Graduate school options

[earlyentry]

DAMN, 150-200 K sounds scrumptious.

 

[Walter Burns]

Wayne, what do you consider the "big time." You're young IMO, there are plenty of opportunities to make the neccesary connections to move up the ladder. Your nine years into journalism, keep plugging away!

You're right. I am young. I'm probably going to be working for close to another 40 years, unless I can publish the Great American Novel or hit the lottery.
I just feel like I'm doing too much swimming upstream right now, for not enough reward. The guy whose papers I used to help write makes more money than me as an assistant manager at Wal-Mart.
I just can't live on the money I'm making and the promise of at best 3 percent raises a year, especially since marriage (and then spawning) looms on the horizon.
Throw into the mix the penny-wise but pound-foolish policies of the idiots who run newspapers, and I'm starting to wonder if this is an industry that will sustain me until I retire.
Further education gives me the option of teaching, and time to hone my craft and the opportunity to create some of my own luck.
One of my buddies told me to get an MBA, but I honestly have no idea what I'd do with that degree.

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

Just wondering if we could get a little discussion going on the merits of different routes. Obviously everybody is different in their passions and goals, etc., etc., but just want to see what everyone thinks as I ponder the next 30-40 years. Let's just assume for argument's sake that you can get into one of these:

Option A
A journalism masters at Columbia, give it one more ride and go for the big, big, big time.

Option B
Law degree at a big-name, top-10 school

Option C
Law degree at a lesser school, but on full scholarship and done part-time so you can keep working in this business

Option D
MFA creative writing program

Option E
MBA at a top-10 business school

Option F
Start on the PhD route in something like English or political science, etc., etc.

Option G
Get really crazy and try to become a doctor

And, of course, Option H - ride this newspaper wave until it kicks you off.

No one with an advanced degree ever won a Pulitzer Prize.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

I'll bet half of the writers my age (33) are beginning to explore other options... If you had asked me a year ago I would have said I'll retire in this business, now I don't think that will be the case...

I'm exactly your age and nowhere near as high on the food chain, and believe me, I'm looking at all the options, from law school to PR to ad sales to a tank of helium and a plastic bag over my head. I tell people we're like our parents' elevator operators -- we happened onto our craft in an era where it's become obsolete and/or undesirable in degrees. God knows I'm a depressed and depressing mother****er, but I've seen nothing to tell me I'm not right.

 

[WaylonJennings]

Just wondering if we could get a little discussion going on the merits of different routes. Obviously everybody is different in their passions and goals, etc., etc., but just want to see what everyone thinks as I ponder the next 30-40 years. Let's just assume for argument's sake that you can get into one of these:

Option A
A journalism masters at Columbia, give it one more ride and go for the big, big, big time.

Option B
Law degree at a big-name, top-10 school

Option C
Law degree at a lesser school, but on full scholarship and done part-time so you can keep working in this business

Option D
MFA creative writing program

Option E
MBA at a top-10 business school

Option F
Start on the PhD route in something like English or political science, etc., etc.

Option G
Get really crazy and try to become a doctor

And, of course, Option H - ride this newspaper wave until it kicks you off.

No one with an advanced degree ever won a Pulitzer Prize.

Actually, I'd guess 50 percent of the people who won a Pulitzer Prize have an advanced degree. There's a whole thread on it somewhere.

 

[Mystery_Meat]

I know people who went D and got no career options out of it. That's probably the weakest of the lot.

 

[WaylonJennings]

I know people who went D and got no career options out of it. That's probably the weakest of the lot.

Not even a professorship? It clearly would be the most fun of the options. But I think that's something you do at age 22, not 30-plus with family.

 

[Point of Order]

As someone in my late 20's and who:
1. has been in the sports journalism biz with a decent job covering the sport and team I loved growing up, with wide latitude about what I wrote,

2. has been in a graduate program with MBA students (my master's was in marketing, but about half of the classes we took were with MBAs),

3. is currently in his second week of law school in a full time program at a lower-tiered school,

I agree with what Leo said. You can't stay in the journalism biz and do law school, even part-time. There just aren't enough hours in the day.

While I had a great time with my marketing comrades, the MBA group, speaking generally of course, is a different bunch. I don't think many of us on this board would like hanging out with many of them. You will never understand how true the FedEx commercial is until you are around them full-time:



I'm only two weeks into law school, but I am loving the intellectual challenge. It's quite fascinating to me when the court takes what at first seems like an impossible situation and fashions a solution that perfectly balances granting fairness in the case at hand while not creating harmful broader policy in the process.

Of course, they don't always get it right, but it's fascinating nonetheless.

You've got to figure out what you want to do. Take an objective look at all your options and give all the factors an assigned weight. Then add what your heart is telling you to account for about 50%. You'll figure it out.

 

[212areacode]

Option D-21-D2: Work hard. Good stuff happens.

 

[Bamadog]

I'll bet half of the writers my age (33) are beginning to explore other options... If you had asked me a year ago I would have said I'll retire in this business, now I don't think that will be the case...

I'm exactly your age and nowhere near as high on the food chain, and believe me, I'm looking at all the options, from law school to PR to ad sales to a tank of helium and a plastic bag over my head. I tell people we're like our parents' elevator operators -- we happened onto our craft in an era where it's become obsolete and/or undesirable in degrees. God knows I'm a depressed and depressing mother****er, but I've seen nothing to tell me I'm not right.

The elevator operator analogy is the best I've heard for the state of our business in a long, long time.

I'm at a similar crossroads, similar age (32) and wondering where is this biz going. The MBA route has always had some allure, but can you get a halfway decent gig if you go to a school that is not a top 10 biz school?