Is Pursuing a Higher Education Worth It?!

Good morning Ladies and Gents! Welcome back! We have one month left until 2020! Exciting isn’t! I cannot wait to see what the future has in store for us! But until then we are going to keep the ball rolling. The other day I received a message regarding my Masters degree. For those of you who don’t know, I was fortunate to study in the number one school in business to get an MBA or more precisely a Masters in Global Business. The question at hand was, was it worth it? This was perfect! A question that I can really dive into! And one I thought about myself before embarking in my graduate degree. So without further ado, our article for today is, Is Pursuing a Higher Education Worth It?!

Before I get into this complicated question let me give you a background story first.

For those of you who haven’t read up on my background click here. For those who have, sit tight, I will be giving a brief summary of my educational experience. As you may already know by now, I joined the United States Marine Corps at the young age of 17 left when I was 18. Once my contract was over I happily returned home. Immediately upon my return, I began working nights and going to the school during the day. My bachelors was a mixture of biology, kinesiology, and physiology.

What can I say, I’m a biology nerd and proud of it! Let’s move on.

Once I completed my bachelors, I began working as a trainer, strength and conditioning coach, and physical therapy assistant. I was fortunate enough to work with Olympic athletes, the skate team, hospitals, physical therapy clinics, non-profits, teens and kids sports teams. I was adamant to work in every industry I could to gain experience even if the money sucked. To be honest, at times I had to work for free. I thought of this as a future investment that would give me the experience necessary to put me above other trainers. Luckily, due to all my hard work and efforts, I was able to help graduate students with research and in the Mayo Clinic. Don’t let me fool you there were many ups and downs.

Unfortunately, it was made clear very early on that this career was not a cash cow so to speak.

I continued on to begin my masters in physiology, but soon stopped because I had the opportunity to do something totally new. I was offered the position as a marketer for a private gym and therapy clinic. This whole new world had me in its grips and I wanted to learn more. As a result of my new position, I began looking into getting my MBA. Thanks to my adviser, he informed me the top school in the country was located just several miles of where I studied. This is where my journey began!

So long story short after multiple rigorous interviews, I enrolled in Thunderbird!

Honestly, I was completely written off by the first interview. Luckily for me, I was not satisfied and felt I was not given the adequate time of day. So I showed up in person asked for a tour of the campus and demanded a second interview by someone different. Sure enough things went well and I was accepted into the school.

Unbeknownst to me, I had been accepted into their more difficult program which was accelerated and required little to know personal time.

What does this mean?! Well from Monday through Saturday, sometimes Sunday, from 7 to 7, I was at school for one whole year until graduation. Let me tell you, it was a bitter sweet moment knowing I had finished. I was glad I had my life back, but also sad that all my overseas friends were leaving. From Taiwan to Brazil, from India to Pakistan and Japan, I competed and learned from extremely intelligent individuals. Ill be honest, these guys and gals made it very evident that our education system sucked to say the least.

Although, there were many positive aspects to getting my business degree there were just as many, if not more negatives.

Let’s start with the positives shall we!

1. I learned every aspect of business possible. From accounting, finance, marketing, product development, leadership, investments, political influences and much more.
2. We learned from research, practical data, experienced individuals and actually working with companies. This is where I received the opportunity to work with the NFL, while some of my other colleagues worked with the NBA.
3. Networked and connected with great people beyond our North American border.
4. Worked with different systems and software unlike the ones I had previously worked with as a marketer.
5. Overall added a large skill set to my repertoire aka toolbox. The experienced gained was extraordinary to say the least.

Everything I gained was invaluable, however what you take from school will rely solely on what you put into it. Remember that! Now to the Cons.

1. Highly Competitive! It was weird coming from a science major where everyone works together to solve a problem.
2. Overpriced. To be in one of the top schools you may have to pay the price tag that comes with it.
3. Politics. Remember you are dealing with the Ol’ Boys Club. You will be dealing with old money at times. This can cause friction. As most of you already know from my background, I come from humble beginnings, served in the military and am a person of strong character aka I’m brutally honest. Furthermore, it doesn’t help that most of my skin is covered in tattoos. Well if you haven’t caught on by now to what I’m implying, I’ll say it here. I was the wolf on the bottom fighting my way to get to the top. Put simply. I had to overcome a lot of stereotypes and prejudices to be seen as a respectable human being let alone a student pursuing higher education.
4. The end may not justify the means. According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, your average graduate with a bachelors degree earns $50k a year. Those with graduate degrees earn 10k to 15k more. Hell, my school itself boasted that a majority of us would have a job well within our first three months of graduating and it would be closer to the six figures. Boy were we in for a bad surprise, a majority of my class did not find a decent position until month six and onward. The most terrifying story was a close friend that could only manage to get a 40k salary.
5. Lastly, it is easier to work your way up or network than to go after an expensive education. Most of my colleagues in the professional realm did not have a higher education. Hell, most of them stopped their education after high school.

In conclusion, Is Pursuing a Higher Education Worth It?!, it may seem that the cons outweigh the pros, but this would dependent on the individual.

I made some invaluable friendships well worth over the hefty price tag. I learned a large set of skills and had the opportunity to work with large corporations. Overall, it tested my character and really reaffirmed what I know now which I know try to pass on to all Black Sheep. I hope this helped you all with my perspective of higher education. Most institutions are nothing different than businesses themselves trying to make a buck so be wary and look out for the commercials. However, as I said before what you put into it is what you will get out of it. Like my bachelors, if I had not worked hard in every aspect I would never had the opportunity to work at the Olympic level. I hope you enjoyed this and would love to hear what y’all think.

To learn more on salaries based on career choice, click here.