I've been accepted to a MS in Analytics program at A&M. Cost $65,000, time with my young family 2 year old and 6th month old. It's an executive program so I'll still be working full time. With degrees outside of the hard sciences becoming worth less and less. Does anyone have any insight or opinions on whether this is worth it?
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Is Grad School worth it?
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Last: 1 yr ago by HumbleAg04
First off, good on you to be asking about the value. Lots to unpack with this question, starting with what do you want to get out of the program? A new job/career path? A different role at your current employer?
To set some context, I recruit and hire about 10 MBA grads every year from McCombs and Kellogg. I also help 2-3 people with undergrad degrees in my firm every year decide whether to go to B school or not, including writing recommendation letters.
My basic approach is an investment like a grad program is only worth it now if you are making a major career pivot from something out of undergrad into something dramatically different. (e.g. controls engineer into a MBA going into tech strategy consulting - real life example of a very successful guy on my team). Additionally, I personally believe the time sacrifice is only worth it to go to the absolute best programs (think top 10 only) out there. I don't know where A&M's Analytics MS program ranks, but the best programs also turn out the best candidates into the best jobs/careers out there.
I'll also say that the degree alone is going to be difficult to leverage into a job upgrade without significant practical, demonstrable, hands-on experience. Unless you have something already lined up, this is likely a risky $65k investment with a very significant sacrifice of your personal time.
Happy to chat via DM as well.
To set some context, I recruit and hire about 10 MBA grads every year from McCombs and Kellogg. I also help 2-3 people with undergrad degrees in my firm every year decide whether to go to B school or not, including writing recommendation letters.
My basic approach is an investment like a grad program is only worth it now if you are making a major career pivot from something out of undergrad into something dramatically different. (e.g. controls engineer into a MBA going into tech strategy consulting - real life example of a very successful guy on my team). Additionally, I personally believe the time sacrifice is only worth it to go to the absolute best programs (think top 10 only) out there. I don't know where A&M's Analytics MS program ranks, but the best programs also turn out the best candidates into the best jobs/careers out there.
I'll also say that the degree alone is going to be difficult to leverage into a job upgrade without significant practical, demonstrable, hands-on experience. Unless you have something already lined up, this is likely a risky $65k investment with a very significant sacrifice of your personal time.
Happy to chat via DM as well.
What are your career goals? And how will this degree help you achieve these goals that can't be done through IT certs?
I finished a MS Analytics degree in 2023. Not from A&M. It was $20k. It hasn't been worth it so far. But its still early so I don't want to totally discount it. There are much better programs than the one I was in but they are also in that $50-65k price tag. Based on my experience interviewing after the degree, not having hands on experience hurts big time....but at least I'm able to have discussions now that I've completed the program. (I know more of what I know and don't know)
Analytics - which I'm guessing means sql, intermediate statistics, visualizations, some python, and a little ML - is a great skill set that can immediately land you a six figure job. But if you're class of 2008 as your name suggests, then you're likely in the 37-40 age range. That means you have significantly less time to reap the return on your investment, so you need to have an almost foolproof path to significantly more $$ to justify this.
Don't do it for the heck of it ("everybody is taking about analytics and machines learning!") or because it'll make you better at your current job. If you're doing it for one of these two reasons just do some cheap courses on Udemy for a tiny fraction of the cost. I bet you could build a curriculum that gives you a passable version of the same skills for $500 or less. You won't get the paper but you'll get to keep ~$64k, and nobody at your current job really cares if you add a credential anyway.
Don't do it for the heck of it ("everybody is taking about analytics and machines learning!") or because it'll make you better at your current job. If you're doing it for one of these two reasons just do some cheap courses on Udemy for a tiny fraction of the cost. I bet you could build a curriculum that gives you a passable version of the same skills for $500 or less. You won't get the paper but you'll get to keep ~$64k, and nobody at your current job really cares if you add a credential anyway.
That field can pay massively well. Every org trying to figure out a data strategy and analytics is key. Go do some searches on base pay packages for this field and I think you can answer your own question. I'd love for my boys to be committed to this space... huge opportunity.
If it was a degree that I could just pick up certifications and trainings on my own, I'd pass. Analytics tools feel like that space, but JMO.
Thats coming from someone that picked up an MS because I had to. The job market sucked so I made a calculated gamble that really paid off. The upside to the extra degree is that it can also qualify you for certain roles.
Good that you're thinking it thru.
Thats coming from someone that picked up an MS because I had to. The job market sucked so I made a calculated gamble that really paid off. The upside to the extra degree is that it can also qualify you for certain roles.
