My Grad School Journey: Financial and Career Considerations for a Master’s Degree

Headshots of Danielle, Gigi, Leti and text for my grad school journey: the financial and career considerations for earning a master's degree

Money conversations podcast episode with Danielle Hall

Are you considering graduate school and wondering if it’s worth it? We’ve got you covered!

In this episode of the money conversations podcast series, Making Waves financial services coordinators, Leticia (“Leti”) Perez and Briggitte (“Gigi”) Bolanos Vieyra, sat down with Danielle Hall, college success coach at Making Waves, for a candid conversation on the financial and career considerations around grad school decisions.

Danielle shared about her personal graduate school journey pursuing a Master of Science, or M.S., degree in college counseling and student development, covering topics like:

  • Time, cost, and job considerations in deciding if graduate school is right for you
  • How to align your graduate school degree with your career growth goals
  • Choosing between public and private universities and different program options
  • How to pay for graduate school and manage your college budget
  • How to maximize the financial and career benefits of graduate school

“Honestly now that I’ve been through it, I think it was the best fit for me,” Danielle shared. “The program, the people, the connections, the jobs that I had, the assistantships, the traveling that I did – I don’t regret any of those experiences even though it cost me a lot of money.”

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About Making Waves Education Foundation

At Making Waves, we are committed to educational equity. Making Waves Education Foundation is a Bay Area nonprofit that supports Making Waves Academy – a public charter school with more than 1,100 5th through 12th grade students – and leads college and career programming with more than 430 college students.​

Knowing the opportunities that come with a college degree, we partner with historically underrepresented and underserved students to help make college affordable and graduation attainable. Centering the journeys of our students, our personalized approach includes college and career coaching, scholarships, and financial planning.​

Our alumni network includes more than 730 college graduates, who earn their degrees and land jobs at more than twice the rate of their first-generation, low-income peers, with 85% graduating debt-free.