How to decide between a medical and dental degree?

If, near the end of graduate school in a professional field, you realize you want to change fields, how should you decide if you should complete your degree in the field you're not staying in?

• I have completed all of a master's in journalism degree except the master's project. Completing the master's degree would cost me around another $10,000, plus lost wages for the time I would be in school (one semester).  I'm pretty sure I no longer want to work in journalism.  I'm thinking of returning to work in a field closer to that of my undergraduate major, environment and energy. What factors should I consider in deciding whether to complete the master's degree in journalism?  The main reason I'm still considering completing it is that some people have told me that having any master's degree can help you find a job.  But I wonder if the degree by itself, if it isn't relevant to my future work, is going to be worth it, especially if it costs me time I could otherwise spend investing in changing my career.  What do other people, especially those who are in a field where graduate-level education is important or necessary, think? If anyone in the environment and energy field has advice particular to that field, please share!  Thank you very much!

• Answer:

  I did a degree in renewable energy, not that that has much to do with what I'm going to say here; How much has it cost you to get as far as you are now? My guess is that $10k is a small proportion of the overall cost of your journalism degree. Should this be the case, I would say with all honesty that you should really consider finishing your degree. Something tells me (having seen a class mate almost make a similar decision until his parents threatened to disown him if he didn't finish) that you're having a bit of an easy ride financially. Were you to be entirely paying your own way I would consider you to be mad to even be asking this question... Please do yourself, and many other people for that matter, a favour and finish the course you are on now. If you don't, you will be letting down your lecturers who have invested their time and emotional energy in you, your peers who have probably come to rely on you as a member of their team, your parents who I assume are helping you out financially, and most of all yourself. If you sat in front of me at a job interview and told me you'd done the vast majority of ANY course and quit just before the end because you couldn't be bothered finishing the final project.... well let's just say the other candidates would have to be VERY poor for me to give you the job. Please just finish whatever you're doing now you're so close to the end. It will show you have the courage and strength that a good employer will always look for, and it will also teach you the value of FINISHING WHAT YOU START. Energy and the environment are fantastic subjects and if I told you that good journalists are exactly what the industry needs right now, would that help you to change your mind?