Study: Some of the most popular graduate degrees don’t pay off financially

Washington Post -   Going to graduate school can boost your career and salary — but some of the most popular advanced degrees are not worth the cost. That’s one of the main findings of a report released Tuesday by the Postsecondary Education & Economics Research Center at American University.

The report, based on research from the Yale Tobin Center for Economic Policy, found that graduate degrees in medicine, law and pharmacy generally have the highest return on investment. By contrast, degrees in popular fields such as social work, psychology, and curriculum and instruction may actually have a zero to negative return after factoring in the full cost.

“The message is that we need to provide better information to students” about which programs are worth the time and expense, said Joseph Altonji, a Yale University economist and one of the report’s authors.