My story (shortened)
I completed a bachelor’s in business in 1999 at the age of 31 after working on it for 10 long years! I WANTED to earn a master’s in music. I started my search shortly after earning my bachelor’s degree. Here are the obstacles I faced…
- I was the parent of 4 young kids (ages 9 to 2)
- The cost! Even in the late 90s, many programs cost upwards of 50k.
- Many colleges told me, “Since your undergrad is in business, you will need to complete about 2 years of additional undergrad work before starting on a master’s degree.” “Oh, and you’ll have to quit your job to come to school full time.”
There was no way that was happening!
I continued to look, to talk to people manning the booths at the state conferences, to send an email to receive more info from colleges that advertised their summer master’s programs in our journals. I kept getting the same answers. Finally I found what I was looking for at SWOSU.
Can you believe the ENTIRE PROGRAM at SWOSU – including room and board over three summers – cost me less than $9,000? And it is still very affordable. Did I receive the exact same education I would have received at a program that cost me $50,000? Probably not, but I know I didn’t lose $41,000 of instruction. My best guess in observing others and hearing what they’ve learned is that maybe these other colleges were 10% better.
In my program, one summer I was the only person taking the Marching Band Pedagogy class. The class was 100% tailored to my needs. The professor and I have become life-long friends. I don’t know if I would have gotten that at a bigger and more expensive school. My biggest class contained 8 students.
My first summer cost me $3,000, but then I immediately received a $3,000 raise that fall from the credits earned, so it was an immediate payback. After my master’s degree was completed, I had a $5,000 raise, so from 2012 when I completed my master’s degree to 2023 when I retired from full time teaching, that master’s degree had a $50,000+ return on an investment of $9,000. That’s an awesome return.
Here are a few thoughts…
- Consider where you are personally. If you have small kids, you may want to wait until they’re older. When I went back, my two oldest had graduated and my 2 youngest were in junior and senior high. I was the oldest one in my master’s program, but that didn’t matter to me. Hopefully I was able to mentor some of the younger students, many of whom had never taught. And that was often obvious from their answers to questions.
- Don’t go into debt! It can be avoided. Debt often doesn’t pay off. If I had spent 50-60k on that master’s, I would just now be getting the return on the investment 12 years later. There was an inexpensive college closer to me (just half an hour away), but their program was a master’s in education with a concentration in music. I really wanted the master’s in music education.
- Sometimes the time isn’t right, but it’s never too late. I first wanted to start a master’s in 1999, but I didn’t get to start until 2010.
James Divine is a retired band teacher. He still teaches half time at a charter school, spending the other half leading Professional Development and creating curriculum like Jazz From The Start to teach jazz and improv to young students. Get an early edition of his book Almost Everything I’ve Learned About Teaching Band.