Is a Degree Worth It? Part III

In this third installment, I want to take a look at the decade that has passed and the events in my life that have refined my view.

When I wrote the first piece in this series, I was reflecting on my own long, winding journey through higher education — working full-time while finishing my Bachelor of Business Administration, then grinding through a Master of Science in Management. I had put in the time, the money, and the effort, and I wanted to know whether it had really been worth it.

I argued that degrees have become more than credentials; they’re social signals. They tell employers that you can commit, follow through, and navigate a structured system — even if what you learned isn’t directly related to the job. But I also questioned whether that system still makes sense. With information so widely available, and with so many other ways to prove competence, the traditional college model — especially for liberal arts — feels increasingly outdated.
I pointed to a troubling study showing that nearly half of college students show no measurable gains in critical thinking, reasoning, or writing after two years. That raised an uncomfortable question: if the point of higher education is intellectual growth, what are we really paying for? My conclusion was nuanced — a degree is often necessary because of hiring norms, but that doesn’t make the system efficient or valuable in the way it once was.

In the follow-up, I dug deeper into the tension between what a degree should mean and what it actually delivers. I framed it around two sides of the debate — the reasons a degree isn’t worth it, and the reasons it still can be.

On the negative side, I listed five reasons why a new bachelor’s degree can feel almost worthless. Credential inflation means everyone has one, so it doesn’t distinguish you. The supposed job security is mostly an illusion. Student debt can crush graduates before they even start. And universities themselves often seem more concerned with research funding and institutional prestige than with real learning outcomes.

Still, I didn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. I acknowledged that a degree can open doors, improve lifetime earnings, and stretch your mind in ways self-study might not. But I argued that education only pays off when it’s intentional — when it serves a purpose bigger than “checking the box.”

I closed with a reminder that neither having a degree nor skipping college guarantees success. It all depends on what you do with the opportunities you have — and whether your choices align with your goals and values.

In this third installment, I want to take a look at the decade that has passed and the events in my life that have refined my view.

After I last wrote on this topic, I went on to earn another master’s degree in Cyber Policy Risk Analysis. There were a few reasons I pursued this route. One was that, as I looked toward future career opportunities, I needed something more specialized than a management degree to stand out from other candidates. Another was that, when I looked at terminal degrees back in 2015, there weren’t many options that leveraged my technical background.

I briefly explored the idea of law school, focusing on Cyber Law, but after a little research, I realized I was already earning more than most corporate lawyers—and without the prospect of starting a practice or moving to a major city. I also looked into doctorates in Cyber, but there weren’t many programs available, and none that seemed worth the cost. I initially enrolled in one university for a Cyber master’s, but transferred after a few courses when I realized their focus wasn’t what I was looking for. The second school was designated as an NSA Center of Academic Excellence in Cyber Defense (CAE-CD)—a credential that carried real weight at the time, and that mattered to me.

After I finished that degree, the student loans started coming due, so I needed a little extra income. I went from being the student to being the teacher and started adjuncting at a local community college—the same college where I’d earned my first degree, an Associate of Applied Science in Missile and Munitions Technology. I was working as a defense contractor during the day, and teaching at night and online.

I’d always valued adjuncts when I was in college because they brought a “boots-on-the-ground” perspective that full-time instructors often lacked. As Alexandra Trenfor is attributed as saying, “The best teachers are those who show you where to look, but don’t tell you what to see.¹”

Years later, during the COVID pandemic, I went through what my wife jokingly calls my midlife crisis: I left defense contracting to teach college full-time. It was a definite hit financially—one we still feel—but I’d reached a point where I found more fulfillment preparing others to defend cyberspace than doing it myself.

A few years later, my oldest child was finished high school and preparing for college. Ultimately, she decided to attend the same community college where I teach. Cost was the deciding factor. It made far more sense for her to earn an associate’s degree with little debt than to chase a bachelor’s with heavy loans attached. She’ll be graduating this coming spring.

Meanwhile, my younger daughter was pursuing an option that didn’t even exist when I was her age: dual enrollment. She’ll graduate high school with nearly all the coursework for an associate’s degree. That’s caused me to re-evaluate traditional high school altogether. If a student can handle college classes at 15, why wait until 18? The state of Alabama even publishes a High School Postsecondary Course Equivalency Table that shows which college courses count toward high school credit. For the right student, it’s an incredible opportunity to save both time and money.

As my younger daughter evaluates colleges for the coming fall, she’ll technically be a freshman—but one with nearly the coursework of a junior. That will dramatically reduce her debt load and give her the freedom to focus on co-ops and internships that build the professional network she’ll need after graduation.

