1) "Master's or Ph.D.: Which Is Right For You?" on GradSchools.com Information Center
About the website:"a collection of helpful articles giving advice on everything from applying to school to writing your first research paper to juggling school and a full-time job. You will also find blogs from current students and journals from those who have been where you are now."Notable excerpts:
Master's degrees tend to be more career-oriented while Ph.D.'s tend to be more research oriented since they are preparing people for research-oriented careers.A master's degree has some definite benefits in that it requires less time and money than a doctoral degree, but will still set you apart from the crowd who only have a bachelor's. The master's degree can allow specialization within a field. The degree works especially well for those who have been working in a particular career for some time and hope to advance or gain new knowledge that will qualify them for a different position within their field.
A master's degree can also be an excellent method of changing careers. For those who have been in the workforce and found that their career or undergraduate education are not leading them in the direction they would like to go, a master's degree can allow them to start in a different direction by gaining new knowledge and skills.
2) "What is a Masters Degree?" on About.com: Graduate School
About the website: "Exclusive to About.com, over 600 expert "Guides" steer About.com's content - sharing their passions, expertise and how-to information with visitors every day. The result is a vast information "bank" that couples the breadth and reach of large content providers such as AOL and MSN with the depth of consumer-focused sites like CNET and WebMD."Notable excerpt:
Why seek a master’s degree?
Many seek master’s degrees to advance in their fields and to earn raises. Others seek master’s degrees to change career fields. For example, let’s say that you’ve earned a bachelor’s degree in English, but have decided that you want to become a counselor: complete a master’s degree in counseling. A master’s degree will allow you to develop expertise in a new area and enter a new career.
3) "Considering Graduate School? Answer These Five Questions Before You Decide" on Quintessential Careers
About the website: "Our mission is to provide the content and motivation to empower people to achieve their educational goals, find their true career passion, and obtain their ideal job."Notable excerpts:
Compensation: Most studies show that people with advanced degrees earn more on average than people with bachelor's degrees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 1998 the average worker with a bachelor's degree earned $40,478, while a worker with a master's degree earned $51,183, and a worker with a doctorate earned $77,445.
Staying Marketable: While a graduate degree is not required for many "entry-level" jobs, you may need to earn an advanced degree to keep your training and skills current -- and make you more marketable for career advancement.
Career Change: A graduate degree can often make sense for a job-seeker who is looking to make a career change, In this case, you would be earning the graduate degree in the field you plan to enter. Read more about career change strategies in our article, The 10-Step Plan to Career Change.
4) "The Grad School Handbook: First Things" on GradSchools.com Information Center
About the website:"a collection of helpful articles giving advice on everything from applying to school to writing your first research paper to juggling school and a full-time job. You will also find blogs from current students and journals from those who have been where you are now."Notable excerpts:
A master's degree is required for many positions in education, social work, and public health. It will definitely help you to get a job in mathematics, computer science, engineering, architecture, or business. It will help you to get a promotion or a higher salary if you are a teacher. Most people who get master's degrees are in education, business, or engineering; they want a good position, to be upgraded in their present jobs, or to change professions. On the other hand, an M.A. in philosophy or English will make you more employable, but will not train you for work in any specific field. However, all other things being equal, an employer who wants to fill a position that requires writing skills will prefer an applicant with a master's degree to one with a bachelor's.
One benefit of a master's degree is that it can enable you to change directions completely. You can make a new start and begin a different career. If you find that you are no longer interested in the psychology you majored in during college, you can apply to a completely new field, such as architecture, and with an M.Arch. start work as an architect. Or, if your English major is not leading you to the kinds of jobs you want, you can change goals and work on a master's in public health.
5) "Master’s Degrees Abound as Universities and Students See a Windfall" on The New York Times online: Education section
About the website: "The New York Times is a daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed internationally... Nicknamed the "Gray Lady" for its staid appearance and style, it is often regarded as a national newspaper of record, meaning that it is frequently relied upon as the official and authoritative reference for modern events"Notable excerpts:
Master’s programs are the most obvious targets of opportunity,” said George L. Mehaffy, a vice president of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. “The degrees are in high demand, and this is an optimal time to enter or expand the market.”