Good that you're thinking it thru.
That seems mighty expensive for a 2 year executive non-MBA degree....
Its all expensive these days. A huge money grab.
For my field, it was more or less known that a MS/ME was going to be worth $12-$15K more a year in starting salary (2004)
It was three semesters, 10 classes, and took me 12 months. That cost was maybe $7500-$10000 at worst in 2004-2005. It mattered a lot in the first 4-6 years of my career so it easily paid for itself.
$65,000 is a bit of a different story and only you'd know if it'd unlock doors. In my company we put a big emphasis on a few select schools, A&M excluded.
It was three semesters, 10 classes, and took me 12 months. That cost was maybe $7500-$10000 at worst in 2004-2005. It mattered a lot in the first 4-6 years of my career so it easily paid for itself.
$65,000 is a bit of a different story and only you'd know if it'd unlock doors. In my company we put a big emphasis on a few select schools, A&M excluded.
My MS in applied statistics has paid for all of my degrees. My program cost ~20k though 10 years ago at a place more established than A&M. From my experience, it's really how you use the degree that matters. I used it to supplement a career in research and took off from there. I suggest having a plan for how you plan to job hunt with the degree as well as looking for some entry level hands on experience - and make sure you are actually motivated to do these things. If you don't like the more menial tasks like coding or data cleaning, then this may not be for you. These things together should get you to a great place if you put forth the effort though.
Thanks everyone for the responses. A little more insight my company will pay for about half of the $65,000. I recently had a change in career and I'm starting at the bottom. I'm hoping this will open some doors for me. I have two meetings set up with both my director and another director at work to discuss how this might benefit my career.
I find it interesting that your company would pay over $30K for an advanced degree to progress your career in their company when a fraction of that could be dedicated to training you in specific crafts and/or skill sets that an advanced degree can't exactly do.texags08 said:
Thanks everyone for the responses. A little more insight my company will pay for about half of the $65,000. I recently had a change in career and I'm starting at the bottom. I'm hoping this will open some doors for me. I have two meetings set up with both my director and another director at work to discuss how this might benefit my career.
I don't intend that comment to be negative and to say what you are doing is not right, just that I personally think you would benefit more (and the company) from some direct/real world training in whatever direction you desire.
JDUB08AG said:I find it interesting that your company would pay over $30K for an advanced degree to progress your career in their company when a fraction of that could be dedicated to training you in specific crafts and/or skill sets that an advanced degree can't exactly do.texags08 said:
Thanks everyone for the responses. A little more insight my company will pay for about half of the $65,000. I recently had a change in career and I'm starting at the bottom. I'm hoping this will open some doors for me. I have two meetings set up with both my director and another director at work to discuss how this might benefit my career.
I don't intend that comment to be negative and to say what you are doing is not right, just that I personally think you would benefit more (and the company) from some direct/real world training in whatever direction you desire.
My company has a blanket reimbursement program for continuing education. If I'm going to put the work in to gain the skills, why wouldn't I want the hardware to go with it? They also offer in house skill training as well but it's not monitored and adds nothing to a resume if I were to leave.
if you were really plugged in for the perfect plan...
go find a job with an entity where THEY will pay for your graduate degree.
I was in the Air Force, (but did it @ss backwards after law school) so you could have the military pay.
but then I worked for UTC Aerospace who paid for another grad degree (took several years of working full time and classes at night)
most large companies are going to offer financial benefits to pay for Masters
go find a job with an entity where THEY will pay for your graduate degree.
I was in the Air Force, (but did it @ss backwards after law school) so you could have the military pay.
but then I worked for UTC Aerospace who paid for another grad degree (took several years of working full time and classes at night)
most large companies are going to offer financial benefits to pay for Masters
Are you doing it for money/skills and what do you make now?
I have a masters in analytics from and def make more because of it, but I had just enough similar background to easily get a higher paying job. Best part of it was honestly my classmates. Good field for remote work. AI will slow it down at the entry level. Getting into management/strategy side will matter long term, but you need to understand the basics.
I have a masters in analytics from and def make more because of it, but I had just enough similar background to easily get a higher paying job. Best part of it was honestly my classmates. Good field for remote work. AI will slow it down at the entry level. Getting into management/strategy side will matter long term, but you need to understand the basics.
Not dismissing your concerns over family time but I can say with absolute confidence they won't notice. You might miss a few things along the way but even that isn't guaranteed. I started my MBA as a night program at Texas State when my kids were 6 and 3 and this was top of mind for my wife and I going in. I kept coaching TBall and made sure I didn't miss any dance recitals, studied after they went to bed, etc.
