To put it mildly, I’m a believer in the importance of higher education and graduate studies because without it I would never have understood the basics of marketing. But I’m also concerned that some people view grad school as a panacea — a universally applicable fallback and a sure-fire ticket to promotion to become a Marketing Executive, the way teachers still get a union-mandated pay raise if they get their master’s degree.

In a world where the value of even a college education is coming under increased scrutiny it’s worth asking:

What about grad school?

There are obvious cases where a graduate degree is mandatory; you’re not going to get very far as a doctor or lawyer if you haven’t done the requisite schooling. But what about everyone else? Would an MBA, with an emphasis on marketing give them that extra edge? Often, the answer is no. There are a lot of things you could do with $100,000, and going to school because you aren’t sure what to do with yourself or you think marketing is kind of cool, could be a colossally misguided move.

If you’re taking the plunge, it’s essential to think through how the graduate experience in marketing will benefit you, and know in advance what you hope to get out of it.

If you’re doing a graduate program just to get the degree on your wall, or if only a handful of classes excite you, it’s far better (and cheaper) to take adult-ed or extension school classes. Classes today range anywhere from marketing basics to cutting edge social media applications to target audiences.

Here are a few other reasons why you want to pause before you invest $100,000 into a graduate marketing degree

Because you aren’t sure what you want to do with your life.

Yes, it’s a better alternative than moping around if you’re unemployed. But it’s also expensive — and that means you need to treat it like an investment, which means you’ve done your research and really thought about how you can extract the most learning and value from it. If you’re not even sure what your ultimate goal is, you’re wasting your time and money. Go travel instead, or start a blog, or keep doing informational interviews until you get clarity.

Because your marketing career is stalled.

It’s the script we’ve all heard from our parents: education is the answer! But let’s be clear: you won’t be promoted because you have a graduate degree. You may get promoted because of what you learned in graduate school and how you apply it in say a marketing campaign, which is very different — and unfortunately requires a lot more insight and effort.

Because you got in somewhere.

There are great marketing professors at many universities, and you can undoubtedly learn a tremendous amount from them. But the reality is that if you’re going to make a six-figure investment, you should demand even more value — and that comes in the form of a powerful alumni network. A while back, an ambitious young man named Scott contacted me for advice; he had been a junior market analyst at an organization where I consulted.

He’d applied to business school and now had a choice between a small state school where he could easily afford the tuition, or a “name brand” MBA program with a storied history, but an expensive price tag. What should he do? I’m no fan of debt, but the answer was obvious. If he was going purely for personal edification, he could probably get a wonderful education at the cheaper school. But if he was going so he could take his marketing career to the next level, it was worth investing: a marquee name on your degree and connections to the nation’s powerbrokers are worth it.

Conclusion

The truth is, graduate school for marketing isn’t for everyone. It’s simply too expensive, and requires too much time and effort, to take a “why not?” attitude. It can be exactly the leverage you need if you’re an ambitious, thoughtful learner who knows what you want out of the experience. But if you’re thinking about going because you aren’t sure about your direction, or because your career isn’t advancing the way you’d like, it’s important to realize: a master’s degree isn’t a magic pill that will solve all problems. It’s more like a targeted therapy: it works hard (and gets results) when you do.