[mlmpetert]

I completely agree with mredskins in that a college degree is almost a high school diploma by today’s standards. I read this from Peter Morici of UMD (anyone have him?) a couple days ago and it kind of addresses this:

Why Americans can't pay their student loans | Fox News

The fact is going to college doesn’t mean anything if everyone else goes to college. And if some day everyone has a masters or phd than those degrees become marginalized too.

As to how far you go in education I think its all related to what you want to do and who want to work for. If youre in government the only way to obtain higher pay may be through education. My mom teaches in Fairfax; when she got her masters she got a big bump in her pay, she got another increase when she added on 30 credits. The private sector is usually more flexible but large companies with very structured hiring processes may tie advancement in with education requirements.

For business grad school ive heard a lot of people say masters are a waste of money and time unless theyre from certain schools or combined with a certain degree. Unless youre employer requires it a BS in Business Admin from “state” and a MBA from Strayer probably isn’t gonna do shit for you. However, a BS in Engineering and a MBA, even if its from Strayer, will probably help you become a boss at your engineering firm.

As Peter’s Morici’s article alludes to, employers want skills and many college degrees no longer provide them. However, designations do. I work in finance and the big ones are CFA, CFP and CPA. A masters in finance would probably do less for me in my field than any of those designations. Even for highly skilled college degrees designations may be more highly valued than graduate degrees, my brother studied electrical engineer at VT but became LEED certified because of the value it offers.

I initially wanted to be an accountant, partly because I saw the opportunities available to those with an accounting degree coupled with a CPA. However, during my sophomore year the prerequisite requirements to become a CPA changed in most states from just an undergraduate degree to an undergraduate degree plus 30 credit hours. I knew I couldn’t do another year of college and take on the additional debt so I changed my major to finance partly because VCU offered a CFP “fast track” program.

I think designations offer the biggest bang for your buck by far. Some can be just as challenging or more so then grad school at a fraction of the cost. They should be quantitative in nature and provide you with actual skills or ability. Go with a well know but extremely challenging designation (a CFA will get you a job easy). But a lot of designations are worthless, so unless your employer requires it or youre trying to break into a specific field save your money.

At the end of the day hard work and ability trump everything. If youre motivated and you out work everyone and your company holds you back because youre without a certain degree you have nothing to worry about, youll get your chance somewhere else. But if youre just a middle of the pack dude a masters or designation will help set you apart.