Now let’s pivot back to me, and what’s been unofficially diagnosed as my learning addiction. My wife had hoped that once I started teaching college, I’d stop attending it myself. The desire for a terminal degree had waned—until I began teaching full-time.

I attended my first graduation when I earned my first master’s degree. I didn’t know anyone there; it was a ceremony for students across the country who’d attended the university’s “Worldwide” campus. We all looked the same in our identical regalia. But my first graduation as faculty was different. I was proud to be there, but standing next to colleagues in full doctoral regalia made my own robes feel… incomplete.

Did I need a doctorate to teach cybersecurity at a community college? No. But I wanted the velvet robe with the hash marks on the sleeves and the Tam O’Shanter instead of the mortarboard. In some ways, it was vanity. I wanted to be “Doctor” instead of “Mister.” I wanted to max out on my education. As William Butler Yeats (supposedly) put it, “Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.²”

My next step was to determine what I was willing to pay to achieve this goal. I also had to ask myself a bigger question: did I want to stay in the classroom forever, or eventually move into administration? I genuinely enjoy teaching at the micro-level—working with students, seeing the lightbulb moments when things click. But since I made this career change mid-life, I’ve still got decades ahead before retirement.

That adjunct mindset I once valued will fade as I spend more years out of industry. Eventually, my “war stories” will lose their edge. When that happens, the logical move will be into administration—where I can influence education at the macro-level.

This past spring, I began working on a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Educational Leadership, with a focus in Higher Education. I’ve already heard the critiques—some Ph.D.s view the Ed.D. as a lesser degree. Whatever. They might be right for their path, but mine is about practical impact, not theory. I’m not aiming to be a research professor. I want to help people build the skills that lead to real jobs—first as an instructor, and later, as an administrator.

I’m reminded of this quote by President Theodore Roosevelt in his Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910:

It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.³

Given my background, I didn’t even glance at Ivy League schools or programs that trade on prestige. I wanted an accredited, affordable university that offered real value. I shopped around and found one that fit. I couldn’t tell you a thing about their athletics, and frankly, I don’t care. That’s sacrilege in the South, but I couldn’t care less who won last weekend’s football game.

The practical question remains: will I make more money with this Ed.D. than I do now with two master’s degrees? Before answering that, I have to ask whether having two master’s degrees made me more money than one.

My first master’s in management helped open doors. It made me a stronger candidate in interviews and served as a clear discriminator. Around the same time, I earned my CISSP certification—another major career milestone. Between the degree and the certification, both played their roles in my professional growth.

My second master’s, in Cyber Policy Risk Analysis, gave me the strategic and policy perspective I needed to complement my technical background. It made me better at my job as a contractor and qualified me to teach cybersecurity courses at the college level. Each degree served a purpose at its time. Did they pay for themselves? Probably—but it’s hard to quantify.

Will the doctorate provide a good return on investment? Given my plan to stay in higher education until retirement, I think it will. Still, it’s more a gut decision than a spreadsheet calculation.

That brings me full circle to the question I first asked back in 2012: Is a degree worth it?

My answer now is a resounding maybe. There are simply too many variables—career paths, timing, family goals, personal values—to apply a single answer.

Looking at my children helps put this in perspective. My oldest wants to stay in technology but isn’t drawn to engineering (anymore, at least), so stopping after her associate’s degree makes sense. My younger daughter will probably continue to a bachelor’s in a field that offers a strong return on investment. And my son, who’s just beginning high school—who knows? My hope is that he can finish high school with an associate’s degree already in hand and then decide his own path.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned since I first asked whether a degree is worth it, it’s that the answer changes as life changes. In 2012, I viewed education through the lens of career advancement. A decade later, I see it as a continuum—a lifelong pursuit that evolves with who we are and what we value.

As Abigail Adams once said, “Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardour and attended to with diligence.⁴” The worth of a degree isn’t measured solely in dollars or titles, but in the doors it opens, the people it shapes us to become, and the opportunities it gives us to make a difference.

For me, it’s meant finding purpose in both learning and teaching—and realizing that education, like life, is only as valuable as what we do with it.

Footnotes:

1. This person may not even exist, and the quote may be fake: https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/2014/03/10/one-way-to-make-yourself-much-smarter-right-now/ ↩︎
2. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/dont-delay/200805/education-is-not-the-filling-of-a-pail-but-the-lighting-of-a-fire ↩︎
3. https://www.trcp.org/2011/01/18/it-is-not-the-critic-who-counts/ ↩︎
4. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/04-03-02-0240 ↩︎