How much should you pay for your degrees?

I know there is always the non-profit vs for-profit price tag and some non-profits are more expensive then some for-profits but that is another story.

I was looking at Linkedin and seen someone with the following education:

Northcentral University - DBA, Computer and Information Systems Security/Information Assurance
Kaplan University - MS, Information Technology Assurance and Security
Kaplan University - MBA
University of Phoenix - MS, Computer Information Systems
University of Phoenix - BSBA

It leads me to ask, why would anyone pile on more debt with degrees from schools that are not cheap?

 

Maybe he got scholarships and grants? Otherwise, it's a steep cost.

Like many others here, all of my degrees (AA, BS, MA, DBA) were received through a combination of scholarships and grants, thus reducing their cost by 50 to 75%.

My current academic endeavor (for another MA) is extremely expensive (but not to me). Tuition is $2500 per 3-credit class, but it's reduced to $800 for me, due to my professional affiliation -- and then I got a $400 scholarship per class. Thus, each $2500 course only cost me $400. That's been the story of my entire academic career. Others probably also fall into this category.

Paying full price for an education is too expensive.

 

Also, I think that many people may be stuck in the old mindset that having the education is all one needs; get the degrees and the doors will magically open for you. If that were the case, it might be worth some of the expense. Unfortunately, what might have been true to some extent 20 or 30 years ago does not work now.

 

I think it's a cycle- we had a poster here just last week about to get sucked down the same rabbit hole. You get an expensive undergrad, so you look for a job, but your job only pays X which isn't quite enough, and your student loans start to come due, so rather than live in poverty, you enroll again. Now, while you're racking debt, that's later. For now, you're loans are deferred for another 2 years and you assume that this degree will land you a better job anyway. But, it doesn't. So, you return to school. Rinse, repeat. I don't think anyone really working in industry is giving someone like this serious street cred, because prestige is in the eye of the beholder, and I don't think anyone is going ohhhh ahhhh at a DL degree yet. *not saying they are inferior, I'm saying they are not IMPRESSIVE. Difference.

 

He might have received reimbursement from his employer. I know someone who is able to go to school 100% on their employer dime. Their employer reimburses every fee and cost for their education. The sad part is that person hasn't taken advantage of this benefit!

 

I think it depends. I'm getting a BS to move on to an MBA. I'm already established in my field, so I want to pay as little as possible.

My son, who wanted to get into a specific industry and needed very high level internships to make contacts, paid quite a bit for his.

There's one more thing I might try for after the BS and MBA, but there are only about 30 openings in CA per year in state schools. And the state schools take longer. So, I might pay $35,000 to go to a private school, be done in 8 months, get licensed and immediately bump my salary by at least $15,000 per year.

 

Personally, I'm going to a not-cheap school for my doctorate because they offer a very unique program that perfectly merges my academic interests and professional goals. The tuition and other assorted costs are tax write-offs, and I can retire early enough that I will more than make back the cost of the program in my second career.

 

Just for fun, I looked it up Tuition only (graduation fees, tech fees, books,etc not included) at today's dollars:

Northcentral University - DBA, Computer and Information Systems Security/Information Assurance
$857/credit * 54 credits = $46,278

Kaplan University - MS, Information Technology Assurance and Security
$402/credit *56 credits = $22,512

Kaplan University - MBA
$441/credit *76 credits = $33,516

University of Phoenix - MS, Computer Information Systems
$740/credit * 42 credits = $31,080

University of Phoenix - BSBA
$585/credit *120 credits = $70,200


$203,586

 

The 75k doctorates are insane. NCU's price way back when Randell started was awesome. Too bad those don't exist any longer.

 

The BSBA was the most expensive one. People are crazy if they pay full price for a bachelors degree. We know better.

 

Is it possible the person is enrolling in new degree programs to defer (and accumulate) student loan debt, illogical as it may be?

 

It seems very possible.

There must be transfer credit involved at the master's level too, at least. (As in, please tell me there's transfer credit involved at the master's level at least…)

 

I asked a Navy buddy of mine the same thing. He went to a community college first, and finished his BSBA though a face-to-face UofP campus in California. I asked him why, and he said the post 9-11 G.I. Bill was covering the bill. Now he's about to start his MBA with them at the end of the month.

He has money to burn I guess, but I would’ve went to San Diego State or somewhere else close by. He’s happy, so I’m happy for him.

 

I think that also part of the cycle is that if you graduate from a for profit school with low reputation, this would make it hard for the student to get admission to a better graduate school. The student then enrolls into another open enrollment master with low reputation, as the student realized that not much is coming from this education decides to enroll into a second and third master with the hopes to profit from some shortages in some fields such as computer security and assurance. Finally the student decides to enroll into a Doctorate from another for profit open admissions school with the hopes that at least can make some of the money back invested by working as an adjunct or instructor at a local school. This would make the student feel good about his or her education as at least can tell people that is an academic.

It is obvious to me that would have made a lot more sense to invest the 200K for a medical doctor degree at a good school but we don't know the background of the student, may be the student was struggling to get into a better college and this was the best he or she could do so may be was UoP or nothing.

 

It cost $25K when I went there.

 

If I am not mistaken the profile of the person in question is below. She seems to be making a living as a CC college instructor. It is a legit career path but I agree that is too much investment for this career path.

Doris "Mandy" Wright | LinkedIn

 

That is correct. I did not want to point out specific people. You must be part time detective!

 

Those are AAS degree and certificate programs. Ouch. She didn't even need a bachelor's degree.

 

How much you ask?

Zero, join the service!! :usa:

 

I have always held up a philosophy that can be summed up in one sentence when it comes to choosing a degree program: You should choose to attend the most prestigious school you can get into that offers the degree you want in a format you will complete at a price you can afford without incurring excessive debt.

For my undergrad degree, I wanted to earn a degree in business administration completely online. In 2000, when I started looking for programs, there were no local options, but I was able to find the University of Wyoming, which offered in-state tuition to distance education students. I could put tuition and books on my credit card and pay off the debt before the end of the term. I also used CLEP and DSST exams, and graduated debt-free in 2004.

Next up was the MBA. I decided I was going to get this completely paid for, and ended up with full tuition rides and stipends at multiple top-50 MBA programs. In the end, I took my employer up on his offer to pay to send me to a top-10 school. Two degrees, still no debt.

And for fun, I earned a graduate certificate. One course at a time over two years, paid for out-of-pocket. All in all, I personally put about $12K into my education, not counting the three abysmal years I spent flunking out of my first attempt at undergrad, which I was also able to cashflow by borrowing money from my parents at the beginning of each semester and paying it back over the course of each term. I think I spent about another $11K on those three years, back when tuition was much cheaper in the early-mid 1990s. However, given that I earned less than two years worth of credit in those eight semesters (I went to summer school both freshman and sophmore year), I tend to think of that money as a really expensive cover charge to the non-stop partying I did from the time I was 17 until I turned 21.