So. You think enrolling in grad school is the right move. You’re stuck in your job, there’s no room to advance, and, what the heck, all of your friends are doing it. Wait just a second, hold your horses, and cool your jets; all of those things mom told you when you were about to make a snap decision based on emotion. It’s not to say that enrolling in school to pursue a masters, it just may be a bad one for you. Here are five wrong reasons to go to grad school:

1.You Don’t Like Your Job

Very few people are lucky enough to love their job. Ask yourself what going to graduate school will accomplish. Is it going to make you love your job? No. Will it enable you to find another job? Maybe. Consider the fact that you can easily spend $15,000 a year for grad school. That is $30,000 just to earn your degree. If you find a better job with your degree, making $5 an hour more, it will take you three years to pay off your loans, provided you put your entire raise towards your debt. When you break it down financially, grad school might not be the answer.

2.You’re Trying to Find Yourself

If you need to find yourself, take a vacation, get a hobby or volunteer with a charity. Don’t spend tens of thousands of dollars to find yourself. If you don’t know what to do with your life, enrolling in school to earn a masters may just prolong the inevitable: having to find a job. There are no life-altering answers to be found in graduate school. People who earn a masters degree and find success do so because they already had a plan.

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3.You Think You Need It

You may think you need an advanced degree, but are you sure? You should never enroll in grad school because you think you need it without doing a fair amount of research. Before you sign your name to a single college application, be certain that earning a graduate degree is going to benefit you. A graduate degree should help you get a better job, earn more money or advance in your career in a way that you wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise. If you want to stick with your current company, don’t be shy about speaking to your employers to find out what they can offer you, if anything, once you earn a masters.

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4.You Want to Learn Something New

There is nothing wrong with being a lifelong learner. In fact, anyone who wants to continue learning throughout their lifetime should be celebrated. That said, you can take a class any time you like. You can take free courses online, you can enroll at the local community college, or you can take a class at the library. Wanting to learn something new is not a reason to enroll in graduate school. You can learn new information or a new skill much more cheaply through other avenues.

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5.You Want to Avoid Paying Loans

College is expensive, of that there is no doubt. However, you don’t want to saddle yourself with more debt to avoid paying your first debts. Repayment of loans doesn’t kick in until you are out of school for six months. Don’t think that you’re going to avoid paying for your first four years of college by enrolling for two more. Before you think that grad school sounds like a great way to break free from loan repayment, speak to a financial aid counselor about your options.

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Earning a masters makes good sense for thousands of people; you may not be one of them. Before you shell out hard-earned money for an advanced degree, make sure you are doing it for the right reasons. If you’re thinking of dedicating the next two years of your life to the pursuit of a degree, you better be certain that you’ll benefit from it.

Writer Brett Harris is a full-time blogger. If you’re thinking of grad school but don’t want to quit your day job, consider pursuing an online masters.