Marketplace

Well, I responded on the other question, so I'll bite here as well. Please don't think that I oppose the idea of grad school or education for its own sake -- I did a PhD out of love for the field (but thinking I would get a job in it), and though I ended up in another field entirely, I don't regret it. But I did a science PhD in a good program that payed me enough to live a comfortable lifestyle.

In Anna's case, however, I think that Chris is right on in saying first that the public school is a wiser decision, and second that going to grad school at all is likely not a good idea from a financial perspective. I can confirm as someone who recently looked at the academic job market (and had several acquaintances who actually went down that road) that community college jobs are very competitive nowadays, with the fraction of jobs going to PhDs steadily increasing (no, the PhD isn't a teaching degree any more than the master's, but it provides an easy screening tool and makes the school's statistics look better). Further, an increasing number of teachers in areas with a lot of students in introductory courses (like English) are being hired as adjuncts, with the horrible pay and benefits that accompany such positions.

If Anna goes the high school teaching route, then a master's might be a good financial decision; where I live, a teacher with a master's makes about $5,500 a year more than one with just a bachelor's, which could work out in the very long run (once the opportunity cost of two years of education is figured in). On the other hand, I see that in San Francisco a master's only gets you about $500 a year more, which makes it a sure money loser.

So the bottom line is that Anna should only go to grad school out of love for the field. There's nothing wrong with that as long as her eyes are open. I certainly would argue against the private school, however (while emphasizing to everyone that public/private is not the important distinction in these situations). Frankly, the idea of worrying about a small difference in marketability between master's degrees in English literature is a little silly.

If Anna gets further interested in the idea of a PhD, I would encourage her to read the columns here and here, and read other people's responses to those columns and similar ideas on the Chronicle forums. While I don't agree with the (common among disgruntled PhD graduates) perspective that university faculty actively deceive would-be graduate students, I do think that a lot of those prospectives don't really take the time to understand what they're getting themselves into for 5-8 years of school, plus the job search afterward.

Since I am a community-college English teacher and have sat on the competitive hiring committees many times, I thought I might as well weigh in on this one! Anna, I think you're right to conclude that the job market is almost equally difficult with either degree. In fact, from the view of the hiring committee, public/state universities are often appealing, since those are the places the majority of community college students will be moving on to. Then again, more job applicants will be showing up with degrees from those schools, too -- so it's really six-to-one.

Much more significant, in my opinion, is your actual experience while in the programs, as you yourself touched on. Having done both my undergrad and graduate work at small private schools, I'm a believer in the quality of the experience these schools can offer. I hope you'll have the chance to spend time visiting and meeting professors at both campuses, and getting the feeling of the community at both places as well. It's a frightening amount of debt to take on, as you are well aware -- then again, it is your life, your precious time, and if you end up with a strong feeling that your experience will be better in one program over the other, that is certainly something to consider. Good luck!