My Master's vs DH's job

[Anonymous]

I disagree that going to school to earn a Master's Degree is a bad investment.
No so at all.

There is no wiser investment one can make in obtaining add'l education & life knowledge.

An undergrad degree is great, but completing Grad School will set you up for a much better way of life regardless.

Plus if you give up this (or any!) dream due to your husband's reservations, resentment will always be a sore spot in your marriage.

I stand behind you 100% on this!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It's not relevant to my question so I'm not going to. But it's a hard science/STEM.

Are you sure this degree is really going to be that helpful to you in that case? My husband is an engineer, my brother is a physicist, and my sister is a chemist. None of them thought a masters would really help jump start a career in their fields.

x

NP - in my part of the STEM world, having a graduate degree is pretty much required to be in the game, so OP's goals ring true to me. At my organization, we wouldn't even look at a resume for most positions if the applicant didn't at least have a masters. I've seen people get in the door with just a bachelors, but it's VERY rare, and most of those people eventually hit a career wall and then go back to school for an advanced degree. Even many of the small non-profit folks that I've worked with outside of DC seem to have masters.

For a STEM field, I would normally advice students to look at a program that offers some sort of research or teaching assistantship that covers most/all of the tuition, but those research-focused programs take longer to complete than the more compressed policy-oriented programs....for the OP it sounds like time is a bigger issue than money, so she might as well take the faster route.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why am I thinking that this is one of those waste of time masters that DC area SAHMs LOVE to get -- public health; public policy; non profit administration etc. And at the end while you come out with "connections," you're still only looking at a 50k job. Strictly from an ROI perspective, it isn't worth paying 50k/yr for 2 yrs for a masters that will result in a 50k job.

+1

Or worse. There's a reason she refuses to say what it is.

Lol -- non profit administration is the degree du jour for SAHMs these days. Every 3rd SAHM I know who needs to get back into the work force is pursuing it. I think it's bc they've been out for so long that the only things they can relate to anymore is volunteer work -- i.e. PTA; bake sales and the like -- so why not try to find a career with an organization that's entire mission is volunteer related, not profit related.

This is so mean spirited, I don't even know what to say. I mean, it is mind blowingly mean, reductive, thoughtless.

I agree and that poster must have other issues to post that.

[Anonymous]

Op your dh is right to be skeptical. Getting a masters to make so little money is a bad deal. Don't get sucked into these programs which are a ripoff and most people regret doing (I am one.) instead, keep trying to get into the workforce with the education you have, and focus on finding a place with a family friendlier work environment (like some federal agencies). This is more important than exactly what you are doing. Trust me jobs that seem like they will be really cool are not. You are chasing an idea not a reality. You will likely be disappointed.

[Anonymous]

Which hard science/STEM field only makes 50-70k with a Master's?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Which hard science/STEM field only makes 50-70k with a Master's?

Most of them! Except maybe engineering. Many biology type fields need a PhD to be competitive and that doesn't even guarantee a high salary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which hard science/STEM field only makes 50-70k with a Master's?

Most of them! Except maybe engineering. Many biology type fields need a PhD to be competitive and that doesn't even guarantee a high salary.

00:40 here - I agree. At the federal agencies, I would expect someone starting out with just a masters (and not much work experience) in the Bio or environmental sciences to come in as a GS-9, so ~$54k here in DC. Most people seem to quickly move up to GS 11/12 at least, so would likely be making at least 80-$100k by mid-career. However, it sounds like OP will likely be the trailing job moving fairly frequently for her husband's job, so it will probably be difficult for her to strategize to move up the ranks.

[Anonymous]

OP, is this a new career field, or the one you were in prior to having kids?

If you have worked in this field before, and now need a master's degree to move up, then go get the masters.

If it's a new field, I would encourage you to get an entry-level job (or even an internship) in the field, to make sure you enjoyed the work, before you invest your time and money into the degree.

I would give this advice to anyone: male, female, married, single, with or without kids.

I would tell your husband you are going to work for one year while he figures his situation out, and then you are going to school in September 2017. If by next spring, he has not found a new job, he needs to stick it out in this job/area for the two-three years that you need to finish your program.

[Anonymous]

A master's for a <70K job is stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't figure out what to do.

