Chapter 15

After Graduation (Chapter 15)

You’ve earned yourself a master’s degree. Congratulations! Now what? There are a number of things to deal with after earning your degree. Loan repayment, job prospects, and the possibility of further education are just a few.

Employers’ Views of Online Degrees:

As with most information regarding online master’s degrees, how employers view these degrees depends on several factors, such as accreditation and personal preference. If your school is accredited by an agency approved of by the U.S. Department of Education and your degree is relevant to the work that you will do for an employer, then in most cases, it should not matter whether or not you earned your master’s degree online. Even so, some employers may still prefer degrees earned at traditional brick-and-mortar institutions, simply because they are more familiar with them. If an employer or potential employer is unsure about your degree, politely explain why it’s important that your institution is accredited, the kind of work that you did for your degree, and how you and your degree can contribute to the company or organization.

Jobs with an Online Master’s Degree:

It’s best to enter graduate school and pursue a master’s degree only after you know what you want to do. If instead, you choose a field of study and a program based on where jobs will be in the future, you might miss out on some rather important details.

In 2008, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released a list of the fastest growing occupations and the level of education needed to practice these professions. At the top of the list for master’s degrees are mental health counselors and mental health and substance abuse counselors. Although licensure and educational requirements vary by state, in general, mental health counselors and substance abuse counselors must have master’s degrees from accredited programs and institutions in order to practice. But as was mentioned earlier, there are no approved online master’s degree programs for psychology or counseling, and only a few online master’s degree programs are approved of for social work. If you were to enroll in and graduate from an unapproved online master’s degree program, it would be a rude surprise to discover you couldn’t practice with the degree you just earned. The lesson here is that you need to do your research when it comes to pursuing an online master’s degree in certain fields.

Working in Academia:

Working in academia with an online master’s degree also can be a bit tricky. If you’re aiming for a teaching position at a brick-and-mortar institution, a master’s degree from an institution where you had teaching assistant experience will carry more weight. These teaching assistantships almost always come from on-campus graduate programs. If you’re planning on working in the administration side of academia, having earned your master’s degree online may make little difference in your hiring potential.

Moving Forward in Academia:

Moving from an online master’s degree program to an on-campus PhD program, again, may be tricky. It depends on your field of study, the accreditation of the institution where you earned your master’s degree, and on the work you produced. Schools (and employers) are far more likely to be concerned with what you bring to the table than what school you happened to graduate from. Still, accreditation is key to moving forward in your studies.

Paying Off Student Debt:

Loans for your education are still loans, and they have to be repaid. The nice thing about federal education loans is that you will often have more repayment options to choose from (private education loans are a different matter). In a standard repayment plan, you will pay a fixed amount for a set number of years, usually ranging from 10 to 30. If you choose this plan, you will likely pay the least amount of interest over the life of the loan. Graduated repayment plans are designed so that your monthly payments are lower right out of school and increase every few years. This option is great if your career is starting off slowly; but be warned that the loan’s interest will add up quickly and you will owe more over the life of your loan. The extended repayment plan can lower your monthly payments by extending your loan from 10 to between 12 and 30 years. Again, the payments will be lower, but the overall amount due will increase.

Another nice thing about education loans is that it’s possible to defer these loans. Deferment means that you do not have to repay your loans while you are in school. Interest usually continues to accrue, but you are not penalized for choosing to remain in, or go back to, school.

Consolidation, or the combining of your student loans into one overall loan (and thus one overall payment) can be a great way to repay your education loans. Not everyone and not every loan are eligible for consolidation, though. Also, there’s a difference between consolidating federal education loans (both unsubsidized and subsidized) and private education loans. To consolidate federal education loans, you might need to be finished with school or attending less than half time and owe more than $10,000 in total. One of the advantages of consolidating federal education loans is that your new interest rate will be fixed (meaning it remains the same for the life of the loan), and can often be much lower than your loans’ original interest rates, thus reducing your payments. The bank or financial institution that issues your private education loans will have different stipulations for consolidation. If your private education loans are eligible for consolidation, pay attention to whether or not you will receive a fixed interest rate or a variable interest rate (it changes depending on market standards). If the interest rate is variable, it means you could have a range of monthly payments. It’s important to keep that in mind, especially since there’s a cap of 8.25% on interest rates for federal education loans, but no cap on private loans. Once you consolidate your loans, they cannot be consolidated again, so be sure that you understand the terms and payment options before you agree.