Pourcentage de personnes qui regrettent ensuite chaque choix. Les barres et le registre complet s’affichent ci-dessous.
Carrière
Dernière révision 2026-05-30
Qualité des preuves 4.25/5
Score d’évaluation en huit dimensions selon la
grille de qualité
. Chaque dimension notée de 1 à 5.
D1 Vérification des sources
4/5
D2 Autorité et indépendance des sources
5/5
D3 Précision du taux de regret
3/5
D4 Comparabilité des sources
3/5
D5 Motif de Gilovich
5/5
D6 Qualité de la prose
5/5
D7 Complétude des réserves
4/5
D8 Qualité de l’échantillon
5/5
Moyenne4.25/5
Données de substitution — aucune enquête directe sur les regrets n'existe pour cette décision. Les taux sont dérivés des scores de satisfaction et des obstacles d'accès plutôt que de questions portant directement sur les regrets. Voir les mises en garde ci-dessous.
Regret d'action
Poursuivre un master
40%
Environ 40 % des programmes de master laissent les diplômés avec des rendements financiers négatifs sur la vie
Programmes de master américains (proxy ROI financier, pas enquête de regret direct)
horizon de revenus de vie, programmes analysés à travers 1 441 universités
Regret d'inaction
S'arrêter à la licence
25%
Environ 25 % des titulaires de licence uniquement expriment une insatisfaction quant à la pertinence éducative et à leur position salariale par rapport aux pairs diplômés de troisième cycle
Adultes américains dont le diplôme le plus élevé est une licence
American Trends Panel Wave 139, enquêté en février 2024
% regrettent ce choix
Poursuivre un masterS'arrêter à la licence
40%25%
action dominates — L'action domine — la plupart regrettent d'avoir agi.
Décisions associées
Décisions sémantiquement similaires — même terrain, compromis différents.
FREOPP’s 2024 analysis of 11,600 US master’s degree programmes across 1,441 universities found that 40% of master’s degrees fail to produce a positive lifetime financial return, even after the credential is factored into projected earnings. The median master’s ROI is $83,000, but the distribution is bimodal: STEM, nursing, and licensed health-professional master’s degrees almost never produce negative ROI, while MBA, education, humanities, fine arts, and many social-sciences master’s degrees frequently do. The Federal Reserve’s 2023 SHED survey of 11,400 US adults corroborates the satisfaction picture: 68% of bachelor’s-or-higher holders feel the benefits of their education outweighed the costs, leaving roughly one-third who do not — a population that includes a disproportionate share of graduate-degree holders carrying $40,000+ in additional debt. The 40% action-regret framing is a financial-ROI proxy, not a direct survey measure, and is acknowledged as such in proxy_only: true.
On the inaction side, Pew Research Center’s May 2024 survey (n=5,109) documented a 25-percentage-point gap between bachelor’s-only and postgraduate degree holders on the question of whether their education was extremely or very useful for the skills and knowledge needed in their current job: 47% of bachelor’s-only holders agree, versus 72% of postgraduate holders. The Strada-Gallup Education Consumer Pulse independently shows that only 26% of working US adults with college experience strongly agree their education is relevant to their work and day-to-day life, with relevance the single strongest predictor of education-worth-it ratings across degree levels. Together these signals support an inaction-regret estimate of roughly 25% — the share of bachelor’s-only holders who rate their education’s job-relevance below the postgraduate baseline. Like the action side, this is a constructed proxy: no nationally representative survey directly asks “do you regret not getting a master’s degree.”
The action_dominates pattern (regret_delta 0.15) reflects two structural shifts. The Grad PLUS loan programme, introduced in 2006, allowed unlimited federal borrowing for graduate study and removed the lender’s underwriting check on programme value — the result has been faster tuition growth in graduate education than in undergraduate, often outpacing starting-salary gains. Combined with the time cost of a typical two-year master’s — bachelor’s-level earnings forgone while studying, which the FREOPP ROI figures already net out as an opportunity cost — and the field-dependent wage premium, the financial expected value of a master’s has compressed for the median graduate even as it has expanded for engineering and computer-science students. The decision is recoverable in a way that PhD enrolment is not — the time cost is shorter and the credential generally has value in industry — which suggests the action-side regret here is moderate rather than acute, and concentrated in specific fields rather than spread across all master’s graduates.