In his two-year master’s program in science technology and environmental policy from the University of Minnesota Craig Nelson had $35,000 in loans. Now, he works in regulatory affairs at the 3M Company.“Without the degree, I wouldn’t have the job,” he said. “So even though I’ll be paying the loan for 10 years, it was a good move for me.”
And many students believe that these multiple degrees are highly valuable in today’s competitive job market.Rey A. Phillips Santos has three graduate degrees gracing his résumé: two master’s and one in law. After completing the master’s of arts program in the social sciences from the University of Chicago, he decided to go on to the Chicago-Kent College of Law, in a joint-degree program in environmental management with the Stuart Graduate School of Business.
“There is a huge demand for credentials in high-level jobs now,” said Mr. Phillips, who is a lawyer for the Chicago city government. “Each of my degrees helped me to get a leg up in the job market, and earn higher salaries than I would have otherwise. They were great investments.”
6) "Do master's degrees really pay off?" on Colleges.com
About the website: Information on Certificate Programs, Scholarships, Careers, Student Travel, Student Offers, Online Colleges, Career Colleges, Undergraduate Schools, Graduate Schools, MBA, Med Schools, and Law Schools.Notable excerpts:
In fact, you may have heard those nasty rumors floating around campus that a B.A. is a dead degree in the real world because of the demand for higher education -- not to mention higher pay. Put simply, "The higher the degree the greater the earnings," says Peter Syverson, vice president of research with the Council of Graduate Schools.
Although money talks, it may not be what pushes some students to get a master's degree. Weaver makes a point that for certain careers, especially in natural sciences and law, an entry level degree for college graduate is one step beyond a B.A. Career Services director at Penn State University, Jack Rayman agrees, and says that in some cases, "You just don't get a job unless you have a PhD."
Penn State junior Mark Goodwin hopes to get a job as a physical education/health teacher at a high school. Once he is working, Goodwin says his employer will pay for his master's degree. "Once I get a job, I want to do whatever I can do to better my situation." He says with a master's degree not only is the pay better, but so are his chances of teaching at the college level.
"From a teacher's perspective a master's degree would do you better. In any overall major it would help you do better financially," he says.
7) "How having a Masters degree may not guarentee (sic) success" on The Independent online
About the website: "The Independent is a British compact newspaper published by Tony O'Reilly's Independent News & Media. It is nicknamed the Indie, with the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, being the Sindie. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily newspapers, with a circulation of 240,116... The daily edition was named National Newspaper of the Year at the 2004 British Press Awards."Notable excerpts:
"A Masters degree is not a passport to a highly paid career," says Charlie Ball, the labour market analyst who wrote the report. Ball says that many employers will be more interested in a year's work experience than a postgrad qualification.
Some postgraduates who were advised to take the courses for their career can feel a little cheated. Megan Cuttriss, 28, did a full-time Masters in biological sciences at Bradford University in 2001-2. "I'd been 18 months without sciences and I felt I needed to get my foot in again to be taken seriously by employers," says Cuttriss. "By the end of it I realised it was less useful than I'd thought."Cuttriss found herself working alongside first-degree graduates at LGC, a UK chemical analysis laboratory. In career terms Cuttriss thinks her Masters was hopeless, but it did remind her how much she enjoyed academic research. After a few years at LGC she quit to take a PhD in molecular microbiology at the University of Surrey.
So how can you make sure your Masters pays its way? It is up to students to use that extra year to set themselves apart from the pack, says Carl Gilliard, chief executive of the AGR. One approach is simply to excel. Gilliard says that City banks look for brain power, so getting a first and a distinction in a subject you love may be the best approach. Or you can go for a professionally targeted Masters programme which builds employability into the course, getting students to make presentations and practice soft skills, like communicating ideas.Once you have finished studying and find yourself in the interview room the important thing is to know why you did the course that you did. There are few things more off-putting, says Gilliard, than a postgraduate who shrugs their shoulders and says "I didn't know what to do next...".
If you get it right, the rewards can be considerable. Marianne Moore graduated in January from a part-time MA at Middlesex University in youth justice, community safety and applied criminology. She had been interested in youth justice since undergraduate days and says that her Masters brought her passion and her work together.
She now works for Tribal Consulting on youth offending issues. "Doing the essays disciplined me into concentrating on difficult subjects and allowed me to work out what I thought about them in a structured way," says Moore.
