副标题：New data show a shockingly high proportion of courses are a waste of money本篇主要说美国和英国本科以上学位的投资回报小。政府助推贷款导致价格上涨，名校为赚钱提供不确定回报的课程。
为什么人们想获得硕士学位：“The number-one reason people get these degrees is insecurity,” reckons Bob Shireman of the Century Foundation, a left-leaning think-tank in New York. “The feeling that if they are going to get a job—or keep their job—they need a master’s degree.” Yet on average these provide a much smaller bump to wages than an undergraduate degree does.但是硕士学位对提高工资作用不明显
英美学费越来越贵：Since 2000 the cost of postgraduate study in America has more than tripled in real terms, according to the Centre on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University. In Britain domestic master’s students paid about £9,500 ($13,000) a year in 2021, some 70% higher than in 2011 after accounting for inflation.
英国数据表明本科直接毕业会更好：In 2019 analysts at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a think-tank in London, concluded that one-fifth of undergraduates would be better off if they skipped university all together这是不鼓励继续深造的节奏啊
美国选择硕士学科很重要：In America returns are especially large in computer science and in engineering. They are slightly smaller in other science subjects, in part because an undergraduate degree in these already bumps up salaries by quite a lot.有的学科回报高有的低
英国不同学科硕士学位回报区别：British men who complete master’s degrees in politics earn 10% less in their mid-30s than peers who do the same subject at undergraduate level only. For history the hit to earnings is around 20%; for English it is close to 30%
选择好的学校并不那么重要：“Brand-name schools have realised that they can trade on their reputation to offer programmes that look very prestigious on paper,” says Dr Cooper, “but which don’t have outcomes that justify the hype.”可能名校为了赚钱提供水课。一个例外MBA courses are a notable exception: graduates from the most celebrated institutions make far more than everyone else.
在英国女性更有可能通过攻读硕士学位来提高收入：The British study finds that these qualifications increase earnings for women in 14 out of 31 subject areas; for men that is true in only six of them.
政府助推贷款导致提高成本：In 2016 master’s students in Britain became eligible for government-backed loans with generous repayment terms. America’s federal government limits how much it will lend to undergraduates—but since 2006 has allowed postgraduates to borrow whatever their universities choose to charge. In both cases easy money has led to price inflation.
