My biggest financial regret has cost me $200K+ and growing

While regret is not a happy place to sit in too long, I disagree with the camp that says we should never regret anything or look back critically at choices we’ve made. It’s important to be honest with ourselves about whether or not actions that we’ve taken have pushed us toward the life we want or have distracted us along the way. To be clear, some distractions are wonderful and can accelerate the journey to where we want to end up, but there are likely others that have just slow us down. For me, the biggest waste of time and biggest financial mistake I ever made was going to graduate school.

I did a two year master’s program in public policy at an Ivy League institution under the guise of wanting to pivot into a new sector, but within a year of graduation, I was in a role that had zero use for my degree and now that I’m a few years out, my degree is even more useless. At this point, my diploma it’s an expensive decoration somewhere in the basement. I was completely unprepared for the huge financial decision that graduate school is: the tuition for the program alone cost $120,000+, which I paid for through student loans (took out the max possible) and the rest loaned from my parents (I’ve fully repaid them). Living expenses were high given that the school was located in one of the most expensive cities in the US and of course, I didn’t have the same level of income while working part-time. In total, I approximate the cost of attending graduate schools as $200,000 at the very minimum.

To give some context, before graduate school, I was at a very high stress startup job that I hated. One of the things I enjoyed most in life at that point was volunteering for an environmental nonprofit and I thought that I would be happier and more fulfilled if I pursued something more similar to that kind of work full-time. So, I decided to apply to policy programs and only applied to four top-tier schools and was accepted to two of them. One of them did offer me some scholarship money ($30K across two years) but it wasn’t enough to sway me. The craziest part of this whole process was that I had zero plans regarding how I was going to actually pay for school when I applied. I didn’t even really think about it until I got in and had to put down a deposit to secure my spot, at which point I decided to talked to my parents. At that point in time, I had very little money saved up except for what would qualify as an emergency fund. I hadn’t yet discovered FIRE and had no semblance of financial planning in my life. I was extremely privileged and lucky to get help from my parents and if I didn’t have them, I probably wouldn’t have gone (which might not have been a bad thing at all).

Once I got to grad school, on top of a very full course load, I ended up working like crazy to support my living expenses and to try out different roles by doing various internships. Then, in the second semester of my first year of grad school, Covid hit and I ended up doing Zoom school for the rest of my program. On so many levels, the tuition was not worth the $120K. While being on Zoom was a relief at the time because I was so burned out, it made for a poor learning experience and I missed out on the biggest part of graduate school, which is making friends and building community. Second, the program I did was disappointing in many ways. The caliber of people in the program was extremely low, some courses had not been revamped/updated in decades, and overall the program didn’t really provide the necessary skills, network, and knowledge to make the transition I was looking to make. Once again, I had chosen shiny, prestigious option that provided little value.

I did secure a decent job post-grad as a consultant at a boutique advisory firm working with climate change startups and a base salary 57% higher that the last full-time job I had been at. However, by the time I started that job full time, I was so incredibly burnt out. Looking back, I also decided to go to graduate school because I was incredibly burnt out and needed time away from constantly being stressed. But instead of resting, taking a break, or finding a sustainable solution, I went from one environment of madness to a different environment of madness and of course the burn out did not get better. It would have been much more cost effective if I had taken some time off, switched to a lower paying job, or basically done anything other than go back to school.

Regret is a loaded word but it does fit how I feel about having gone to graduate school. For those who are considering graduate school, I recommend that you have an honest conversation with yourself about what you’re really trying to get out it. Are you looking for a break? Are you looking to switch career paths? Are you seeking community, a network, or other social connections? Be honest about what it is that you really want. And then, figure out if there are other ways to accomplish the same thing—choices that might be more cost effective, easier, and quicker. We live in a very different world than a decade ago (even just five years ago). There are so many platforms and opportunities to learn that don’t necessitate traditional schooling.

The number one thing that I’ve learned is that grad school can’t teach what you need to get a job in a new field—this comes with experience and doing that job, which you’re most likely to get through a referral or networking. Of course, if you’re looking to get into a specific field where grad school is required like being a lawyer or doctor, fine. In my program, the people who most benefitted the most were those who knew they wanted to become ambassadors. The lesson here is that clarity and knowing where you want to end up is critical for a huge investment like grad school. It’s not enough to say you want to generally pivot into some general field (which is what I did). You also need to be realistic about what you can and are willing to give up to pursue this new path. A lot of the jobs that were in theory interesting and maybe more available to me post-grad school did not pay well and that wasn’t another reality I was willing to admit at the time.

The one thing that happened while I was in grad school that kind of made things okay was that the startup I was at went public and I came into a meaningful windfall. That’s what I used to pay to pay my parents back for grad school. It’s what has given me the freedom to pursue trading and investing full time. But that had nothing to do with grad school and isn’t something you can really hope or plan for. All to say, that if you’re considering grad school, don’t be like me and make a $200K financial mistake.