With Gen Z on track to become the most educated generation in history, those looking to stand out among the sea of college graduates may tempted to eye up a master’s degree—but be warned, it’s not the golden ticket to big paychecks and guaranteed success one might imagine.
Quite the opposite: According to new research, nearly half of master’s degree programs actually leave students financially worse off.
While 23% of bachelor degree programmes yield a negative financial return on investment this nearly doubles to 43% for masters degrees, according to the study by the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity.
“Even the MBA, one of America’s most popular master’s degrees, frequently has a low or negative payoff,” the report warned.
FREOPP used the Department of Education’s College Scorecard and Census Bureau earnings data to estimate ROI for over 53,000 degrees and certificate programs—and found that all sectors of higher education contain negative ROI programs.
However, master’s degrees are the worst performers due to their high fees, time spent out of the workforce, and often modest earnings.
The median ROI — defined as the lifetime earnings a student can expect when they enroll in a degree program minus their cost of attendance and earnings lost while enrolled — for all master’s degrees is around $50,000.
For those with an MBA, this rises to $101,000. But in comparison, bachelor’s degree programs have a median ROI of $160,000—and that’s including those who take drama and art.
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