February 1, 2026 An Exploration of the Grad School Decision in DF/IR " It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows." -Epictetus I recently decided to return to school in pursuit of a Master’s Degree in my chosen field – Digital Forensics.   I often have students ask me whether or not an MS degree is necessary in DF/IR.   I suppose it isn’t, depending on what you want to do.   There was a lot of research and option-weighing that went into this decision.   I’m going to explore some of them here, and hopefully this will help the next person deciding whether or not to pursue a Graduate-level education in Digital Forensics.   At the very least, maybe it will be a good reminder for me to return to when things aren’t as exciting as I’d like them to be in this pursuit. Calculating Options Like a lot of both private and public entities that conduct any kind of technical work that requires continuing education, my employer offers a portion o...