Following up on Sloan’s post yesterday: Inside Higher Ed, Graduate School Pays Off for Pharmacists, but Not Psychologists:

On average, going to graduate school increases a student’s lifetime earnings by 17 percent. But that return on investment varies significantly depending on what they studied, according to new research published by the Postsecondary Education & Economics Research Center at American University.

Of the 18 most popular fields included in the report, return on investment is highest for Pharm.D. graduates, who see an average 114 percent earnings boost after graduate school. M.D.s and J.D.s also see high returns—110 percent and 59 percent, respectively. …

However, those numbers don’t take into account what the student paid to earn the graduate degree or the potential earnings they lost while in school. After factoring in those figures, M..D programs come out on top, offering a whopping 173 percent average lifetime earnings boost for graduates. Pharm.D. programs offer an average net earnings increase of 68 percent, J.D. programs 41 percent and master’s of public administration programs an average 26 percent boost. …

For M.B.A. and J.D. programs, postgraduate earnings correlate with U.S. News & World Report program rankings—programs that rank higher yield higher returns. 

Joseph Altonji (Yale) & Zhengren Zhu (Vassar), Returns to Specific Graduate Degrees: Estimates Using Texas Administrative Records (2026):

We estimate causal effects of 121 graduate degrees on log earnings. The returns average 0.159 but vary widely across fields, with a standard deviation of 0.176. Experience profiles of the returns also vary and are particularly steep for medicine. Internal rates of return, which account for program length, tuition, and in-school earnings, are sizable but vary less across fields. Earnings effects are higher for women, lower for part time students, and depend on undergraduate major. Students from lower-paying undergraduate majors benefit more from an MBA or JD. School specific returns are higher for higher ranked JD and MBA programs.

• American Enterprise Institute, Graduate School Is Riskier Than You Think
• Postsecondary Education & Economics Research Center, Do Graduate Degrees Pay Off?
• Postsecondary Education & Economics Research Center, Graduation Rates for Graduate School Deserve Attention
• New York Post, Most Popular Graduate Degrees Aren’t Worth the Money, Study Shows: ‘A Very Risky Proposition’
• Washington Post, Some of the Most Popular Graduate Degrees Don’t Pay Off Financially, Study Finds

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