The Wall Street Journal has an article today about late cohort Baby Boomers returning to “fellowship” programs at prestigious universities before embarking on a late stage career change.  As a GenX-er who has completed 3 masters degrees–one for me, one to further my career, and one to set me up for a career change for the second half–and who has been admitted to University of Leicester for a PhD starting in 2018, I can’t help but think that these Baby Boomers are wasting money in non-degree programs at Harvard and Stanford.

These people are already accomplished.  They are not 25 year-olds, needing the prestigious name.  They should be preparing themselves for a second act, cost-effectively.  For example, when I went shopping for an MBA at age 41, I settled on University of Nebraska, because: (a) it is a D1 football school everybody has heard of, (b) it had a program that was outside of my area of expertise from work, Finance (why study something you already know?), and (c) I could do the degree for less than $35,000 while keeping my day job.

I did my degree in International Relations at Troy University in Alabama, because it was cost effective and provided an excellent education in the field.  It is true that it is a school only known regionally, but was a stepping stone towards a PhD (the required credential for policy work in D.C.).

I settled on a UK-based PhD, because it was cost effective and short.  US-based PhD programs were 4 times more costly in money and 50% more costly in time.  As a holder of 3 masters degrees and previous employment as a scientist, I didn’t need the course work equivalent of two more.  What I needed was research training and supervision in my field, hence the UK.

Most of these people would probably be better served at Oxford, Cambridge, King’s College, or Aberdeen than in a non-degree program at full freight private university in the US.