I have two Master's degrees. Was it worth it? Well, let me tell you about it.

Описание: I started my first Master’s degree as kind of a fluke.

I was freshly divorced when a guy friend of mine suggested that since I wasn’t using my Bachelor’s in Elementary Education and since I was good with computers I should pursue a Master’s in Computer Science.

I naively didn’t understand I was signing up to write the programs. I didn’t even understand what an “algorithm” was until it popped into my head.

HUH this is a baking recipe.

I completed my MS CS ten years after finishing my BS degree. I began my second graduate degree to get a Ph.D. in Rehabilitation Science. I left my job with the Department of Defense to attend the University of Pittsburgh.

My dad asked why I’d go where it snowed, and I told him that I was simply “following the money.” I had decided to pursue this degree with the sole purpose of hoping “PhD” behind my name. Hopefully, that would bring some respect when I talked about ADA compliance to business owners.

But I had to leave the Ph.D. A brain injury attack made finishing my thesis very hard. My research advisor saw that I wasn’t passionate about it or any of the other research going on at the school at the time.

But not all was lost.

I finished my second Master’s in 2000, twenty years after finishing my BS degree.

People outside of academia think that I failed because I “didn't try a little harder and take just a few more classes to get the Ph.D.” Their opinions don’t matter to me.

I am glad for my time at the school, the skills I acquired, and the research that I contributed to.

So… Was it worth it?