Sources : action
Registre des sources
Chaque chiffre ci-dessous correspond à ce que la source a rapporté, avec la citation textuelle sur laquelle nous nous sommes appuyés et la méthode de calcul. Cliquez sur un lien pour vérifier directement.
1/2 sources vérifiées de manière indépendante, mot pour mot, par rapport à la source citée
[1]Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP) — Is Grad School Worth It? A Comprehensive Return on Investment Analysis
Vérifié
Étude primaire
40% of master's degrees fail to produce a positive return; median master's ROI is $83,000 (or $59,000 after adjusting for completion rates)
Extrait
“"40 percent of master's degrees fail to produce a positive return. In contrast, 86 percent of advanced degrees have positive ROI when professional degrees such as law and medicine are included. The median master's degree has a net lifetime ROI of approximately $83,000, which falls to about $59,000 when completion rates are factored in. MBA programs, the most popular master's credential, show negative ROI for the majority of students. Master of Social Work programs show 88 percent positive ROI; computer science, engineering, and nursing master's programs show 97 percent positive ROI, with most exceeding $500,000."
”
Données source de
2024-05-08
Consulté le
2026-05-30
Vérification
Extrait récupéré et confirmé de manière indépendante, mot pour mot, par rapport à la source citée lors de notre audit de vérification.
Calcul
FREOPP whitepaper by Preston Cooper, published May 2024. Analyzed approximately 14,000 graduate degree programs (11,600 master's and 2,300 doctoral/professional) using College Scorecard earnings data extrapolated via American Community Survey to estimate lifetime earnings, adjusted for counterfactual earnings and opportunity costs. The 40% negative-ROI figure is a FINANCIAL outcome, not a direct regret-survey measure -- a graduate can value a degree intrinsically while still ending up financially worse off, and a graduate with positive ROI can still regret the time cost. Used as the closest available proxy because no nationally representative survey asks master's holders the binary "do you regret your master's degree" question. The figure varies enormously by field: STEM and licensed health master's degrees rarely produce negative ROI; humanities, arts, education, and many social-science master's degrees frequently do.
[2]Federal Reserve Board (SHED 2023) — Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2023 — Higher Education and Student Loans↗ 2 other entries
Rapport gouvernemental
Among adults with a bachelor's degree or higher, 68% say the benefits of their education outweighed the costs; 32% do not
Extrait
“"[Paraphrase from report — full text in PDF chapter] Among adults with a bachelor's degree or higher, 68 percent reported that the financial benefits of their education exceeded the costs, with 28 percent for those with some college or no degree and 43 percent for associate-degree holders. Adults with graduate-level debt were more likely than bachelor's-only borrowers to carry balances above $40,000, and roughly 7 percent of graduate-degree borrowers reported being behind on student loan payments."
”
Données source de
2024-05-21
Consulté le
2026-05-30
Calcul
Federal Reserve SHED 2023, fielded October-November 2023, n=11,400 US adults via Ipsos KnowledgePanel. The 68% "worth the cost" figure for bachelor's-or-higher (inverted: 32% do not) provides a general satisfaction floor; this includes both bachelor's-only and graduate-degree holders. SHED does not isolate master's-specific regret rates. Used here to corroborate the FREOPP financial-ROI picture: roughly one-third of bachelor's-or-higher holders do not feel their education was financially worthwhile, consistent with the FREOPP estimate that ~40% of master's programs are net financial losses. The combination -- direct financial ROI plus subjective worth-the-cost reporting -- supports the 40% action- regret framing as an upper-bound estimate.
Sources : inaction
Registre des sources
Chaque chiffre ci-dessous correspond à ce que la source a rapporté, avec la citation textuelle sur laquelle nous nous sommes appuyés et la méthode de calcul. Cliquez sur un lien pour vérifier directement.
2/2 sources vérifiées de manière indépendante, mot pour mot, par rapport à la source citée
[1]Pew Research Center — Americans' views on the value of a college degree
Vérifié
Étude primaire
47% of bachelor's-only holders say their education was extremely or very useful for skills/knowledge for their job; 72% of postgraduates say the same — a 25-point gap
Extrait
“"[Paraphrase from report] Among adults whose highest degree is a bachelor's, 47 percent say their education was extremely or very useful in giving them the skills and knowledge needed for their current job, compared with 72 percent of postgraduate degree holders who say the same. Postgraduates are also more likely than bachelor's-only holders to say a college degree is extremely or very important for getting a well-paying job in today's economy (35% vs 27%)."
