Is Grad School Worth It?

I remember when I got my first undergraduate rejection and my first waitlist and eventually my first acceptance. After dedicating myself to being, essentially, the perfect student for years I did not understand how I was not even considered at some schools. I would later come to find out that highlighting my desire for knowledge and my willingness to learn anything and everything was actually a determinant. We live in a society where education is a privilege and education is a business if you do not have a niche interest or a school does not see dollar signs when they read your essay or application-- you are a risk. A financial gamble that they often are not willing to take.

Despite knowing this, I continue to have an... unhealthy? obsession with the idea of education and attending Unis. Immediately out of a 4 year undergrad program I had applied to and been accepted into multiple grad programs. The issue became the cost. Some of them ranged from $15,000- $20,000 even with grad assistantships because there were “out-of-state” fees. Others straight up offered nothing besides $70,000+ in debt. That is how I decided on the University of Malta and George Mason, because a program overseas ended up being significantly cheaper ( around $15,000 max) than any other program. Plus I had been working 60 or more hours a week to save money so I could move on from undergrad.

Master’s degrees particularly in the humanities, liberl arts, and social science are advertised as a stepping stone into an eventual PhD or some other extension of an advanced degree like a JD. I am not saying this to showboat but I have often excelled at what I do. I was taught all my opportunities are privileges and others are not always afforded the same opportunities. I treat them as such and dedicate myself to them even if the return is not what is expected. After being told my thesis was “barely” passable (I wrote on environmental racism and had absolutely zero help from my advisor so not surprised), I finally graduated ready to jump into the deep end with an MA and MS. The pool I found out was more of a kiddie pool with no room to jump.

Liberal arts are mashed together so you are not only competing with people from your field, you are competing with basically everyone, excluding STEM people and very niche degrees. This with Covid did not make for a great job search. I have been working at Target since the end of 2019 because they are the only place out of about 60 job applications that hired me. This is excluding an Americorps position I was in love with but decided I could not agree to live in poverty for a year for their “social experiment” (or whatever one might call it). I believe hourly jobs like mine or others are fantastic options for people if they were to have better benefits (higher pay, actual vacation, etc). Also do not misread me here; having a degree does not mean hourly jobs are “below me”. My current job actually pays the same or significantly higher than almost all entry level jobs in my field.

I am on the job hunt again and even recently had an interview for an education department where the straight up said “we are understaffed and underpaid; we really want more FTEs.” The issue with getting degrees, job searching, rising unemployment, etc all center around the fact that so many people are mistreated and underpaid. Entry level jobs continue to pay less but require Master’s or even PhD with experience (which please explain to me the entry part then). Can any of us really answer the question is grad school worth it?

I would not change my experience for anything, but I am currently paying off $30,000 of student debt and the highest paying job I can find is $15 an hour. A degree does not make you smarter. Does not make you better. Does not even mean you deserve more money. However with so many 20-something-year-olds asking what’s next? The natural progression that has been brainwashed into us is grad school where we are supposed to accept financial abuse in exchange for the very small potential it might get us a pay increase or a job or some semblance of meaning in our current state-of-affairs. Is grad school worth it? I am not sure…

Am I already looking at PhD programs? How could I not.