I would be curious as to how you would justify such a claim. Especially since a large number of Asians and Europeans specifically come to this country to attend college and grad school.
I’ve heard the exact opposite, that, unlike our secondary school education, US grad schools are head and shoulders above most foreign grad schools, and that most (not all) foreign graduate school education in science and technical subjects is distinctly shabby compared to the quality of US grad school educations.
What Asian countries are you talking about? I recently asked some of my seniors how many people died in the holocaust. Their reply? Maybe 2000-3000. Plagiarism is widespread and accepted. Even post-graduate students regularly and openly copy their papers. I see greater reasoning and analyzing ability of of US high school Sophomores than I do most of my graduates. As for research and analytical writing, the concept barely exists.
They are good at math, though.
Don’t confuse having memorized a lot of facts with having actually learned something. Most Asian countries have a memorization-drill-test system. That means they are AWESOME at information recall. It all seems very impressive.
In America, we just teach them how to use libraries and the Internet and focus on teaching the more difficult things like how to tear apart and argument or how to write a convincing and well-researched essay.
My Masters degree (MISt, library) got me a job at Tim Hortons. No library will touch me. Who wants a MISt grad who has no experience? You see, like a sucker, I decided to actually do work and learn while in grad school. While most of my peers worked full or part-time library jobs, I actually studied and got straight A’s. In all my group work I ended up doing the majority of the work, most at the last minute, fixing my fellow librarians-in-training lame excuse at research, because they were busy with their jobs. So, today, they have library jobs and I - being lucky - have been hired back by my former employer in a role with a great potential for growth.
Masters degrees can be simply a hoop to jump through. A MLIS degree is a perfect example. Librarian is a passion, it isn’t something that can be taught. Sure librarian skills can be taught and improved upon, but really it is the passion for helping people and finding stuff that defines the profession - not some inane degree a high school dropout can get.
(I’m the high school dropout, if you’re curious.)
In the sciences, I don’t think a masters offers much above a bachelors degree. A few years of work experience will generally give the same options as an M.S. degree.
I’ve also heard a PhD overqualifies you for work. So that is my understanding of the sciences, the masters offer little above the bachelors, and the PhD overqualifies you.
We shy away from Computer Science graduates with a Masters degree because they expect a significantly higher salary for having learnt something very specific that is of zero to minimal use to us as a company in the real commercial world.
In other subjects, a Bachelor’s degree gets you nowhere and you need a higher degree. My degree was in Biochemistry, which allowed you to be a lab technician and not a lot else. You needed a PhD to get anywhere.
It totally depends. The engineering team I am in has four people with PhDs, including myself.
I think the responses in this thread point toward the fact that you can’t really generalize about master’s degrees. In my field (social work) they are almost indispensable and in my husband’s field (clinical psychology) they are almost worthless. My general impression is that the more academic the degree, the less value it has to employers, whereas the professional master’s programs tend to be helpful for getting jobs. That would cover MSWs, MBAs and engineers – I know some master’s-level engineers who make an excellent living. The thing is, you can’t just get the degree and expect to be handed a job. As Spezza illustrates, you have to develop all of the other skills that will make you employable at the same time.
I have never known this to be true. Everywhere I’ve worked where I’ve been part of the recruiting and interviewing process, quality of the school is ALWAYS a factor regardless of whether it’s an MBA, Master’s or Bachelor’s. In fact I’d argue the opposite for a strategy to “maximize the income return” of a Master’s: since often the GPA is not looked at except for newly graduating people, it’s much more valuable to struggle to scrape by and barely get a Master’s or MBA with bad grades at a well-known top institution than to come out with a 4.0 average from “The University of Phoenix” or somesuch.
Of course, everywhere I’ve worked at has required specific degrees for a reason (technical and/or business knowledge), and the interview process includes a grilling to see if the candidate really does understand fundamental concepts therein. Maybe a government agency has job slots that “just wants a checkbox ticked for degree requirements”. I have occasionally interviewed Master’s students with 3.8 GPAs from Ivy League institutions who did pretty badly on that count, but not very often, and much more often I’m very impressed: it’s an assumption that the “flake ratio” will be much lower recruiting from Schools Known To Be Good. Since we can fill our interview slots with applicants from these KTBG schools, it’s very hard for anyone not from one of those schools to even get noticed.
