To grad school, or not to grad school

Here, 4 "experts" analyze the merits of getting a Master's degree. Some of you know I have a Master's degree in biomechanical engineering. When I graduated from the University of Missouri with a B.S. in biological engineering, I was neither emotionally mature enough nor academically qualified enough to get a job that I would enjoy. I considered the military, and I considered graduate school. However, after I got my M.S., I relatively easily found a job, then when I was laid off a month ago, I had multiple interviews with multiple companies within 2 weeks, and was working 3 weeks after I got laid off. The job I accepted required a M.S. in engineering. So to me, my M.S. absolutely has paid for itself, in that I am working right now and writing this over my lunch break, rather than writing it between browsing job seeker websites.

The third columnist in the article says this:

In some fields, such as business or engineering, a graduate degree typically boosted income by more than enough to justify the cost. In others — the liberal arts and social sciences, in particular — master’s degrees didn’t appear to produce much if any earnings advantage. The Census Bureau has updated the data I used a few times since then, and the results are similar: certain graduate degrees just don’t seem to pay off.

So wait, getting your M.A. in Landscape Appreciation won't pay for itself like a M.S. in electrical engineering will? We need experts to tell us this?
To me, this all goes back to a quote I heard once, and I'll do my best to repeat it here:
"The teacher asked us in Kindergarten what did we want to be when we grew up, and we'd all answer "astronaut," or "doctor," or "teacher," or "NFL quarterback" but no one would answer "garbage man" or "day laborer". The fact was, if we all grew up and did what we had dreamed in Kindergarten, then society would have quickly collapsed in a steaming heap of unsorted garbage."

What I think is happening to society, especially the upper and middle class White kids in America is that they are getting the impression that they should do the job they want to do, but if the standard salary for that position is only $30,000/year, somehow they shouldn't be okay with that. And somehow graduate school will magically fix it.


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