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Schools

&lt;p&gt;As decisions go, the one to go to grad school or not is up there with some of the most expensive life choices you&#39;re going to make. A degree from a reputable school in a field that is likely to enhance your career prospect will set you back anywhere from $40,000 to almost $170,000 (if you do your MBA at Columbia).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Compare that range to the ticket price of other life-changing events that you might undergo before turning 40:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Cost of an average wedding:&#160;&lt;a href=&quot;http://money.cnn.com/2014/03/28/pf/average-wedding-cost/&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;$30,000&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Cost of an average divorce:&#160;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.huffingtonpost.com/galtime/how-much-does-the-average_b_3360433.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;$15,000 to $20,000&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Cost of an average week in Vegas for your friend&#39;s ridiculous bachelor/bachelorette party:&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lasvegas4newbies.com/chap2-2.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;$1,250&lt;/a&gt;&#160;(not including bail money).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Cost of a tattoo: &lt;a href=&quot;http://health.costhelper.com/tattoo.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;$75 to $100 per hour&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Cost of tattoo removal: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.realself.com/question/how-much-does-tattoo-removal-cost&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;$75 to $300 per session&lt;/a&gt; (with 5-10 sessions necessary for removal).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Median US home price: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/13/median-home-price-2014_n_4957604.html&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;$188,900&lt;/a&gt;. (No, wait…why are all you coastal city dwellers sobbing?)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Average cost to raise a child: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentidonly=true&amp;amp;contentid=2014/08/0179.xml&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;$245,340&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;So, while the right degree can definitely open doors to a more lucrative career path, it&#39;s important to be careful when assessing schools: the wrong choice can end up costing you more than the fallout from that time you woke up in Vegas, sporting a freshly tattooed-on wedding band—unless you also end up having to factor in the final item from the list above.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The reason I&#39;m bringing all this up: I recently took the plunge and went back to school—online.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Having carefully weighed the pros and cons (and I mean carefully: at 36, and several years into my commitment to spending an apparent half million dollars on child-rearing, this decision has been &lt;em&gt;years&lt;/em&gt; in the making for me), I finally decided last fall that I couldn&#39;t wait any longer—but that I also couldn&#39;t afford to take the 2 year career sabbatical to attend a bricks and mortar institution.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Having been alerted to the possibilities of online education via my work at Vault over the past few years, I have few fears about the quality of the program I&#39;m attending via my laptop every night. To be clear, though, I did have &lt;em&gt;some &lt;/em&gt;fears: you don&#39;t have to scrape too far below the surface to find evidence of unscrupulous behavior in the sector, largely from for-profit schools charging massive amounts of money without any apparent concern for whether their students complete the programs or not.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;My one remaining fear is that those bad operators are tainting the entire concept of the online degree. While there&#39;s increasing evidence to suggest that employers are &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2012-07-06/employers-warm-up-to-online-mbas&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;becoming more open to the concept&lt;/a&gt;, I still took extra precautions when researching schools and programs to ensure that I knew as much as possible about the reputability of both before taking the plunge.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;And so here I am, 2 weeks into my first semester: slightly sleep-deprived; coming to terms with the realization that my nights, weekends and vacation time are no longer my own for the next 2 years; getting used to finding quiet spots with enough room to hold an open textbook while commuting; getting to know a group of classmates who are scattered around the country; and rediscovering skills that I haven&#39;t used in a long time, like taking notes that will make sense more than 2 days from now.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;It&#39;s too early yet to be able to make a definitive call about the program, and I&#39;m sure there will be plenty of ups and downs in the months ahead. But whenever there are useful insights about the grad school experience--particularly the online experience--I&#39;ll be sure to share them here.&lt;/p&gt;

Phil Stott

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