"Start with the library, that's free"

The library doesn't reset your resume. This does. You don't actually need to finish the degree, find a job while in school.

I can only speak personally of the individuals I know who have done this at NC State. The cost per semester is $1,802.17 for one class. The average time that I've seen for the people who've tried this approach has been between 1 and 2 semesters, maybe 3. Of course, I don't know that many people in the first place, so my sample size is limited.

http://www.fis.ncsu.edu/cashier/tuition/gradtuition.asp

Plus, as a student, you get access to the career fair as well as the internship program.

Perhaps this is the strategy he was pursuing when he took on a second masters in acoustical engineering. Getting more degrees will probably not solve his problems, especially for a 55 yr old man.

Ok, fair enough, I'm talking about getting another degree often being a bad investment, you're talking about going to school simply to prevent or fill a gap in your resume.

If that's the goal, let's say you only go back to school for a year. What does grad school cost these days? 28k for public, 38k for private? So you're paying $30,000 for someone to essentially vouch that you're doing something with your days while looking for a job?

Seriously, I'm just not seeing where this makes practical financial sense?

If you are in desperate need of a job, then don't go to grad school for a year to reset yourself, take a handful (at most) of classes at a community college. Paying a handful of thousand (at the most) so that you can find any work in particular is well worth it if that is what you need to do.

Not arguing for or against, but you remind me that my inspiration for dropping out of college at age 20 was two men I knew who both had college degrees and delivered newspapers for a living. One was a couple of quarters shy of a Master's and in default on his mountain of loans (he later suckered a woman into marrying him and paying them off -- that was his big accomplishment in life) and the other went back to school for a second bachelor's, which never got finished for some reason. He lived with his mom until she died and he inherited the house. The last I heard, he was still delivering newspapers. I decided I could deliver newspapers without a mountain of student loans and would be better off doing so without the debts.