The numbers are impressive -- In 2012, colleges and universities pumped out 63% more master's degrees than they did in 2000. This increase grew at a rate that is 18% higher than awarded bachelor's degrees during the same time period. Per a recent article in the Washington Post, the increase in Master's is a win-win. It can be a moneymaker for fiscally-strapped universities and a potential salary booster for fiscally-strapped students.

The trend towards earning a master's degree is so strong that a national survey conducted last year by the University of California at Los Angeles found that 42% of freshman plan on earning a master's, nearly twice of those that said a bachelor's degree was their highest goal.

At the same time we are seeing students reaching for degrees that can keep them in college for five to seven years or more, we are also seeing a staggering trillion dollars in national student loan debt, or as this CNN opinion piece so aptly calls it, a trillion dollar anvil dragging us down. The 'us' being our economy, our future, and in reality, all those potential salary increases graduate students are counting on.

Coincidence? As Emma Bull puts it, "Coincidence is the word we use when we can't see the levers and pulleys."