While graduate school is often touted as a way to specialize in a given field and increase earning power, opponents argue it can put students into debt without helping them get better jobs. Here are some pros and cons of going to grad school:
PROS
- Gives the job market a few years to bounce back
- Opportunity for more specialized student loan debt
- Provides more impressive credentials to parents’ friends
- Can experience college life anew as mature, wizened 26-year-old
- Increases chance of finding perfectly matched partner while staring across piles of paper at law school study session
- Will make you stand out among other unpaid interns
- Undergraduate degree suddenly good for something
CONS
- May be unable to communicate with people who haven’t gone to grad school
- No money left to frame second degree
- Only small percentage of PhDs actually go on to be featured in History Channel specials
- Could be a lot of work
- Will have to say thesis topic out loud
- Impossible to truly relive glory days of co-ed madrigal singers
- Could lead to career in academia