The difference a Masters really makes

Tim Rogers, QS World Grad School Tour Spending $100,000 or more on a Masters degree at an international University can seem like a daunting prospect. The […]

Tim Rogers, QS World Grad School Tour

Spending $100,000 or more on a Masters degree at an international University can seem like a daunting prospect. The decision to invest that amount of money requires months, even years of research and discussion before you submit your application and begin your graduate program. But what difference does a Masters degree really make to the students taking the qualification? What guarantees are there that your personal investment of time and finances will pay off? And are there any ways you cam measure your return on investment?

Of course the answers to all of these questions are not at all straightforward. Each Masters graduate, even if they study the same modules and courses at the same university, is very different. We all have different skills, experiences and personalities and react differently to whatever environment we are in – and it’s very often these qualities that have the most impact on our ability to secure the best jobs and really make the most of the opportunities that we are presented with.

But the difference a Masters degree really makes doesn’t have to rely on just guesswork. There are clear and measurable benefits from studying an advanced degree for all those that go through the experience. Take Maja Nenadovic, a Croatian graduate of the Masters program in International Relations and Diplomacy at the oldest university in The Netherlands: “I became a much more confident person while I was at Leiden University. During my studies, I was involved with the founding of the De Leidsche Beck – the University’s debating society.”

Maja’s experience of life outside of the classroom is a common factor for many students who have taken the plunge and study away from their home country for a Masters degree. Personal development, learning new life skills and adapting to another culture are important elements of the international study experience, especially at the Masters level, where students tend to be more mature than their undergraduate counterparts. Nenadovic continues: “We got to represent Leiden at various competitions, even reaching the finals of the English as a Second Language competition of the European Universities Debating Championship 2004 in Durham, UK, and winning the Koc University 2nd International Debating Tournament in Istanbul, Turkey! In this way, my studies at Leiden also enriched my life by widening my circle of both Dutch and international friends.”

For Trisna Wardhani, an alumna of the Masters in Management and Business Finance at York University in the UK, the experience had more demonstrable results: “After my Masters at York I attended a UK alumni job fair in 2007 and the CEO and Director of Shell Indonesia spoke at the event. I found his speech about their commitment towards people development was really impressive. I sent my CV the following week and a phone interview was arranged and I was lucky enough to be selected. My skills and the selection of people and companies at the event helped facilitate an open door to my future.”

Depending on the specific academic subject area, graduating from a Masters program can also add immense academic, intellectual and work-related skills to those already building a career. It is common for lawyers, as an example, to seek additional specialisation through one of the growing number of LLM programs dedicated to relatively narrow professional areas, such as intellectual property law, environment risk assessment and telecommunications regulation.

David Socolow had been Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, but in 2004 he decided to enrol at the Rutgers University School of Public Affairs and Administration: “I had on-the-job management experience – with a sense of what works and what doesn’t – but I realized that more specific education and training would serve me well. Rutgers gave me the opportunity to grow, to do my job better and the professors in the program brought a wonderful mix of academic rigor and practical real-world experience to the classroom. They taught not only theory but also what it really takes to get things done.”

The development of transferable or complementary skills is also an important benefit of studying at the Masters level. Cathy Liu, a graduate of the Masters program in Business and Information Technology at Melbourne University, Australia believes that her degree has an important impact on her daily work routine: “I did my first degree overseas, and came to Australia for my Masters degree. The knowledge I obtained from my degree doesn’t apply directly to my work; however, there are a couple of key aspects of graduate study that really helped me to develop my career. One is being able to apply knowledge to reality, an ability I developed by doing a lot of case studies. The other is team spirit, gained by working on group assignments.”

But perhaps the greatest area of debate when it comes to the benefits of a Masters degree centre on how much extra money will the qualification add to a candidates salary? Evidence from the US Census Bureau indicates what every Masters applicant, current student or recent graduate has hoped for – there is a significant difference in earning potential between those candidates with a Bachelors degree and those with a Masters degree. With more and more employers using educational qualifications as an important screening measure in the selection process for jobs, the relationship between advanced university education and salary has become more prominent.

In US terms alone, a candidate with a Masters degree earns $10,100 per year than a person with a Bachelors qualification. Such a difference is further compounded over the course of a lifetime, with the potential to secure steeper pay increases and other financial rewards similarly emphasised so that at the point of retirement, a Masters graduate will have earned $400,000 more than a Bachelors graduate and a staggering $1.5 millions over a person with only a high school leaving qualification.

Whatever your motivations for studying a Masters degree, the evidence is there for all to see: graduating with the qualification will make a difference to the rest of our life, whether you choose to measure it in financial terms, career benefits or your own personal development. With more and more international students exploring the opportunities around grad school can you afford not to make the next step? And of course, there can be some additional surprises – take Hilary Jones and Kushan Naik, both Masters students at the University of Warwick in 1974. Next year will see them married for 35 years!

Notes

The QS World Grad School Tour, the most prestigious Masters and PhD Fair, will visit Bucharest on Saturday 20 march 2010. To get your free invitation visit www.topgradschool.com

About QS

QS provides full-spectrum guidance for higher education and career opportunities, supporting motivated individuals around the world to progress towards their future goals. Through our exclusive events, publications, research and interactive web tools, we link undergraduate, graduate, MBA and executive communities around the world with recruiters and education providers. Our communities include: topuniversities.com, topmba.com, topgradschool.com and global-workplace.com. The highly diverse QS team consists of over 140 individuals from five continents. Our team includes internationally recognized experts in the higher and business education arena. QS operates globally from offices in London, Paris, Stuttgart, Singapore, Shanghai, Sydney, Boston, Washington DC, and Johannesburg.

About the QS World Grad School Tour

The QS World Grad School Tour offers a unique opportunity for potential graduate candidates to meet admissions officers of the world’s top universities face-to-face at venues around the world. Now in its tenth year, the Tour will be visiting 61 cities in 37 different countries in 2010.