One perspective that I'd like to offer on this discussion is the difference between working as a consultant vs. working as part of an internal UX team. As someone who came to IA/usability/UX myself almost a dozen years ago with no formal training (undergrad major was History), I've often had this discussion with myself - would it be worth the time and money to go back and get a grad degree in IX or HCI? Besides the fact that the older you get (kids, mortgage, etc), the harder it is to add grad school into the mix, I found that the need for a grad degree became less relevant working on internal teams. Now that I'm in the position of hiring, I can definitely tell you that I'd far rather hire someone with lots of good real world experience (who also makes a point of keeping up with the field through papers, books, blogs, conferences, etc). Working as an internal UXer (I've been at financial services, insurance, and retail) demands a particular combination of skills that I don't think is taught in most HCI/IX programs. An MBA with a focus on design (which I think Northwestern has) might offer this, but then you really have to start considering the cost benefit analysis of a 50K/yr MBA program like Kellogg.
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