Not much more helpful honestly… I got a MS in IT (don’t recall the exact wording) and a MBA from UT-Dallas in 2003 and 2004. My undergrad is also computer science.
I’m currently a business analyst / part-time project manager, so I stayed in my field more or less (didn’t really want to go out of IT anyway). They keep pestering me to become a DBA since I’m good at that kind of thing, but I want to get away from the technical nitty-gritty, not deeper into it.
Pay-wise, I’m not particularly satisfied- all the MBA propaganda has a lot of noise about six figure incomes, etc… and that just isn’t the case for me so far.
About the best thing the MS/MBA combo did is put a hard break in my career progression as a programmer and set me up to start over in the BA/PM world without having to start at the very bottom- I came in credited with about as much experience as I had as a programmer.
LL.B. (common law), LL.B. (civil law), LL.M. I practise law and use aspects of all three degrees regularly. The degrees by themselves aren’t meant to teach you to practise. In Canada, we have a year of articling which is meant to do that, under the supervision of a more senior lawyer. Also, my degrees have been instrumental in me getting various positions I’ve wanted
I have an ME in Human Factors Engineering (Industrial Concentration). I loved my coursework, got a job right out of school… lasted eight months before I got downsized into the start of the great recession. Was unemployed for two years, then spent three years as a supervisor in a call center, a job I just lost a few months ago.
I don’t regret getting my advanced degree. Honestly, the time I was working on that was probably the happiest time in my life… I had finally found a set of subjects that I was legit good at, and got along with most of the professors in the department. My Fellowship was a mess (I was the very junior member of a 30 person research team, that my mentor was also relatively new to, spread out over three universities, so I was given pretty poor direction). But… I don’t know how much it’s helped my career. In my degree’s defense, I had bad luck in timing,
PhD in physical chemistry from UT-Austin. I loved it. The cost was nothing, other than the years of my life that I was earning a stipend instead of a salary.
I am just starting out my career now, but I’m happy with my choices.
A hoop I had to jump through for a career change. I don’t regret it - I love what I do - but the most useful thing I got from the time in grad school was the seed that grew into my professional network.
PhD in Computer Science. Loved it, loved working on my dissertation, loved publishing. Went right into industrial research for Western Electric and then Bell Labs. Have never regretted getting a PhD even for a minute.
PhD in Biochemistry (1985). After 4 years and four company takeovers in industry I came back to university. I love my work at the intersection between classical biochemistry and cell biology, bioinformatics, crystallography, in vitro evolution, protein engineering and design.
M.A. in English (Writing). Not a bad experience – about a third of it was writing workshops; I’d already sold a novel at that point. It was interesting seeing the people involved, including:
[ul]
[li]A woman who workshopped a story after it had been published[/li][li]One guy who kept calling all his work “a part of my autobiography” which was just random musings. I doubted he’d be anything but self-published, but due to his personality, he’s probably teaching in a writing program somewhere.[/li][li]Someone who wrote a novel with the hero having sex with a corpse – and expected us to identify with him. When people objected, he mumbled something about not being able to handle the gritty details of everyday reality.[/li][li]Another writer who had no clue that his main character was an asshole. The character was also constantly talking about sex, and the story had the immortal line: “I dropped my pants and said, ‘here’s your housewarming present.’” Turned out it was a couple of joints that he had stuffed in his pants (but not underware). He couldn’t understand how we thought it was anyone else.[/li][li]Someone who wrote the first chapter in the first person – plural. The second chapter was in the second person. The third chapter was in the third person. He never handed in the fourth chapter, which was too bad, since I’d love to see how he managed the fourth person.[/li][/ul]
Ultimately, the degree helped my writing a little (and turned one of the professors into a science fiction author), but having it got me my current job – they wanted someone with a Masters.
PhD in math in 1962. Enjoyed every minute of it. My entire working life was as professor of mathematics and I published about 100 papers and 3 books. Loved it all.
That said, I would not recommend it now. I was born in 1937 at the bottom of the depression and came of age during the baby boom when there was low supply and high demand for mathematicians. Nowadays it is the opposite. Don’t let anyone sell you a bill of goods about the shortage of people in STEM fields. There is an enormous oversupply and underdemand. Change that and they will flock to it as they did in the '60s.
Ditto - 36 credits of busy work. I’m glad I decided to enroll full time and get it over with, otherwise I might not have finished. Pointless, expensive and mind numbingly boring.
MS in Science Education. It let me be a teacher with a slightly higher pay schedule than those with Bachelor’s only, and I really do feel it helped prepare me to be a pretty great teacher. Too bad I couldn’t stand the way teachers were treated and quit after 2 years. I’ll be paying off that masters degree for a very long time, and it won’t really do me any good.
Add me to Motorgirl, LibrarySpy, and Zsofia’s couch.
Master of Library and Information Sciences.
In my more charitable moments, I sometimes think that it might be educational to people who have lived under rocks for their entire lives.
Otherwise, it was a very expensive, impressively boring, and amazingly time-consuming requirement for me to keep my job, and if I had not been married to a very kind husband who didn’t mind footing the bill, I would not have gone into debt for it - I’d never make enough back to pay it off.
When I grow old, if I can afford it, I want to get a Writing MA like RealityChuck, just for the hell of it.
MA in Speech-Language Pathology. After a year of experience I’ll get my CCCs (certified clinical competence) so all my signatures will be a nice long
Nikoniko Suru, MA CCC-SLP
I paid for those extra letters bit by bit. I’ll be in debt until my 50s but it’ll be manageable. Masters was required in order to practice. Still debating if it’d be worth to get my doctorate someday down the road. The demand is great in my field, got hired about a month after graduation working my dream setting so no complaints there. I’m looking forward to wearing a labcoat and stethoscope! Helping people is a big plus, too.
Master of Theological Studies
Religion, Ethics, and Politics Focus
Harvard Divinity School gave me a full ride, so no debt.
Well, well worth it, personally at least. Because of it I got to have many other amazing experiences. I have a lot of issues with how religious studies is carried out in the US (I can imagine a couple of the posters here could sympathize), but if I hadn’t gone I wouldn’t have even had those ideas.
Professionally, I’m not sure what I’m going to do next. I was preparing to go into government/NGO work but we’ll see. I might apply for a PhD next year.
So, I admit I used the kind of deceptive name for my degree above - it really is a MS in Information Science, but it’s library school. So I’m on this sofa too.
I’ll be in debt until my 50s but it’ll be manageable. Masters was required in order to practice. Still debating if it’d be worth to get my doctorate someday down the road. The demand is great in my field, got hired about a month after graduation working my dream setting so no complaints there. I’m looking forward to wearing a labcoat and stethoscope! Helping people is a big plus, too.