Can you have TOO many degrees?

[Captainrekt000]

I had a family member voice their concerns about me and told me I have too many/working on too many degrees and my head is going to explode.

This raises a few real questions: "Can you be too educated or have too many degrees?" How big of a red flag is it to have 4 associates, 5 bachelor's, and 6 masters to employers? For most of us, it's mostly an expensive hobby.

As long as they're all regionally accredited, and we have the cash, what's the harm? Is there any benefit to getting a nationally accredited master's when you have at least 1 RA BA/BS and 1 RA MA/MS?

I considered adding the $900 ML from Patten U and the $3000 HAU MBA but would there be any pros/cons to having the NA Patten U degree on my resume/LinkedIn?

For context, I come from a low-income family where I'm the only one with any type of college degree (AS+BS+MS)

[bjcheung77]

Basically, this has been talked about before, on both the sister board and here... When you have graduate degrees, you rarely look at the Associates level, and sometimes discard the Bachelors level. Further to that, when applying for positions, you would like to fill in relevant degrees, certs, experience, etc, you don't want to bombard them with non-relevant info. I would leave the associates off the resume and any non relevant info NA degrees too, keep it compact and concise...

[bluebooger]

at what point are you educated enough that you don't need a professor to assign you work ?

go to a bookstore and buy some books, read them
go to the great courses website and buy some videos
subscribe to professional magazines
attend conferences
if somebody is doing a hobby they can spend the money other ways, often more productive ways than doing an in-person or online degree


why the hell do you need a
Kairos MA Leadership
if you're going to get an
HAU MBA

is there anything in the MA Leadership program that the MBA program isn't going to teach you and that you couldn't learn from 5 books purchased from Amazon ?


it juts shows poor judgement
and poor ability to manage money, time, goals and desires

[Jonathan Whatley]

I respect the side quests, but don't give them too much from your main quest.

[StudiousTraveller]

I agree with bjcheung77 that I would only put relevant education on a job application, in the case of multiple degrees, certifications etc.

Personally, I see absolutely ZERO harm in having multiple degrees if that is how you like to spend your time, you have the funds to do so, and it isn't hurting anyone.

Sure, you could spend your money in another way as bluebooger suggested and buy books, attend conferences etc. but if you prefer to learn new things by taking courses, go for it! There are many reasons why someone might prefer to earn a degree instead of simply reading books, consuming videos etc. I'm also willing to bet that if you are earning a degree, you are likely also seeking out additional resources like books, videos, magazines etc. anyway.

You mention you have the cash, so that doesn't sound like you have a "poor ability to manage money" to me. I agree with you, that it could be considered an "expensive hobby" but there are plenty of people in this world with hobbies that are equally as "expensive" and nobody takes issue with those hobbies. For example, if you took the same money and bought a sailboat to take up that sailing as a hobby, I bet nobody would consider it showed "poor judgement" etc.. As long as you're taking care of yourself, how you spend your discretionary funds is nobody's business but your own!

[Hotdogman1]

Meh, I grew up playing pokemon. Go catch em all.

[origamishuttle]

Meh, I grew up playing pokemon. Go catch em all.

This is the correct answer. Not possible to have too many degrees. Also, I may be working on one or more master's degrees... 

[NotJoeBiden]

It depends what your goals are. Continuous learning is vital for personal wellbeing, development, and growth. This can take many forms including degrees.

There is a reducing return of investment as one gets more and more degrees, and even less if those are redundant degrees.

I will say with 6 masters you might consider a doctorate or something beyond a masters since I think you will get more value from that than from another one or two masters degrees. But if you find these degrees reflect your overall goals, then tell me to f*ck off and move forward. You do you king.

[origamishuttle]

I don't know about all that, but I get reimbursement from work, so I might as well keep going!

[NotJoeBiden]

If you can get someone to pay for your degrees, then what I said doesn’t matter as much. The only real consideration is time and effort at that point.