How do you actually measure the ROI of grad school? Curious how people think about this beyond just salary bumps

[u/Unable_Suggestion565]

I've been trying to figure out how to evaluate whether grad school was (or will be) "worth it," and I keep running into the problem that the standard framing — compare your post-degree salary to what you would have earned otherwise — feels way too reductive.

Like, how do you factor in things like:

• Opportunity cost of lost wages during school
• Tuition debt and the interest on it
• Non-financial outcomes (career flexibility, prestige, personal growth, access to a network)
• Time to break even vs. years left in your career
• Funded programs where you're actually earning a stipend
• Counterfactual earnings — what would you realistically have made without the degree?

Wondering how people here have actually tried to quantify this — or whether you've made peace with the idea that some of it can't be quantified at all. Did you build a spreadsheet? Run the numbers after the fact? Decide the math doesn't matter? Would love to hear different approaches, especially from people in fields where the ROI calculation is genuinely murky (academia, arts, social work, etc.).

[u/Brooklyn-Epoxy]

It's impossible. Instead of going down that rabbit hole, follow your dream or, in the near term, go for a walk in the woods.