Would you get a degree for an extra $500 a week?

A degree is a ticket. Without it you don't get into the game where you can excel and be paid well.

As, stated before, you can succeed without one. But, in all probability you will fall short of what you would have if you had the degree. And very often the lack of the degree results in not even be allowed a chance.

A degree never been about the money with me. Though, extra money is always welcome. A degree provides me with something priceless, an education.

Any education is not wasted, even if you are not making 500 more a week!

Hell, I have a degree but can't find a job that caters to it or pays worth a damn. I might have to return to law enforcement.

I have an advanced degree and now make less money than I did as a 20-something E-5. Talk about bad decisions...

I would if the pay back was probable. I have a BA. The cost of a MA is a lot. At 60, there is little expectation of a substantial return on the investment, so I have decided not to invest in a MA.

I may choose that path, and I always encourage anyone to follow their course in life. I'm fortunate to have a DOD job that pays well, in addition to my retirement. If I choose to get a degree, it would be from wanting to vs. needing to. Like most Veterans, I never say never :)

I just started my class for my most recent certificate. I will eventually get my Bachelor's. I am 120+ credit hours in, it has definitely been a long road. In the end it will be worth it.

There is no denying that a college degree opens doors to opportunities. Advanced degrees open even more. However, they don't come with guarantees of anything. What we're discussing here is based on speculation and highly suspect numbers.

All claims about employment and unemployment coming out of the government are suspect. Politicians are manipulating the formulas by which these things are calculated. Incumbents use them to paint a rosy picture to remain incumbents and candidates paint dire pictures to replace incumbents. If, for example, we employ the formulas used as recently as during the Clinton Administration, we'd find that unemployment is more than double the rates being reported today.

Pursuing a college education is a highly individual decision that cannot be discovered at the end of a formula. If you have a burning desire to be a doctor or a nurse, a lawyer or a paralegal, you need a degree. Several in fact. Not so much if you want to engage in a trade. I suspect that the demand for skilled craftsmen and tradesmen will always out distance the market for professionals and many earn more than some professionals. Sure, there are lawyers who catch those ambulances they're chasing and earn vast fortunes. However, there are far more who are not as fleet afoot and end up clerking for the named partners. As for medicine, sadly government intrusion into that marketplace as well as lawyers helping raise malpractice premiums have left many doctors wondering if they'll ever earn enough to pay off their student loans. (You needn't worry about lawyers suffering a similar fate. Most politicians are lawyers.)

And, yes, bureaucracies love degrees. If you want to join those ranks, a degree may well be your ticket of admission. However, if We the People ever wise up to the fact that our federal bureaucracies are nothing but entitlement farms for the politically connected and are bleeding our nation dry, job security in those ranks will hopefully thin out (soon I hope).

Now, if you're still determined to pursue a degree, weigh carefully the cost/benefit ratio. Most college professors are ideological propagandists who are far more interested in indoctrination than education. Thus, you may exit their classrooms with a degree, but dumber than when you entered. And the degree will probably be stamped large and red with "IOU" in amounts that your $500 may barely cover the interest.

I don't envy you your decision. I'm in the waning years of my life. I earned a diploma and a law degree long ago in a place where all the professors were all practicing lawyers and judges and the cost was easily paid. (I had no student loan - in fact, I don't think they were an option) Although I never practiced law outside a courts martial (I was the antithesis of Perry Mason - lost every case) my degrees opened doors for me. However, once I got past the doors I developed skills so that people wanted to keep me inside.

I won't belabor you with my philosophy of education, but if you're interested in garnering some wisdom, read Louis L'Amour's The Education of a Wandering Man. He tells the story better than anyone else I've ever heard or read.

Of course, but I am not sure that my three degrees (baccalaureate + two graduate degrees = $1,500 a week more income.