Should I quit my $50k a year full time job to go back to grad school full time? (license, job opening)
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I would only do it if its a highly specialized degree. Even then I would work part time. Also dont listen to this job market bs....if you want a job you do everything possible to get it....jobs are there you just have to make yourself standout.
Yeah, you don't mention what you want to do with this degree specifically, but if it's teaching, maybe STEM would work out for you. If it's a popular/soft area, like English, ceramics, philosophy etc., and you want to teach, you need to do some research, because the popular areas graduate hundreds of qualified people each year - with doctorates - who sometimes are competing for 2-3 dozen university level professorships over the whole of the United States. There have been articles on adjuncts who had to live on food stamps. Do some research on the jobs you would like to have post-this master's first, and determine what kind of value they actually put on the master's degree. I'm library science in a 100% online program, everybody in the know says nobody cares how fancy your school is and getting the MLS is like getting a driver's license, just a thing you have to do to get to the next level, which is the kind of thing that makes a difference too. Some programs require only small weekend-2 weeks of residencies over the course of the program, etc. When I determined where I wanted to go to school I did an Excel spreadsheet with all the pros and cons for each school, I went in-person to all the MLS orientations for physical NYC programs that were practical for me to travel to, etc. Probably 2 years minimum research before I made a decision.
"I'm going to quit my job so I can get a graduate degree and, hopefully, get a job." Um, no. Bad idea. A lot of people get their graduate degree by taking part time classes while working full time. Everyone in my department who has a graduate degree took PT classes while working FT.
Currently, I'm employed full-time making $50k a year.
I'm 30 years old and have been wanting to get my masters, but to be quite honest, my current job demands a lot of my time. I do quite a bit of travel in the Fall and Spring, I'm also a cross-country coach.... so after work (I work at a high school) I go coach the cross country team. And as you may or may not know, every saturday there are cross-country meets, so I cannot enroll in a weekend program because I'm usually busy every weekend. . .
Do u think I should just quit everything and knock out grad school in a year? I want to do a masters degree that is a total of 36 credits. My thinking is I could take 12 credits over three semesters.
I kinda hate my job, but maaaaan am I terrified im giving up my pay check, but I want to badly to get the degree and then find a higher paying job...
Has anyone else quite their day job to go to grad school full-time? What do u all think?
Don't do it, *unless* you can get into a top-tier school (e.g. Princeton or Harvard), and it's in an area that is demonstrably employable (Harvard MBA)-or you reaaaaallly want to be an academic. And even then you're taking a chance.
There's plenty of sufficiently high-quality programs, run by quality brick-and-mortar institutions as online options. Do one of those.
If it's about money sell financial products during nights and weekends. Keep that guaranteed money and have a business on the side. These are strange times and giving up a job can mean taking months or years to get another one.
If you had a business plan that you truly believe would make you 7 figures or more in a fairly short amount of time, I'd say quit your job and live in your car if you have to. A surprisingly large number of people get rich doing this sort of thing.
This is not the same scenario.
I'm 29 with a $50k/year job. I decided against going to law school even though I already have six figures saved and wouldn't have to worry about student loans.
If you go three years without an income and come out of it with six figures in student loans at 8% interest, you'd better have a job that's high-paying and enjoyable enough to make up for the opportunity cost of making and investing that money. Also, successful doctors and lawyers rarely work under 10 hours a day and tend to have very stressful lives. Many of them will leave their careers even for low-paying jobs like flight attendants.
Getting a job out of grad school doesn't guarantee you a great income, especially at the entry level. Go through various career forums and you'll find loads of depressed doctors and lawyers complaining about their $250,000 student loans with 8% interest.
I decided against going to law school because six figures invested now means an early retirement or financial independence, especially since I plan on moving overseas. I don't even spend $25k/year including vacations. The only benefit I'd get from making a higher income is that I'd have more money in case of an emergency, and I'd be financially independent at an earlier age.
If it costs you less than a year's salary to complete the degree and you can realistically make 2-3x more income straight away based on your new qualifications then it would be worth it. If that is not the case it is not worth the risk.
Everyone will tell you "no", but the reality is that if you are only making $50K at age 30 you are already screwed in the long run anyway, so you might as well do what makes you happy.
if you dislike your job, now might be a good time to go explore other careers, IF you have some savings and the MA degree are in a sought after field.
my husband decided he really wanted to get a masters in a different field but thankfully he did it PT while working FT (took 5 years!) well, $64,000 worth of student loans later, he decided to stay in the field he had been. so that degree is completely useless. yes, i'm a little bitter
Who says you have to go to grad school right now? Can't it wait till the job market improves a bit? Maybe you should look at some of the other whiner threads on W&E, and see how many other people would give their left foot for your job, hmmmm?? How many years at this supposed "new job" will it take to earn back the $50K you'll lose by not working for that "year" (probably longer), PLUS the cost of this degree?
Don't do this. Consider yourself lucky for what you have.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BeantownGirl19
DON'T DO IT!!!!! I left a job to go to grad school full time and I've been out of work ever since. Once you leave the work force it is VERY hard to get back in, especially when you have a two year gap in employment. In this economy a graduate degree isn't a guarantee for a higher paying job. If you can't at least work part time, it's not worth it. If I had known then what I know now, I wouldn't have wasted my time and money.
I agree with the above responses. Also, what is your field of work? does it require a masters? Also, you might scare away employers who might believe you will ask for a lot of $$$ with your masters degree.
Do you have any current debt?
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