According to a report from New America Education Policy Program, the typical debt for students who graduated with a Masters in Art in 2012 is $58,539, which is up more than $20,000 from 2004. That means $494 in monthly payments.

They also looked at other graduate programs and found that these programs accounted for a huge chunk of the growing student debt problem. There were dramatic spikes in graduate degrees in law, medicine, education, and business. They didn’t break down debt for PhDs in this report. Too bad. I would have liked to see that.

The MA number is particularly troubling, because there’s no earthly reason to get an MA. Other graduate degrees usually pay off with higher salaries. If you’re a teacher, your salary is based on years of experience and education. So, a master’s degree debt is balanced out with a higher salary. It’s probably worth the investment. A medical degree will pay for itself eventually. A law degree is probably more a long shot.

However, what is the payoff for a MA in sociology or English? And how many people are actually getting terminal MA’s in the humanities and social sciences? Does that number include students who drop out of PhD programs after they get the MA?