Our kids are now 25 and 22 and about a year ago it came up that I have an MBA and my daughter (22) said, "Wait, you went to grad school? I had no idea. When?" I said I finished when she was six and she laughed and said she had no clue. Then she asked her brother and he said he knew I had it but not til years later.
Kids at that age are like pets. They want time with you but they have no real concept of time so 30 minutes a night doing something meaningful like reading a story or playing isn't substantially different to them than spending all afternoon at the playground. You'll finish this thing long before they understand you were ever even in it.
Our kids are now 25 and 22 and about a year ago it came up that I have an MBA and my daughter (22) said, "Wait, you went to grad school? I had no idea. When?" I said I finished when she was six and she laughed and said she had no clue. Then she asked her brother and he said he knew I had it but not til years later.
Kids at that age are like pets. They want time with you but they have no real concept of time so 30 minutes a night doing something meaningful like reading a story or playing isn't substantially different to them than spending all afternoon at the playground. You'll finish this thing long before they understand you were ever even in it.
A fearful society is a compliant society. That's why Democrats and criminals prefer their victims to be unarmed. Gun Control is not about guns, it's about control.
Rice has a Data Analytics certificate for intensive 6 months at $13k. I'd ask yourself what skillets you actually need and look into other options.
I hope this doesn't derail. I have no dog in this fight but I throughly enjoyed reading this thread. Very well thought responses with real life experiences.
Well done.
OP - I'm sure this thread assisted tremendously. Good luck to you.
Well done.
OP - I'm sure this thread assisted tremendously. Good luck to you.
It was worth it for our son in law to get his MBA from the Darden School of Business. He got a management job, a raise and a better chance at advancement.
But the richest guy I know never went to college. He sells mobile homes on I-20 in Bossier City La. He sells them, finances them, resells the trailers and wheels and tires used to transport them etc. etc. Greg Tilley's Mobile Homes… go down there and buy a couple
But the richest guy I know never went to college. He sells mobile homes on I-20 in Bossier City La. He sells them, finances them, resells the trailers and wheels and tires used to transport them etc. etc. Greg Tilley's Mobile Homes… go down there and buy a couple
LOYAL AG said:
Not dismissing your concerns over family time but I can say with absolute confidence they won't notice. You might miss a few things along the way but even that isn't guaranteed. I started my MBA as a night program at Texas State when my kids were 6 and 3 and this was top of mind for my wife and I going in. I kept coaching TBall and made sure I didn't miss any dance recitals, studied after they went to bed, etc.
Our kids are now 25 and 22 and about a year ago it came up that I have an MBA and my daughter (22) said, "Wait, you went to grad school? I had no idea. When?" I said I finished when she was six and she laughed and said she had no clue. Then she asked her brother and he said he knew I had it but not til years later.
Kids at that age are like pets. They want time with you but they have no real concept of time so 30 minutes a night doing something meaningful like reading a story or playing isn't substantially different to them than spending all afternoon at the playground. You'll finish this thing long before they understand you were ever even in it.
This is not true for me from my experience as a kid. I was raised by a single mom who was always working. It's a lonely childhood I wouldn't wish on anyone.
I basically raised myself.
Spend time with your kids folks! Don't be an absent parent.
If you can manage family, school, and a job, great. But don't take it lightly. Make sure the time commitments don't conflict and cause you to neglect one.
Deputy Travis Junior said:
Analytics - which I'm guessing means sql, intermediate statistics, visualizations, some python, and a little ML - is a great skill set that can immediately land you a six figure job. But if you're class of 2008 as your name suggests, then you're likely in the 37-40 age range. That means you have significantly less time to reap the return on your investment, so you need to have an almost foolproof path to significantly more $$ to justify this.
Don't do it for the heck of it ("everybody is taking about analytics and machines learning!") or because it'll make you better at your current job. If you're doing it for one of these two reasons just do some cheap courses on Udemy for a tiny fraction of the cost. I bet you could build a curriculum that gives you a passable version of the same skills for $500 or less. You won't get the paper but you'll get to keep ~$64k, and nobody at your current job really cares if you add a credential anyway.
I think doing things that make you better at your job is way more valuable too. Skills that multiply your work output.
Then do some side projects and publish them online.
It's better to prove your value as a practitioner than a certificates holder.
I steered my career into a highly competitive nitch by buying textbooks, and literally reading whole chapters and working the example problems and problem sets at the end of the book. In one interview I explained my process, why I did this to break into the field, the interviewers loved it. And the field has highly technical interviews so I learned what I needed pass these interviews and about the field.
