You probably should not go to graduate school

Hello Interviewers!Welcome to another installment of “The Art of the Informational Interview” in which we discuss the many reasons you should not attend graduate school. Arrivederci,Emma 

Generally speaking, graduate school is a bad idea and you should not attend graduate school. There are like one or two exceptions that prove this rule. But let’s just say: if you’re wondering if you should, you probably shouldn’t.

You don’t have to take my word for it. Some really great journalists have explored this matter at length:

• “The Master’s Trap,” the first in a three part series by Anne Helen Petersen, covers the predatory way universities use master’s degree programs to generate revenue.

• “The Master’s Trap: Part 2” identifies the three (bad) types of master’s program: “the prestige grab,” “the only visible route,” and “career collateral.” Spoiler alert: none of them are good for students.

• “The Master’s Trap: Part 3” dives into what AHP calls “predatory inclusion,” which basically means the way in which students of color get screwed the most.

Anyways, AHP is the queen and you should read all her work. She’s not the only one writing about this stuff, though. The Wall Street Journal ran a story in 2021 under the headline, “Financially Hobbled for Life: The Elite Master’s Degrees That Don’t Pay Off.” The lead for that story reads:

After the Wall Street Journal article came out, Slate published a piece titled: “Master’s Degrees Are the Second Biggest Scam in Higher Education.” In it journalist Jordan Weissmann quotes Kevin Carey, director of the education policy program at New America as saying, “Universities see master’s degree programs as largely unregulated cash cows that help shore up their bottom line.”

All of the articles I linked to above are great, and you should read them. They are basically cautionary tales of what not to do. But, if you are considering attending graduate school, and wondering if you might be the exception, it may help to have some more forward-looking content to help guide you. Ergo, I give you….

3 reasons you should not go to graduate school

1. You’re not sure what you want to do, but think graduate school might help you — This might be the #1 worst reason to go to graduate school. It’s a waste of time and money. There are much faster ways to figure out what you want to do with your life, liiikkkkeeeee….. INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEWING! I have a friend who took out $60,000 in student loans to get a master’s in public health from the University of Washington. Turns out she finds public health very boring. So she went back for another degree, in nursing, which was a good fit for her. Unfortunately by the time she was done with her nursing degree she was deeply and irrevocably in a life-destroying amount of student debt. Don’t be like this. Just do your informational interviewing and figure out what kind of vocational path you want first!

2. You can’t get a job in your chosen field and you think graduate school might give your resume an extra lift — Unless the degree is an actual, bona fide, LEGAL requirement it’s probably not going to help you nearly as much as you think. Also, there are usually faster and cheaper ways to demonstrate your interest in and aptitude for any given profession.

3. You want to feel like a baddie with a prestigious degree — Just…. no. Unless you are independently wealthy, don’t do this. Universities know that you want to feel like a fancy pants winner, and they will use this against you. They will offer you admission into mediocre programs with high tuition, knowing you might say yes because you want to be able to write “M.A. from [insert predatory but illustrious ivy here]” on your resume. But that fancy degree will probably not get you a well-paid and rewarding job. In fact, it may leave you feeling bitter and disenchanted when you graduate with debt and realize that you wasted two years of your life and are now no closer to having a sense of direction, much less traction in your career. (See the cautionary articles that I linked to in the beginning of this post).

Alright, now for the exceptions. They do exist. But they probably do not apply to you. So, I say unto thee again, do not go to graduate school Young Padawan. However, if you are one of the <1% of college educated people who should actually to graduate school, it’s probably for one of these reasons….

3 reasons you might be the exception (although you probably are not) and going to graduate school might be a good idea for you

1. You are the LeBron James of academia, the Djokovic of the ivory tower, you are in the top .01% of your field. You know it, your professors know it. You have been admitted to the top program in the country for your discipline with full funding and an an additional year of dissertation research funding already approved. I have a friend in this category and she is very cool and badass! But 99.9% of people are not playing on this level in academia. If you think you are, you a.) probably aren’t reading this newsletter because you have Serious Research™ to be doing, and b.) you should double check that your self assessment is correct, because you might just be a mediocre academic with a very big, deluded ego.

2. You want to be a lawyer, a therapist, a nurse practitioner, a speech pathologist, etc… Vocational graduate programs are slightly different. Some jobs legally require an advanced degree. In most states you can’t be a lawyer with out a J.D. (But also, if you are thinking of becoming a lawyer you you should definitely do ten informational interviews with ten different lawyers before you make that decision; chances are they will talk you out of doing it). Most therapists have an advanced degree as well. So if you are 100% sure you want a career that requires an advanced degree—like being a therapist or a lawyer—go ahead and get it! But you still need to be savvy about when prestige matters and when it doesn’t. For example, a Yale law degree is probably worth the cost of tuition but a social work degree from Yale would not have the same value (idk if they actually have a social work program, but you get the idea). It’s dollars and cents people.

