As a holder of five degrees, I haven't found them to be a waste. Well, three of them came in getting my PhD in physics. Along the way, I got an MA and some deg

As a holder of five degrees, I haven't found them to be a waste. Well, three of them came in getting my PhD in physics. Along the way, I got an MA and some degree called a Master of Philosophy (M. Phil. for short). So for three of them I got paid with a stipend, though you could argue my opportunity costs were greater than the roughly $27,000 per year I got paid. Then I went back for an MBA. I'm still paying it off, but I've used it to improve my quality of life more than I think I would have without that degree. I work fewer hours than most people and consider myself consistently happier and more effective than most people I know, in particular than I was before the leadership classes I took. Incidentally, they're all from Columbia, so they all happen to be Ivy League degrees too.