Educational material today is so free and cheap and widely accessible today, you can educate yourself for cheap if you're motivated, and get specific skills more relevant to your work output than general degree curriculum.
Richest guy I know built Speaker City from the ground up and he can barely read....
bmks270 said:Deputy Travis Junior said:
Analytics - which I'm guessing means sql, intermediate statistics, visualizations, some python, and a little ML - is a great skill set that can immediately land you a six figure job. But if you're class of 2008 as your name suggests, then you're likely in the 37-40 age range. That means you have significantly less time to reap the return on your investment, so you need to have an almost foolproof path to significantly more $$ to justify this.
Don't do it for the heck of it ("everybody is taking about analytics and machines learning!") or because it'll make you better at your current job. If you're doing it for one of these two reasons just do some cheap courses on Udemy for a tiny fraction of the cost. I bet you could build a curriculum that gives you a passable version of the same skills for $500 or less. You won't get the paper but you'll get to keep ~$64k, and nobody at your current job really cares if you add a credential anyway.
I think doing things that make you better at your job is way more valuable too. Skills that multiply your work output.
Then do some side projects and publish them online.
It's better to prove your value as a practitioner than a certificates holder.
I steered my career into a highly competitive nitch by buying textbooks, and literally reading whole chapters and working the example problems and problem sets at the end of the book. In one interview I explained my process, why I did this to break into the field, the interviewers loved it. And the field has highly technical interviews so I learned what I needed pass these interviews and about the field.
Educational material today is so free and cheap and widely accessible today, you can educate yourself for cheap if you're motivated, and get specific skills more relevant to your work output than general degree curriculum.
Not sure we're talking about the same thing. OP is talking about a graduate program with kids that are currently 2 years and 6 months so they'll be 5 and 3 on the long side when he finishes. He's not making a lifetime commitment that leaves his wife alone with them in perpetuity. Likewise my kids were 6 and 3 so similar ages to OP but again I was done in 3 years, my wife was not raising them alone. They got time but they didn't know they were missing what could have been more time had I not been in school. Thats my point to OP. It's not the same as being a single parent.
A fearful society is a compliant society. That's why Democrats and criminals prefer their victims to be unarmed. Gun Control is not about guns, it's about control.
I have no idea but have 3 grad degrees and diversity. My advice is to go back to school if you have a burning desire. Weekends were for mostly studying as were most vacations. Do you daydream about working with that degree? Also, I wouldn't worry about your age much because 2-3 years is going to pass regardless.
I've gone a different path. Mechanical Engineering (A&M), MBA, then MS and PhD in psychotherapy. I loved all three. Engineering was at least 3 times harder than the rest and I was excellent at math (but not mature enough in undergrad .
"Do what you love and the money will follow."
I've gone a different path. Mechanical Engineering (A&M), MBA, then MS and PhD in psychotherapy. I loved all three. Engineering was at least 3 times harder than the rest and I was excellent at math (but not mature enough in undergrad .
"Do what you love and the money will follow."
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Had the same thought. Was getting this vibe from the post...bmks270 said:LOYAL AG said:
Not dismissing your concerns over family time but I can say with absolute confidence they won't notice. You might miss a few things along the way but even that isn't guaranteed. I started my MBA as a night program at Texas State when my kids were 6 and 3 and this was top of mind for my wife and I going in. I kept coaching TBall and made sure I didn't miss any dance recitals, studied after they went to bed, etc.
Our kids are now 25 and 22 and about a year ago it came up that I have an MBA and my daughter (22) said, "Wait, you went to grad school? I had no idea. When?" I said I finished when she was six and she laughed and said she had no clue. Then she asked her brother and he said he knew I had it but not til years later.
Kids at that age are like pets. They want time with you but they have no real concept of time so 30 minutes a night doing something meaningful like reading a story or playing isn't substantially different to them than spending all afternoon at the playground. You'll finish this thing long before they understand you were ever even in it.
This is not true for me from my experience as a kid. I was raised by a single mom who was always working. It's a lonely childhood I wouldn't wish on anyone.
I basically raised myself.
Spend time with your kids folks! Don't be an absent parent.
If you can manage family, school, and a job, great. But don't take it lightly. Make sure the time commitments don't conflict and cause you to neglect one.
If you spend more than 20 minutes with your kids?
— CHRISTMAS NANA PROFESSOR EHRICH Ω WEISS 🪬🎄 (@FrazzleDazzzled) January 13, 2024
You simply don’t care about success enough.
Get to work. pic.twitter.com/OdR99vIoso
She spends more time on her biceps than her own kids. Totally not a narcissist.
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