Nearly half of master’s degrees have a negative ROI

As thousands of new graduates toss their caps this month, research shows more than 40 percent of master’s degrees aren’t financially worth obtaining, the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity found.

Looking at career earnings at graduation and a decade later, while accounting for factors such as dropout rate, the study found that bachelor’s degrees are much more likely to be financially worth it for students than graduate degrees.

More than three-quarters, 77 percent, of four-year bachelor degrees have a positive return on investment, the study found, compared to just 57 percent of master’s degrees.

Subject of study had a significant influence on financial return, with the best degrees to pursue for undergraduate studies being engineering, computer science, and nursing degrees, while fine arts, education, and biology programs had the lowest median return.

The average return on investment for a bachelor’s degree is about $160,000, the study found, but degrees in especially lucrative fields could top $500,000 or more.

For graduate study, law, medicine and dentistry were the most lucrative, according to the analysis.

“While ROI should not be the only consideration for students approaching the college decision, the ROI estimates presented in this report can help students and their families make better choices regarding higher education,” study author Preston Cooper wrote. 

The study comes as scrutiny increases on the cost of higher education. Undergraduate tuition could reach as high as $95,000 at some universities, while millions of Americans are hampered with hundreds of thousands of dollars in student debt.

Debt cancellation has been a focus of the Biden administration, treating a symptom of the rising costs while also buoying support before the November election.