Masters Degree - worth it or not?

Darren21

I think a career is really what you make it / how much effort you put in, and if you get the lucky breaks!!

I think the most important things are to:

1) FULLY research about what you want to do, even then you may decide to do something different once you actually start.
2) Do you need a masters for that career??
e.g. in Accountancy there is not really a huge call for a masters unless you are in research, a standard accountancy job requires CIMA/ACCA and a masters would be completely worthless.
3) Never expect to just walk into a job after study whatever qualifications you have. I have read many posts over on student job sites from people with masters and now on the dole!!
4) Companies REALLY value experience, it really can't be emphasised enough how important it is to get a summer internship, gap year, or other relevant summer experience. This really stands you above other applicants.
5) Different companies ARE different, I got a 1st in my degree and found that some companies really valued this whereas others really couldn't care less and were more interested in going over my experience with a fine toothcombe to see if I'd done exactly what they wanted.
6) I have known of many many people with degrees from 'lesser' universities such as southampton institute, getting really top jobs so again a masters would have been worthless.

So I guess what I'm saying is you can never do enough research on the job market/ what you want to do / and getting experience. Only then will you know if a masters will help you, £20k is a lot to spend on something if you just do it to get a better job and then find no-one cares you did it!!

Anyone who says yeah do a masters or no don't do one is talking rubbish, people can only advise on their own personal experience of whether a masters or not having one has helped/hindered them or people they know.

Compound_2

The comments about employers expressing a desire for work experience are very true. But it’ll be interesting to see how the new age discrimination legislation will limit the amount they can demand.

It’s said that a postgraduate degree won’t compensate for a poor first degree result, i.e. many employers are rigid in their requirement for a 2:1. The suggestion in the original post was going to place with a ‘good rep’, for a Masters after graduating from a ‘lesser’ uni. Since employers don’t express their requirements in terms of where you graduate from it’s hard to decide whether such a strategy will pay off. Unlike the excess demand for UG places, even the top unis have spare places at PG level. If you have a 2:1 and can afford the fees, you can pretty much take your pick. For shortage subjects like sciences, it’s quite easy to get into Imperial etc with a 2:2. That doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do, as a 2:2 means significant academic weaknesses.

Given this, I think that employers would look at your A Levels to see whether they were good enough for a top uni, rather than just see where your Masters is from. At Oxford, first degree alumni are ranked as more senior than those with just a doctorate.

I think the prices for the most expensive Master’s degrees are exorbitant. Given the uncertainty of whether they will repay the opportunity cost, it’s worth thinking twice. The standard fee of a little over £3000 is more reasonable as it’s an honest reflection of the cost the course – it’s like the new UG annual fee, taking account for being a full-year programme. So you can think of the extra year as making a four-year course, which students on MSci or a Scottish MA choose to do.

But it’s only worth doing if you know you'll enjoy and be successful in the subject. The worst case scenario is struggling for a year with the workload and torture of exams etc. Failure will leave you with nothing but huge debts. There can be a lot of stress moving just for one year – a Masters is very intensive. Postgraduate study is not an easy option – successful completion requires a great deal of motivation and commitment. (It can be argued that the reason statistics show Master’s degree holders doing better is they were more competent to begin with.) Above all, choose the right course by researching the content thoroughly – don’t just rely on the promotional material.