Getting a masters degree?

Does anyone have one? Not necessarily in journalism. I'm talking the kind that you can keep working while you inch towards. And at the same time, have it be respectable. Something that would supplement a journalism career - business, international relations, political science.

Are online degrees respectable at all? Or have we not crossed that bridge yet? I know some friends who are teachers got their degrees that way - but education masters and MBAs seem like the easiest part-time programs to come by.

 

I got my master's -- in journalism -- one night class at a time. It took about three years, but was well worth it. A colleague of mine is just finishing her master's in journalism, and she did most of it online through the University of Missouri. A lot of brick-and-mortar schools are making it easier to do online programs, so you have the convience of online learning but without having to have a degree from an online-only program.

 

In about six years, I'll probably hit up the Army-Baylor health program for a masters in accounting or hospital administration. It's designed to set up officers for their senior careers, after the ground-pounding and staff time is done.

 

What possible good is a master's in journalism unless you want to teach?

 

Get an MBA instead.

Then buy the newspaper out from under your publisher -- make sure you shove him out the door, OK? -- and restore all the important stuff, run the place right again, make people happy, Christmas bonuses for everyone.

Signed,
Pipe Dream

 

To enrich your life ........ just kidding. There is no point. Actually, what's the point of even going to school for this profession? Game experience is all that matters, right?

 

I was an SID when I got my master's, fully with the intent to pursue other SID jobs that required a graduate degree. When I finished my program, the chairwoman asked if I wanted to teach a class, and I sort of stumbled into a teaching career, which was a really, really good move.

 

Networking. Connections. Really having hard-core critical oversight on your development. I think the great ones, like Columbia, would certainly be worthwhile if the job market was better than it was. Probably too much of a risk right now, though, for the non-trust fund babies among us (which is like 99 percent of us).

 

If you're going the journalism route, it's pointless unless you're going to the heavy-hitters. Columbia, Northwestern, Mizzou, Syracuse, Cal-Berkeley...

 

I respectfully disagree. My master's certainly isn't from a "heavy-hitter" j-school. Just that I have a master's in hand was good enough for my teaching gig at a major college, the school where I went for undergrad.

 

there is none. anyone who tells you differently either has a master's in journalism and is lying to you or is stoned.

 

Teaching OR management. And most of the managing editors I've worked for have had MBAs, not MJs. Fair warning.