Please welcome our newest writer, Chonce Maddox!
Chonce is a personal finance blogger and freelance writer who enjoys sharing debt stories along with talking about saving, budgeting, conscious spending and improving your financial house.
She chronicles her journey with balancing motherhood, work, and finances along with working her way out of $40,000 in debt on her blog, MyDebtEpiphany.com.
Experience has taught me that it’s not wise to rush into graduate school or higher education for that example.
During my final year of undergrad, I became fascinated with the idea of obtaining either a master’s degree in communications or an MBA. I filled out an application to both programs and even wrote a letter of interest and started taking GMAT prep classes.
Then, I suddenly decided against going to grad school and started looking for full-time jobs after graduation instead. My change of heart was fueled by a few major factors. For starters, I looked into the communications program and decided it was not going to be what I was looking for.
I also realized I couldn’t afford the MBA program and had no idea what type of career field I would like to go into after the program.
I already had student loans and I didn’t want more. Plus, I realized I should have some sort of idea of what I’d like to do with my new degree before I even start the program.
I understand there are quite a few ways to save money on a master’s degree program or even obtain your master’s degree for free. However, not everyone has those opportunities and money is a big factor.
Financial aid is not offered to graduate students and that’s what I relied on during undergrad to keep the cost of college low.
If you think you need a master’s degree to further your education or your career, but you can’t afford it at the time or aren’t 100% sure about which career field you’d go into, here are 4 alternatives to graduate school.
1) Certificates
According to FinAid.org, the average cost of a master’s degree for students ranges from $30,000 to $120,000. A master’s degree can cost way more than this though and it depends heavily on the University and the specific program.
A certificate program is a great alternative to graduate school and it’s often a fraction of the cost. A certification program allows you to take a set of courses in a specific field that leads to a certificate status or a license to practice.
If you’ve ever heard someone say they were certified in something, they most likely took a few courses to earn that certificate.
You can earn a certificate at a college or university of your choosing and it will add to your list of credentials while proving to potential employers that you have attained certain knowledge in your field. After obtaining a certificate, you can seek out a higher-paying job in your field or even ask your current employer for a raise.
Plus, you can always go back to school later down the road to get your master’s degree while using your certificate as a prerequisite.
2) Professional Development Workshops
If you aren’t sold on ROI graduate school could potential provide yet, see if your community or employer offers any personal development classes or workshops. Most of these workshops are one day only but they are geared toward helping you develop a certain skill set or knowledge base.
Professional development workshops are a quick way to expand your knowledge, further your career, and even network with other people in your industry – all common benefits of graduate school.
Many community organizations, private companies, and even colleges host professional development workshops regularly. Some events are even free. You can check with your local library or nearby colleges to find any workshops or classes that may interest you.
Conferences can also be a valuable learning experience. Most conferences are a worthy investment and there are opportunities to attend them for free via a sponsor.
Conference attendees often learn lots of tips, strategies, tools, and advice that it took the speakers years to find out about and they walk away with plenty of worksheets and resources to apply what they learned to their professional and personal lives.
3) Individual College Courses
If you are interested in a more structured form of education, taking individual college courses at your own pace as opposed to enrolling in an actual graduate school program may be an option to consider. Taking individual university or college courses can help you prepare for graduate school by brushing up on certain subjects and understanding your current or potential career field better.
Taking classes local community college or a public state-funded university will be much cheaper than a master’s degree program. If obtaining a master’s degree is something you’d truly like later down the road, you might want to make sure the courses you take will provide you with credits you can put toward the degree program.
4) Online Courses
Taking an online course is a very popular way to learn these days especially since there are many jobs that don’t require a master’s degree.
For example, one of the main reasons why I wanted an MBA was because I wanted to learn more about business practices so I could use that knowledge and expertise to run my own business one day. However, owning and running a successful business doesn’t require an MBA.
If I wanted to, I could enroll in an online course from created by a credible and successful entrepreneur to learn more about leadership and running a business. It would probably cost way less than an MBA program.
When choosing an online course, it’s important to make sure the creator of the course is a credible and trusted person. Anyone can create courses these days and you want to make sure you are learning from someone with a proven track record who can offer you the value you need.
There Are Much Cheaper Ways to Learn
I’m not sure if I’ll ever go to graduate school, but for now, I’m considering all of these options and I recommend the same for you if you are currently on the fence.
The good news is you have time to figure it out so you can avoid taking out extra student loans.
Did you ever go to graduate school? Have you tried any of these alternatives?
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GMAT prep was the worst! I do not regret grad school, but looking back I see that there were other paths that could have gotten me where I currently am, though still don’t regret the path I took.
That’s good you don’t regret it. I don’t regret going to college and getting my BA one bit even though I ended up with some student loans. Grad school just seemed like a bigger commitment though and there was less resources available for financial aid. The hard GMAT test prep also turned me off too to be honest, haha.
These are some good options to consider Chonce. I got my MBA in Finance and thankfully it was largely covered by tuition reimbursement from my employer at the time. While I did learn a lot there wasn’t a whole lot I couldn’t have learned on my own though it was sort of the impetus that began to drive me to work for myself so I’d say it turned out relatively well in the end. That being said, I think it’s important to look at the possible alternatives to save both time and money.
That’s great you were able to get some tuition reimbursement to lower the costs. Since I might not have that option but I’m interested in learning more about finance, I may look into getting my CFP certificate in the future since it’s pretty affordable from what I’ve seen.
I’ve been tossing up whether to apply to graduate school or not. The main thing holding me back is the cost – I really don’t want to have huge student loan debt. I think there are some great alternatives out there tbh, I really like Coursera, for one!
I hear ya, it’s definitely not cheap and something to think about if you have loans from undergrad. I’ve never heard of Coursera…running off to check that out! :)
This information is on point and on trend for this day and age. I think that we are definitely experiencing a “higher education bubble” right now that is just waiting to pop. Employers and potential employees are just starting to realize that the most important result of a degree program is the knowledge gained – not the actual degree. There is an absolute TON of premium information available online for peanuts or oftentimes totally free.
Makes me wish I was still in my “college years” and thinking about grad school!
Thanks for sharing!
Very true. Given all the free and affordable courses and information available online, people can learn a ton of skills that can make them more valuable to employers.
I really think an MBA is great for climbing the company ladder especially if you want to be an executive. My mom ran a successful business without a business degree, the highest degree she had before starting her business was a Master’s degree in English.
An English degree doesn’t exactly teach you how to run a business though. My mom learned a lot through trial and error and she built a profitable business. She accomplished a lot of things after the divorce, that you really wouldn’t expect a single mom to accomplish.
She bought a house with a good mortgage, she bought a new car without a payment plan, my mom hired a math tutor for me when I was struggling with high school math, etc. Thanks for talking about alternatives. More people need to know about them!
I LOVE using Skillshare for online classes. It’s so cheap ($10 month/$8 a month paid if paid annually) and they have lots of classes on an assortment of different topics. I learned a lot more about Photoshop, InDesign and Excel with it!
I didn’t go to grad school, mostly because of time & money. I didn’t need a master’s to advance in my career and I also had $50k in student loans when I graduated undergrad. Plus, I didn’t want to look at another textbook again.
I think the certificates are a good route. I have seen an increasing number of my former classmates adding the PMP tag next to their LinkedIn profiles.