How old is "too old" to go to grad school?

[CountDeMoney]

• Poor return on investment when you only have a set number of years left to work

I don't buy this.  Every labor metric out there shows an increase in yearly salary in every discipline when undergrad and grad educations are compared.  Who gives a shit if you die quicker than some fuckhead graduating now; if you're only going to live 20 more years, you might as well make a higher average salary.

• You would be taking the space of a younger person who would be able to better put it to use

Nonsense.  They don't finish baking and taking their education seriously until they're in their 30s anyway.  Undergrads moving straight to graduate work don't give a shit, as they're too busy still binge drinking and date raping.  And they're all stupid anyway.  Had a girl in a Political Science class last year who was moving on to the grad program last fall.  Didn't know who Jim Crow was.  I told her he played for the Packers in the '60s.  I fucking shit you not.  Fuck young people.

And anyway, "put it to better use" for what?  What gives some Millennial shithead with Assburgers that can't make eye contact, compose a cogent sentence or come up with a single original thought in the corporate world priority over you? 

Waste of time and money that you could be spending traveling or with your family

Meh.

• If you take time off from work for grad school, it will be harder for you to get a job if you're of a "certain age"

Shit, it's hard enough now, so you might as well improve your chances. 

The vast majority of the approximate 300 job descriptions I've applied to in the last 24 months that can be qualified as "professional" say "master/graduate degree preferred" which is roughly translated to "we're only looking at resumes with graduate degrees".  An undergraduate degree is no longer adequate, it's merely another box to check to get through the ATS.  HR faggits like Caliga want graduate degrees, or at least the personality to call people "cunts" in job interviews.

[CountDeMoney]

I very briefly considered going back to finish engineering school when I got laid off. I decided it was too big a risk, not only because I'd be close to 40 by then, but mostly because my line of work changes quite fast and a long absence could hurt me a lot in what is by far the most attractive point of my resume: extensive work experience.

Same thing happened to me, simply by deign of being unemployed for so long.  So guess what, a long absence is a long absence, and the time out of the industry is going to cost you a career anyway, so you might as well have something to show for it.

[Savonarola]

This topic has come up for me recently.

The arguments I've heard for "It's never too late!" include:

• If it's something you really want, then go for it, age bedamned!
• There should be no limit to learning.
• You don't know how long you have left to work, so you may as well beef up your resume just in case

By going back and getting your degree later in life you have professional and life experience that younger students do not.  Based on my own experience you'll get more out of your classes and understand things better than the younger students.

[Valmy]

Yeah I would have already failed out of the Engineering program and be laying around drinking and playing MMORPGs to kill the pain if I had done this at 18.

[Norgy]

I think it depends on if you can afford it. If you can, you are never, ever too old for education.

As societies change and requirements for labour do too, getting a higher education once or twice or even thrice might become the norm.

If you want it, have it.

[merithyn]

I presume a Masters right?  Well in two years you are going to be two years older anyway might as well be two years older with a Masters.  The waste of money thing really only applies if you are leaving some well paying career for it, but I got the impression you are an office drone like me.

Wait what degree was the thing with the horribly sexist programming professor from?

This isn't actually for me. It was just a discussion that came up.

[The Brain]

Right.

[merithyn]

Right.

It's.. uh.. for a friend.. yeah...

[Monoriu]

• Poor return on investment when you only have a set number of years left to work

This.

[Caliga]

The vast majority of the approximate 300 job descriptions I've applied to in the last 24 months that can be qualified as "professional" say "master/graduate degree preferred" which is roughly translated to "we're only looking at resumes with graduate degrees".  An undergraduate degree is no longer adequate, it's merely another box to check to get through the ATS.  HR faggits like Caliga want graduate degrees, or at least the personality to call people "cunts" in job interviews.

I normally try to ignore Seedy's sniping, but just in case I've not pointed this out in the main forum:  I'm not an HR person, have never been an HR person, don't want to be an HR person, and in truth hate HR people as much as the rest of you do.

On topic, and because despite my non-HR status I do in fact interview people all the time: I personally do not care about a candidate's education at all.  I only care about their experience unless maybe I'm talking to someone right out of school where there's not much else to differentiate them from other folks who are at the same level.

Also, IIRC Mr. Cunt was not a college graduate.

[garbon]

I normally try to ignore Seedy's sniping, but just in case I've not pointed this out in the main forum:  I'm not an HR person, have never been an HR person, don't want to be an HR person, and in truth hate HR people as much as the rest of you do.

The lady doth protest too much.

[Ideologue]

*nuclear strike from Ide incoming*

There are some very narrow circumstances that don't make it outright insane.

Of course, from a public policy perspective, it will always be madness, but it's the madness we've decided works.

"They'll give our boys cash for an Ph.D. in art history, but they won't let them write fuck on the side of their planes because it's obscene."

[CountDeMoney]

Your growing anti-intellectualism is disturbing, Ide.  Pretty soon, you and derfetus will be going to open tent revivals.

[dps]

Your growing anti-intellectualism is disturbing, Ide.  Pretty soon, you and derfetus will be going to open tent revivals.

Ide has the same problem as Mono, in that he doesn't see learning as something with a value in its own right, but as a means to an end.  And since in Ide's case, unlike Mono's, it hasn't led to the desired end, he's bitter about it.

[Ideologue]

"Anti-intellectual" is, ironically, a label applied without a great deal of critical thought.  It's not "anti-intellectual" to demand that supply of humanities-degree holders (indeed, all degree holders) be constrained to meet demand, so that the student debt crisis be ameliorated.

Your position may not be "anti-intellectual," but it's sure as fuck anti-human.

Ide has the same problem as Mono, in that he doesn't see learning as something with a value in its own right

You know that's a mischaracterization of my arguments.