In a recent Ask Ed column, Ed advised undergrads to forego grad school in favor of real-life experience. Clearly not everyone agreed with Ed’s advice, as he saw on the message boards. Since Edsters were still certainly not convinced—and because Ed is rather curious by nature—he devised a way to get to the bottom of the much-debated question: In an already competitive industry challenged by a faltering economy, does Grad school deliver the necessary bang for its hard-to-come-by buck? Behold, the nitty-gritty from a survey comparing more than 300 Undergrad and Grad graduates combined.
Of exactly 314 surveyed, 41 (almost 13%), reportedly attended and graduated from Grad school. An overwhelming majority responded to all twenty questions regarding their professional schooling and careers. Answers to a select few questions, however, caught Ed’s attention more than others.
One of those was the question which compared participants with Bachelor’s degrees to those with Master’s and above based on starting salary. Of the Grad school grads who answered, the majority (28.6%) claimed to earn a starting salary between $30K and $35K. Whereas 11.4% raked in below $20K, only 8.6% made between $40K and $45K and none reportedly made above that.
As for those having attended only a four-year university, the majority (34.2%) claimed to earn a starting salary between $25K and $30K. Whereas 16.7% raked in below $20K, 24.8% reported making between $30K and $35K. Ironically, .9% reportedly made above $45K, and another .9% above $50K.
The other questions Ed was super interested in was the one asking how long it took to find your first paying editorial job after graduation? In this case, the majority of the Grad school grads who answered claimed it took them less than 2 months. Whereas Undergrads who answered fell just below that number at 23.1%. In both instances, there were a lot of respondents who claimed they were still looking, 22.5% for Grad school grads and 27.6% for Undergrad school grads.
After all is said and done, Grad school grads make a higher starting salary on average, but not by much, and they have a tendency to find jobs quicker, but not that much quicker. According to survey results, Grad students also make a slightly easier transition to a full-time job with benefits, though still 16.2% of those surveyed fall into the “Freelance with no benefits” category, even more than those Undergrad school students.
Perhaps, one could argue that Grad school grads have the biggest advantage when it comes to the titles they can compete for. The percentage of Grad school students who started on the associate editor level nearly doubled—and the percentage of those who started as copyeditors almost tripled—that of the Undergrad school grads. Then again, someone could easily counter-argue that during the time someone spends in Grad school, a Bachelor’s Grad starting as an EA or junior copyeditor could easily work him or herself up to the same level.
Ed’s final thoughts? If you have the money and time, going to Grad school will pay off slightly. However, if you invest your time into making contacts and applying yourself, it will pay off indefinitely—and for much less. Plus, just think, with your slightly lower salary will also come much lower loan payments.
