On the value of Grad school...

[sanantone]

The author seems to be mostly talking about academic graduate schools, and not professional degrees. In that case, I largely agree. Graduate degrees that don't directly lead to a new job or promotion seem to mostly be a luxury item - if you can't afford it, don't go.

Entry level professional degrees are a totally different thing though. Becoming a qualified clinician, therapist, lawyer, teacher - a lot of these programs are entry level Masters and/or Doctorate programs now, as bachelor's degrees get more and more devalued. It's still worth being sensible about cost of course (don't go $400k into debt for a gorram teaching degree, for instance), but the return on investment is much more predictable.

I'm not sure where the MBA lands on that scale though.

The MBA is considered a professional degree only because it's an applied subject, but it's different from the ones that specifically qualify you for an occupational license. Whether you'll get a good ROI with an MBA is hit or miss unless you attended one of the top business schools.