Reply To: Top Salary for Entry Levels (and the like)

[nca]

Yes, understood. A second Professional degree is 2-3 years, not talking about those people. I know several which fall into this category that are far beyond my level of experience and qualifications due to both professional experience and continued education.

I was referring to people who have degrees in Biology, say, and decide to Master in Landscape (5yr track). In my mind, it’s nearly the same as a second undergraduate degree as far as professional qualifications for practice of LA.

What automatically qualifies these folks for slightly higher salaries beyond the possibility of greater financial expense in tuition? Maybe some of the grad professors can chime in and convince me to attend grad school 🙂

nrschmid said:

MLA programs are 2-3 years, depending on if you have a previous design degree or design experience. In my firm, there are two landscape designers with an MLA (the other five, including two principals, have just a BLA). Both of the MLAs went to grad school straight from undergrad (both have bachelors degrees in ornamental horticulture). However, one of the MLAs is in mid-level position because he has about 5-10 years of experience from working a previous design job. The other MLA is entry level and this was her first job (she actually just left to work for a rival design firm a week or two ago, so if anyone is looking for an entry-level opening in Illinois please let me know). I have no idea that they were paid (and honestly, I don’t want to know).