Higher Ed Masters - Prestige vs. Funding

[cachstardust]

Hi friends!

 

I'm planning on doing a Higher Education Administration/Student Affairs masters. The problem is, I'm trying to decide between a few schools where the funding situations are wildly different. For example, I could go to a fully-funded but less prestigious program at Louisiana State and graduate with little debt, or I could attend a very strong program like Northwestern or UPenn and incur $40,000+ in debt. I do not have undergraduate debt or huge current financial obligations.

 

I have spoken to friends who have recently finished MAs in higher ed at top programs who've struggled to find jobs in the field, and I'm not sure starting salaries for entry-level positions are much more than $40,000 if you're lucky. Therefore, I'm reluctant to take on a lot of debt to get this degree, but I'm wondering if a prestigious degree is helpful.

 

Is a Higher Ed MA more about having the degree/relevant experience than the university's prestige? How much debt is reasonable for this field considering starting salaries? What should I do?

 

Thank you so much for your help! I've listed my offers and estimated costs below to help you out.

 

===

 

Boston U: full scholarship, with possible internship funding = ~$15,000 debt

(they don't set you up with assistantships)

 

Louisiana State U: fully funded (tuition covered + living stipend) = $0 to minimal debt

(assistantship in student services)

-pro: geographically where I want to end up long-term

-con: a young and unknown program, not sure I want to be in student services versus being in administration/assessment

 

Northwestern U: $28,000 funding / ~$70,000 costs of tuition and living = $42,000 debt

(internship in administration/assessment)

-pro: fits what I think my career goals right now are

-con: little alumni reach in deep South, and debt!

 

U Virginia: $10,000 funding / ~$50,000 costs of tuition and living = $40,000 debt

(internship in student services)

-con: debt!

 

U Pennsylvania: $24,300 funding / ~$65,000 costs of tuition and living = $40,700 debt

(internship match pending)

-con: debt!

 

[Quantum Buckyball]

Definitely funding > prestige

 

rule of thumb, don't go to grad school unless you're funded. 

[ZeChocMoose]

It is much, much more important to have relevant experience within the particular subsection of higher education that you want to go into.  I would strike any program off that list that is not going to offer you professional experience in the field.  If you have limited experience in the field already, you are going to want to maximum the experience you can gain by attending a 2 yr program over a 1 yr program.  One year programs in higher ed only work really well for people with sufficient full-time professional experience already or people who attend school part-time while working in the field.

 

Would LSU allow you to do an internship in assessment/admin?  My assistantship in my higher ed master's was in admissions and I ultimately decided that I wanted to work in educ research so I took an internship in institutional research which helped me to gain those experiences. For assessment work, you are going to need to take classes in methodology and statistics to gain the necessary skills.  Does LSU offer those type of classes?  

 

In general, 40K seems a bit high to attend a "prestigious" program especially given that the entry level salaries range between 35 - 45 K.  Perhaps if you were only taking out 10 - 15K and they were also offering you an internship/assistantship in your field of interest - assessment/admin, I would say well that sounds reasonable since that is not too much debt to be burdensome on your entry level salary given that you said you don't have any other huge financial obligations and you will gain direct experience in your subfield of interest which is fairly critical.

 

In the majority of cases, prestige in itself is not particularly helpful in higher ed if you don't have relevant work experience.  I know that when we were hiring for new analysts in my former office, we often got three types of candidates.  (1) Master's/PhD from well known school but with limited to no relevant, professional experience, (2) Master's/PhD from lesser known or unknown school with sufficient, relevant experience in the field, and (3) Master's/PhD from well known school with sufficient, relevant experience in the field.  Usually, we would interview type 2 and type 3 candidates (type 1s would automatically get thrown out) and then it would come done to an assessment of how well they did in the interview process and data writing exercise.

 

If I was you, I would see whether you could work with the LSU program to get everything you need out of it especially since they are offering full funding.  Where do LSU students go after they graduate?  This will give you some information of whether former students were successful in gaining jobs in assessment/admin. 

[rising_star]

LSU.