From the New York Post: Thinking of taking those big brains to grad school? Depending on your field of choice, it may not stretch your career prospects or future earnings — just your wallet.
According to a study recently released by the Postsecondary Education & Economics Research Center at American University, which was originally based on research from the Yale Tobin Center for Economic Policy, degrees in social work, psychology and curriculum and instruction have the potential to yield a zero-to-negative return on investment, considering the full cost that goes into earning the degree.
“A graduate degree can benefit you financially in some circumstances, but it is a very risky proposition,” Preston Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told the Washington Post. “You want to make sure you are working with all the information.”
The release of the report — in which the authors used data on approximately 800,000 students over three decades at Texas public universities to calculate how much a graduate degree would boost a professional’s lifetime earnings while making adjustments for additional factors (including total cost of attendance and how much their salary may have increased anyway) — coincides with the Trump administration urging potential students to weigh the cost of grad programs before signing up.
Which degrees offer the highest return on investment? Graduate degrees in medicine, law and pharmacy.
In fact, the report notes that “salaries nearly tripled for those with medical doctorate degrees and shot up by over two-thirds for those who earned a doctorate in pharmacy.”
CLICK HERE to view the 5-page study, which provides average annual earnings of multiple degrees.
New piece out today from @PEERresearch, via Joseph G. Altonji and @ZhengrenZhu: Do graduate degrees pay off? Their research finds that earnings returns depend on the field of study and the costs of enrollment. https://t.co/4adauMFrcu pic.twitter.com/espLe9gfxa
— Postsecondary Education& Economics Research Center (@PeerResearch) March 31, 2026
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