I have a Master’s Degree in Science, and it has not helped my career at all.
I think that Cubsfan point is that, between University of Phoenix and the University of Colorado business school, there’s relatively little differentiation from prospective employers. Certainly, there’s a world of difference between a Wharton grad and a University of Phoenix grad, but after you drop off of the “top 20” or “top 50” list of business schools, the differences in how employers regard the degree are pretty trivial. Are there are a hell of a lot more than 50 business schools in the United States. Hence the statement that where they obtained the degree is sort of irrelevant for the numerical majority of people with MBA’s and how its become very much a “check the box” degree in certain circles.
Yes and no. Outside of the top schools, the ranking becomes less important, but companies do tend to hire locally. So where you get your MBA still matters to some degree, but not in exactly the same way.
In NY, you pretty much have to get a Masters eventually to remain employed as a teacher, so it’s not optional, but you’re right, you do get a pay raise for every credit you earn beyond your bachelors. I have 2 Masters, one of which was more credits than the MAT degree, so my starting salary was a bit higher than other people’s. If I took coursework on my own and submitted it to the district, I’d get another increase, though not enough to cover the price of the credits, at least not in the short run. This is their way of encouraging teachers to continue their educations after they have the job. Unfortunately, college credits are mighty expensive, so most people don’t do it unless they have a specific goal in mind.
I’m currently studying a Master’s degree in Journalism and job prospects within the industry are… not encouraging at the moment.
We had some industry representatives in the other day to give us some insight into what journalists get paid and how they work in the New Media environment, and at the moment the pay for a graduate student (Bachelors or Masters, doesn’t matter) is AUD$30-$38k, which is less than what a full-time Assistant Manager at pretty much any major retail store you can name makes.
Now, I really enjoy what I’m doing as part of my degree, but it does mean I’ve got to do some serious thinking about what I want to do with my Degree, because I sure as hell don’t feel like getting a Master’s degree to take a Cadet Reporter job that involves shit pay, shit hours, and having to cover all the stories that no-one else wants to deal with.
I’m not saying that I expect $100k a year and a company BMW out of the gate, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable for someone with a Masters in any field to expect more remuneration than people without degrees. Especially given how much it costs to go to Uni in the first place.
After getting my masters degree online from a crappy little school my income jumped approx 35%.
My company had a stupid little box that needed checking to allow me to apply for a senior position. Once the requirement was satisfied I moved on up the ladder.
I would agree that it’s not possible to generalize about Master degrees. It depends so much on the field of study.
For example, a Masters in Laws (LL.M.) is not a requirement to practise law, but it can be a way to specialise in a particular field of law, which in turn opens up job opportunities and access to different salaries.
I have an LL.M. from a good US school, and it has certainly helped me get to the career I wanted. I can’t put a number on it, because it’s not as clear-cut as Lanzy’s example, but I would certainly say it was well worth the financial investment.
(And, of course, it was also a lot of fun to do, and helped my professional development, which are also significant reasons to pursue higher education, but those are different issues than the OP asked about.)
I have a Masters in Math. Has it helped?
Well…Yes! The process/classes/involvement of getting the Masters degree was EXTREMELY helpful in and of itself.
After that…it was helpful in that it gave me some ‘street cred’. It allowed me to hunt and to have people take you more seriously.
However, it’s main benefit was the actual work done getting the degree. It truely hardened me, boosted my confidence and demeanor.
I have to agree with this. Just getting an MBA from a top 50 school was helpful for me because I was in classes with other smart, motivated, business-minded people. I had two years of experience constantly working in project teams and giving class presentations which automatically gives me a competetive advantage over people who can barely speak in front of others.
You don’t automatically get more money just for getting your masters or Phd. You are expected to be able to use your advanced knowledge to become more valuable to your company.
Hah. In Korea we have three universities that are the equivalent of the US’s Ivy League schools. I went to one of those for my undergrad, and it was bullshit. The amount of studying it takes to get by is miniscule. I never realized this until I went to the States to do my MA and was surrounded by people who’d done their BA in the US and Canada and England. The difference in our educations was quite embarassing.
Where do you teach?
I’m looking at a MFA in theatre before this is all said and done, and while it may or may not increase my pay in the long run, it would allow me to teach at a university which (besides being what I actually want to do, because I enjoy teaching) would give me a much more stable salary, plus benefits not reliant on a union and much less travel.