3. You don’t have to pay for it yourself — Your family is super rich and you have a trust fund. You don’t need to worry about caring for aging parents, buying a house, or otherwise securing your financial wellbeing. You went to boarding school in Switzerland and you’ve never even heard of student loans. Studying Medieval gynecology (this is a real thing!) is meaningful to you, so why not. It’s not like you’re ever going to need a real job. Or, maybe your work will pay for your degree. Maybe you got a big scholarship. Whatever the case, if your advanced degree is going to be free to you, or very very affordable, then by all means enroll if it’s what you want to do. But you should still think about your time, and the opportunity costs of enrolling. Also, if you are so rich that you can afford to do literally whatever you want, you should check out Resource Generation, and figure out how to redistribute some of your wealth.

That’s basically it. Hopefully you have now concluded that you should not go to graduate school and can use your time and energy to DO SOME INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEWS!

Some random notes and thoughts about graduate school

Young-ish people tend to dream of attending a small handful of types of programs. It’s kind of like how every rom com hero is an architect and every rom com heroine owns a boutique flower shop… These basic types of programs are just already known about and easy to envision, so people find themselves pondering: “should I go to law school?” We’ve all been there. Spoiler alert: no, you should not. Anyways, I thought I’d share a few of my personal thoughts on some of these programs:

Business School — Bear case: People say you go to business school for the network, but maaayyybe you should just get really good at informational interviewing. If you have to pay $200,000+ to acquire a network, you may not have what it takes to be successful in business anyways. Bull case: if you can get into a really really good business school, like Wharton, HBS or Northwestern, and your parents are paying for it then the network might be worth it. Also you will have some very cool professors (I would love to take any of Adam Grant’s classes).

Law School — Bear case: Don’t go to law school under any circumstances, lawyers are miserable, and if you take the time to talk to anyone who went to law school they will tell you not to do it. Bull case: if you can get into a top ten school and you can afford the degree and you really like paper work, go for it. Another bull case: if you can get a scholarship and plan to use your degree to help victims of domestic violence and/or asylum seekers, god speed.

Social Work/Mental Health Degrees — Bear case: social workers are very burnt out. They don’t make very much money and they are basically tasked with fixing all of the problems of capitalism but with no tools and with capitalism still, you know, kind of screwing everyone. Think carefully before becoming a social worker or mental healthcare provider. Bull case: many people find providing mental healthcare very rewarding, you can usually organize your work life in a healthy way if you are good at your job, comfortable going into private practice, and you live in a big market. An advanced degree is usually required for this kind of work. Just make sure you go for a degree you can afford.

One final note for if you already went to graduate school and you regret it:

Ugh, nothing feels worse than regret, especially regret that is accompanied by student debt. But if you did this, please don’t beat yourself up. Many many factors have colluded to convince really smart people to take on too much educational debt pursuing degrees that aren’t really worth it. You are not alone. Don’t lose heart, either. There is still time for you to find your path and pull yourself together. If you are smart enough, resourceful enough, and well-connected enough to get into graduate school, you have what it takes to make a A++ informational interviewer. And if you can be a great informational interviewer you can pretty much do anything, including finding some high-paying work to do for a while so that you can dig yourself out of that hole.

One final final note for if you really have your heart set on graduate school but don’t want to die under a mountain of debt

A good rule of thumb for educational debt is this: don’t take out more loans than the amount you expect to make as your starting salary after you finish your degree. For example, I graduated undergraduate with $28,000 in student debt. My first job, paid $36,000. I wasn’t thrilled about owing the government $28,000, but it was manageable, and I knew it wasn’t going to ruin my life. Keep in mind, if you are considering graduate school, you need to factor in all your student debt, and any other debt you may have as well. If you got into Yale Law and you are planning on taking out $250,000 in loans over the course of three years, that might be okay if you know that starting salaries for Yale Law grads are around $250,000 (I wouldn’t be surprised if these numbers were basically accurate, but I haven’t so much as googled this, so I don’t know).

People get into trouble when they owe hundreds of thousands of dollars and their professional prospects suggest they’ll be making in the mid five figures. That’s not a recipe for success.

One final final final self-disclosure note

Dear reader, I confess, that I, your faithful and humble interlocutor, have, in fact, attended graduate school. I enrolled at University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. I have no regrets, however. The program was very affordable and I got a scholarship. I didn’t actually finish the program (some other stuff got in the way) but I enjoyed my semester of graduate school and I hope to return and finish some day. In my case, the math worked out. But I stand by my thesis: you, yes YOU, should probably not attend graduate school. You should do some informational interviews instead!