The System is Rigged--Higher Education and My Discontents

Is it worth it to go to grad school? This is a question I have been grappling with for many years now. I knew from a young age that I was interested in people--what made them think and behave. I was committed to studying psychology and pursuing advanced degrees to be able to practice therapy. So I went to college, like most privileged white children--it wasn’t a question that I would head straight to college after high school. It was necessary--a no-brainer. In fact, people who did not go straight to college in my small town were looked down upon.

I wish I would have put more thought into the opportunistic time in life that was--being 18, without debt or any financial commitments. What a perfect time to travel, see the world, meet some interesting people, have your views challenged. But instead I trudged on the path laid out for me by my highly educated parents.

I worked hard in college, maintained a 4.0 GPA and graduated in 3 years. I chose to go to a school where I could get a scholarship, and ended up with minimal amounts of student loan debt--about $20,000. I wish someone would have explained to me better about the realities of debt--what that looks like on a daily basis after you start working. When I was making the choice to go to college, all the adults around me kept saying “Don’t worry about the money! Go to a good school and it will pay off! Everyone has student loan debt, it is an investment!”

And maybe all those adults were speaking on behalf of their experience attending undergrad in a time where that degree meant a lot more. An undergrad degree nowadays is practically equivalent to a high-school diploma. It doesn’t make you stand out, it just allows you to pass certain ‘qualification’ gates in the job-search.

Don’t get me wrong, I am happy I went to college. I definitely learned so much, met some lifelong friends, and partied enough to have stories to recount for many years. And I am thankful my amount of debt is not so overwhelming, but it is still significant, considering the average pay in my field.

With a psychology bachelors, there aren’t many entry level fields with high-paying jobs to get into. I was drawn the social work, so my first job out of college was at a transitional housing facility where I essentially ‘worked the door’ and made sure clients got their meds, broke up fights--that kind of thing. My starting wage with my expensive degree? $12.75/hr. And it was only a 32/hr a week position.

Essentially, I was taking home around $1,300/mo from this job and living in a fastly growing city--Portland, OR--this was barely enough to squeak by on, without having to think about debt repayment. Because of my student loan payment of about $250/mo (which is affordable comparably) I had to get a second job at a coffee shop where I made $10/hr in base wages and around $6/hr in cash tips on top of that.

I was baffled at the easy money I made working as a barista--a job I definitely did not need to have a degree for, in fact I worked as a barista all through high-school and during college. I made between $16-$18/hr at this coffee shop--granted I did not get PTO or benefits, but it seemed so twisted that the ‘field-related’ job I worked so hard to actualize truly wasn’t enough to live off of.

I live in a city full of service-industry workers with colorful academic letters pinned to their names--M.S, M.A., M.B.A, PhD even. Why are they serving sushi or pouring your nightly IPA and not working 9-5 in their prospective fields of study? This is obviously rhetorical--because it does not pay to get a higher education in many fields.

But many of us feel stuck, unable to grow our career without those credentials. As a social worker or psychologist--it is necessary to get at least your masters to have a chance at promotion. And even those ‘higher-wage’ positions awarded to masters-level workers aren’t significantly better pay, maybe between $33,000-$40,000 as opposed to $24,000+ for us with bachelors.

How is my generational workforce expected to move through the conventional life-course without a livable, stable wage and adequate health benefits? None of us can afford to have children. No one would green-light us for a mortgage with that atrocious debt-to-income ratio. And yet we are seemingly unable to move-up in our careers without taking on the higher education debt commitments with a laughable ROI.

I read everywhere that you shouldn’t take on more student loans than your expected first-year of work salary. I’m sorry, but what kind of advice is this? Does anyone know where they can complete a grad-program for less than $50,000? Except for you PhD-research brainiacs who seem to get grad-school paid for because of your research grants. Getting a masters level education with a smart ROI is not possible for us in social service. The system has set us up for failure.

I have some friends in marketing who are making over $60,000 in their first few years out of undergrad. And I just can’t believe the disparity and how discouraging is it that people working to promote giant company interests make 150% more money than clinical social workers and mental health counselors doing therapy, case management, crisis relief, trauma-informed care--working for the betterment of society as a whole. Maybe I just chose the wrong field--of course I don’t mean that. I love my work and I feel just as passionate about psychology as ever, but I do feel as though I am in a precarious position.

I have been thinking for many years about going to graduate school. I’ve wanted to get my masters so I can work as a certified counselor and run a private practice. I’ve even researched the programs I’d like to attend and narrowed it down. Every year I think I will apply, because it just ‘feels like it’s time.’

I say this because there is a certain ‘ceiling’ you will hit in the social work field with just an undergrad degree. I love the organization I work for, I make a sustainable wage (for a privileged single woman) and have good benefits. But I know that I can’t keep making this amount of money and accomplish the things I’d like to in life--buy a house, have some children, work towards retirement.

A rock and a hard place. Most masters level counseling programs are going to put me in 6-figures of debt, and yet the median starting wage for certified counselors is around $45,000 (optimistically). It’s not sustainable. And I don’t want to spend the rest of my life paying off my education when I could be investing that money elsewhere.

I am sure there are countless others who ride the ‘grad-school’ mental rollercoaster like I do. And after chewing through these laments day-in and day-out--I don’t have any good answers. A fellow social worker I was speaking with the other day told me, “You’ve gotta partner up with someone who makes money--that’s the only sustainable way to do this work.”

Now I won’t go into all the feminist issues I have with that statement, but what this person said does carry weight. Is that really the only option available to those of us called to social service? Partner-up or live in poverty?

Something’s gotta give.