Anya Kamenetz Generation Debt

Even more than other grad students, MBAs are expected to enter school with years of related work experience. Maybe that's why they find it so rewarding.

Over the past few years, MBAs have averaged between $30,000 and $40,000 in student loan debt. Their average starting salaries, on the other hand, are over $80,000, and for those in the top-10 schools, over $90,000.

• Medical school

"Medical student debt is at a crisis point," as the American Medical Association (AMA) concluded in a 2003 report. Loans average over $100,000, while for at least three years after graduating you'll be a resident earning between $35,000 and $40,000 a year.

The AMA found that high loan debt affects specialty choice and leads to feelings of depression and burnout among residents. In the long run, however, medical salaries do tend to offset debt, ranging from a low of $100,000 for family practitioners to a high of $850,000 for cardiologists.

And let's not forget dentists. They borrow as much, have lower stress than most doctors, and can earn the same six-figure salaries.

• Master's programs

In general, master's degree students come out with an average of about $32,000 in debt, while for Ph.D.s it's around $53,000. Those with master's degrees earn about 18 percent more than those with bachelor's degrees on average, and Ph.D.s earn about 50 percent more.

Technical fields have a bigger payoff. Graduates with master's degrees in computer science, engineering, or math earn about 50 percent more than those with bachelor's degrees.

Education, one of the most common master's degrees, has a comparatively small but positive payoff.

• Law school

Law students borrow over $80,000 on average. Starting salaries at large firms are over $100,000, but beware: The best jobs are reserved for those at the top-tier law schools. Small firms, nonprofits, and government jobs pay around $40,000 to start.

Officials in the profession are concerned that exploding debt is making lives harder for non-corporate lawyer types. If you're interested in public interest law, look for a loan repayment assistance program, which will help pay back your debt in exchange for serving the public good.

• Advanced degrees in the humanities

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the payoff from social science and liberal arts master's degrees is actually negative -- the average liberal arts MA earns less than the average of all BAs.

And according to an in-depth study conducted back in 1999, those with Ph.D.s in the humanities had the highest debt and lowest income of all students in all disciplines.

Moreover, universities are increasingly relying on part-timers rather than tenured professors. That means the number of well-paying, secure jobs in academia is going down.

• Advanced degrees from art, culinary, and journalism schools

From a dollars-and-cents perspective, the worst values in graduate education are those in which tuition is high and average earnings are low or unpredictable: fine arts, creative writing, and cooking come to mind. Popular and exclusive graduate programs in creative and competitive fields can charge high prices because they promise access to an inner circle -- a crucial edge in a line of work that's always going to be a bit of a gamble.

This spring, the New York Times detailed the plight of those who borrow $80,000 in private loans to attend culinary school, when average beginning salaries in the restaurant industry are between $20,000 and $30,000.

Entry-level salaries in journalism are only a bit higher, in the $30,000 to $35,000 range, and the world of print journalism is currently in incredible turmoil. So taking on a high five figures of debt for this career is a big risk as well.

Choose Wisely

The grad students I meet generally have high aspirations and a desire for meaningful careers. Yet it's still quite possible to become a novelist without an MFA, a journalist without a journalism degree, and just about anything without a master's in media studies.

It's important to remember that universities create and market new graduate programs to serve their own needs as much as to add value for prospective students. So anyone who's smart enough to get an advanced degree should be smart enough to limit their expenses to a minimum and choose a program that will widen their options without saddling them with debt.