What is more, a bachelor's degree at Ivy League or a master's degree at a lesser university?

Question

What is more qualified for jobs, and what pays more generally? I am talking about especially in chemistry areas.

Answer 1

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

A master's at a lesser university.

It doesn't matter if you have a BS in chemistry from Harvard, unless you have a PhD, you can't become a professor.

So basically, no matter where you get your bachelor's from, unless you have a master's or PhD, it will be very hard to get higher positions. You need certain degrees, and you can't replace a master's from a state college with a bachelor's from an Ivy League.

Besides, what you really need to do is look into whether the programs at whatever colleges you're interested in have highly trained professors, excellent research opportunities, and which program focuses more on whatever area of chemistry you're interested in.

Just because it's Ivy League doesn't necessarily mean it's going to have a better program than a cheaper school. And employers know whether the chemistry program at a certain Ivy League school is comparable to that at a cheaper school.

Answer 2

Depends on the job I guess. I'm a teacher, and it doesn't matter if you got your degrees from Clarion University for 6K/year or Yale for 48K/year, you get paid on the payscale. If you have a Masters, you get paid more.

edit: Many research type jobs for Chemistry will be government related, so will have step systems, where a Master's degree will pay you more. . . That said, a degree from Cornell may open more doors at interviews than one from Shippensburg.

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