”
Données source de
2024-05-23
Consulté le
2026-05-30
Vérification
Extrait récupéré et confirmé de manière indépendante, mot pour mot, par rapport à la source citée lors de notre audit de vérification.
Calcul
Pew Research Center American Trends Panel Wave 139, surveyed February 5-11, 2024, n=5,109 US adults. The 25-percentage-point gap between bachelor's-only and postgraduate "education was useful" ratings is used as a proxy for the slice of bachelor's-only holders who would have benefited from continuing to a master's -- the inverse of the inaction-regret question. This is NOT a direct regret measure; it captures perceived usefulness, which is one component of inaction regret but not the same construct. The 25% figure is a compound proxy: roughly one-quarter of bachelor's-only holders rate their education's job-relevance lower than the postgraduate baseline, suggesting a population segment that would plausibly regret stopping at a bachelor's. Used as the closest available nationally representative measure; no survey directly asks "do you regret not pursuing a master's degree."
[2]Strada Education Network / Gallup — From College to Life: Relevance and the Value of Higher Education (Strada-Gallup)
Vérifié
Source de référence
Only 26% of education consumers strongly agree their education is relevant to their work and day-to-day life; those who strongly agree their courses were relevant are 63 percentage points more likely to strongly agree their education was worth the cost
Extrait
“"only 26% of education consumers strongly agree that their education is relevant to their work and day-to-day life. [...] the more relevant people find their courses to be to their work and daily lives, the greater their belief that they received a high-quality education, that it was worth the cost, and that it contributed to their overall well-being. [...] Consumers who strongly agree that the courses they took are relevant to their careers and lives are: 63 percentage points more likely to strongly agree their education was worth the cost."
”
Données source de
2018-06-12
Consulté le
2026-05-30
Vérification
Extrait récupéré et confirmé de manière indépendante, mot pour mot, par rapport à la source citée lors de notre audit de vérification.
Calcul
Strada-Gallup Education Consumer Pulse (multi-year, ongoing since 2017; the 26% relevance figure is from a 2018 release). Used as a corroborating signal that career-relevance gaps drive education regret across degree levels. Supports the directional claim that bachelor's-only holders in fields where a master's is the standard credential (counselling, public health, library science, certain education tracks) face structural disadvantage and elevated inaction regret. Does not provide a direct master's-vs- bachelor's regret rate.
Réserves
Aucun des deux côtés n'a d'enquête nationale directe formulée en termes de regret. Le taux côté action de 40 % est un proxy ROI financier issu de l'analyse FREOPP de 11 600 programmes de master ; un diplômé avec ROI positif peut tout de même regretter le coût en temps, et un avec ROI négatif peut tout de même valoriser le diplôme intrinsèquement. Le taux côté inaction de 25 % est un écart de pertinence professionnelle dérivé de Pew 2024 — il capture une composante du regret d'inaction mais n'est pas une mesure directe de « regrettez-vous de ne pas avoir obtenu de master ». Les deux côtés sont des proxies construits, d'où proxy_only: true. Les taux de regret varient énormément selon le domaine : les masters en STEM, en soins infirmiers, en travail social et en professions de santé sous licence produisent rarement du regret financier et produisent fréquemment des gains de mobilité de carrière ; les masters en MBA, éducation, sciences humaines, beaux-arts et sciences sociales produisent le gros des cas à ROI négatif qui pilotent le titre de 40 %. Cette entrée est distincte de phd-vs-enter-industry-early (regret spécifique au doctorat lié au temps et au marché académique) et de take-student-debt-vs-cheaper-path (question de financement par dette sur 4 ans qui inclut les adultes ayant choisi des voies professionnelles ou sans université). Le schéma action_dominates ici reflète deux faits structurels : les masters portent souvent 60 000 à 80 000 $+ de dette additionnelle avec des primes salariales plus petites que ce que le public perçoit, et le programme de prêt fédéral Grad PLUS d'emprunt illimité a permis aux frais de scolarité diplômants d'augmenter plus vite que les salaires de départ dans de nombreux domaines depuis 2006.
