me how to do future value calculations on CS vs Math salaries, and the fact that Math would have taken 4 years longer).

7.31.2006 3:00pm

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Gary LaPointe (mail) (www):

The master's degree is much more interesting to work on. Most people (outside the field of education) that I talk to seem to feel the same way. It was easier and and much more interesting for me. I started my PhD since I breezed through the masters (I had to work for my BS) and thought what the heck, but it was too boring (and MSU wast transitioning to 10 week terms at the same time) but I never got close to finishing that.

I was lucky and got assistantships that paid me and covered 6 credits a term for me, but that worked well since I had not other job at the time.

Check it out... (It can't hurt to look into it)

7.31.2006 6:53pm

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Mike "Veeshir" Fisher (mail):

It depends on your bachelor's degree.

A BA in Liberal Arts isn't all that useful. A BS in mechanical engineering is pretty useful.

There was a joke I used to see in school.

An engineering graduate asks, "How can I build it?"

An accounting graduate asks, "How much does it cost?"

A business graduate asks, "How can we pay for it?"

A liberal arts graduate asks, "Would you like fries with that?"

8.1.2006 9:39am