I'm set to start a master's degree program next week. I'm currently a SAHM (we have one child), but I would like to start up the career I had before marriage/kid. Being out of the field a few years has made it tough to find a job again, but the master's will help a lot. Plus, I'm pretty friggin' excited about it.

Now DH is saying he thinks I shouldn't do it. His reasons are:
-it's a lot of money ($500/credit)
-we'd have to find childcare (I have family in the area who can help, plus tons of our neighbors babysit)
-he hates the area and his job that he's been at 6 months, and plans to start applying for new jobs out of state once he's been at this job for a year. So doing a 2-3 year masters program interferes with that.
-he hadn't said this but I suspect he thinks the career I want isn't "prestigious" enough/pays enough. True, it doesn't pay as much as his job, but it's in the 50-70k range.

Other schools offer the same program, but the one here is one of the best. It also has a TON of contacts in the career I want, so it will help me out a lot in the long run.

We also don't know how long it will actually take DH to find another job, it could be a couple years.

I understand that DH is unhappy here!but I also think this program will benefit us both in the long run. I love this area and don't want to leave but will for him. I just wish he could suck it up a couple more years since after this, we'll be living wherever he wants to.

Thoughts?

How old is your child? Will the care schedule be stable or patchwork? How many hours a week?

Btw, as a nanny I earn that much without a degree, and I love my work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which hard science/STEM field only makes 50-70k with a Master's?

Most of them! Except maybe engineering. Many biology type fields need a PhD to be competitive and that doesn't even guarantee a high salary.

= bad investment then.

In my electrical engineering/computer science world... fresh-out-of-school starts in the 90K range. A few years in and your into the 120K range. Why get a PhD (which = massive investment of time and money) to earn very little? A close friend of mine got a PhD in Chemistry did an adjunct teaching gig at MIT for about two years... was earning around 38K. This was absolutely stupid The only way she was able to afford to live was because her granddad was paying for her rent and stuff. The phD took 5 years! She works as a lab assistant at a university now makes very little. Sometimes it is just NOT worth it.

[Anonymous]

OP, if you are really set on getting a master's, there can be inexpensive ways to do it. When I got my master's, I got a job at the university I attended and got tuition benefits after three months. Made getting a degree very affordable. Would your husband be more on board if you were working too and/or found a cheaper option to get your degree?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you are really set on getting a master's, there can be inexpensive ways to do it. When I got my master's, I got a job at the university I attended and got tuition benefits after three months. Made getting a degree very affordable. Would your husband be more on board if you were working too and/or found a cheaper option to get your degree?

That has been suggested multiple times, but OP is very set on doing her expensive 3 year program so she can say she went to X school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, if you are really set on getting a master's, there can be inexpensive ways to do it. When I got my master's, I got a job at the university I attended and got tuition benefits after three months. Made getting a degree very affordable. Would your husband be more on board if you were working too and/or found a cheaper option to get your degree?

That has been suggested multiple times, but OP is very set on doing her expensive 3 year program so she can say she went to X school.

Or so that she'll have connections from X school and have X school on her resume, which will help in her job search. Would you rather higher someone with a degree from Georgetown or Strayer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Holy sh*t. Another ungrateful, self-righteous DW on DCUM? What? Of couse your DH should continue to work a job he hates while you go back to school. Of course your really hard work over a couple of years justifies you taking two years off and taking on debt to pursue your BS passion. I think DH should do the same and puruse his passion. We should all quit! This whole thread makes me sad & angry!

Maybe you should try reading the thread before spouting off nonsense. There is no debt involved. Her DH has only been at hIs current job for the past few months and has switched jobs repeatedly in the last few years. It's not like he has had some well thought out plan in the works for years.

You're right. DH is not the consistent bread winner that he should be! Time for him to suck it up while DW gets a useless $100K Master's Degree in Psychology. Then she will finally be happy and willing to "sacrifice" in some $25K/yr lab job studying mayflies. Another DCUM living in fantasy land...

Wow you really have a reading comprehension problem. Op will make 50-70k after her degree, not 25k and her degree would be about 20k or so based on the cost per credit she cited. But why let hard numbers get in the way of your rant.