Every year roughly 50% of graduate students drop out of doctoral programs (Farkas, 2018). Per Farkas (2018), the top seven reasons for this include time management difficulties, conflicts with a supervisor, the student's thesis not having a "story," exhaustion or burnout, problems writing up theses (one of the main problems described is perfectionism), loss of interest in research, and feeling of isolation. Additionally, there is a high financial and emotional cost associated with dropping out of graduate school; not only for the students but also their families. The average cost per master's-level program is $30,000-$120,000 ("How much does a master's degree cost?", 2019). Assuming that a student drops out after one year of master's-level coursework, a student and/or their family would have spent between $15,000 and $60,000 with little to no return on their investment. The College Board found that more than two-thirds of students that graduated with a graduate degree in 2012 had student debt and that of those students, roughly half had $40,000 or more of student debt with an estimated average amount of $57,000 for a master's degree (Mayer, 2018). The Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce determined that those with a master's degree in psychology typically earn an average of 33% more than a bachelor's-level psychology graduate (Robinson, 2018). The average salary for a bachelor's-level psychology graduate is approximately $58,000 ("Bachelor of Arts (BA), Psychology Degree", 2019). If the average amount of debt for a master's-level graduate is halved to account for dropping out after one year in the program, it can be estimated that while making roughly $58,000 per year this bachelor's-level graduate will be required to pay off roughly $28,500 in debt, while annual income of the master's-level graduate would be roughly 33% higher at $77,140, requiring the graduate to re-pay $57,000 of debt. Banks recommend that one should pay no more than 36% of one's gross monthly income toward one's debt (Dorward, 2017). If this is to be matched without consideration of life expenses or interest, it would be anticipated that a person who prematurely left their master's-level program would need to pay roughly $1,740 per month toward their debt. Alternatively, a person who graduated from their master's-level program would need to pay roughly $2,314.20 per month toward their debt. At this rate, the person that prematurely left their program would have finished paying off their debt in just over 16 months while the person that graduated with their master's degree would finish paying off their debt in just under 25 months. While it would be anticipated based on the data provided that it will take the master's-level graduate just over 1.5 times longer to pay off their debt, they will have been living with $4,114.13 per month of income while the person that prematurely left their master's program will be living with $3,093.33 per month of income--a difference of $1,020.80 per month, or roughly $12,250 of additional income per year or $16,332.80 for the roughly 16 months that the person who prematurely left would be paying off their loans. For the next roughly nine months that it would take the master's-level graduate to pay off their degree, the bachelor's-level graduate would be making roughly $719.20 per month less. This means that the master's-level graduate would be receiving an additional $9,860 of income more than the person that left their program prematurely, following that same 25-month period. When considering that based on these numbers the master's-level graduate would make roughly $102,853.25 for those 25 months after removing their debt payments while the person that left their master's-level program halfway through would make roughly $92,993.25 during that same amount of time, and that for the rest of their lives the master's-level graduate would be making 33% more per-year than the person that prematurely left their program, the graduate would make roughly $450,080 more than the person that dropped out over the course of the 25 years following graduation. This simplified example does not take into account any decisions to enter into a master's program in another field. However, based on these estimates, by prematurely leaving one's master's-level program one stands to lose what would be an additional $450,080 of income over the 25 years following graduation. This, again, merely assumes that the person that stops their program immediately enters into a job that meets the average salary for the field at that level. It also reasons that the person doing so is satisfied with this new course of action. Additionally, it is estimated that the average person changes careers roughly 5-7 times over their working life, and the primary reason for this change is, "frustration and disillusionment. Not using my natural abilities in my current job" ("Career Change Statistics: You will change career 7 times in your life", 2017). It stands to reason that if the person left their master's program due to goodness-of-fit, they are less likely to be satisfied or interested in continuing to work in the field and would be more likely to change careers which would result in the potential need to accept a lower salary or even the requirement to re-attend school in order to get a degree in the new desired field. This results in the need to take on additional debt and once again gambling on the program/subject matter being interesting enough to the person for them continue. If it is not the right fit, that is another year of debt accrued, all in the interest of job and consequently life satisfaction. Both the individual and the institution are negatively impacted by a student's decision to leave their program due to perceived lack of goodness of fit. The institution loses a year of tuition from the student and would likely see an impact on the metrics utilized to indicate that the institution's graduate program is high-quality. The percentage of graduates would decrease which would also diminish the number of students that entered the program who were able to find a job in the field. With these numbers being less than optimal, it is reasonable to believe that the number of students interested in attending school at said institution will similarly diminish which leads to additional lost revenue. If this could all be avoided through the use of a basic measurement tool that could determine one's goodness-of-fit within a subject and extrapolate whether they are more or less likely to experience satisfaction in the field, this could not only save a student thousands of dollars on unnecessary classes toward a degree they will not finish, but also years of school that would have been wasted or years of life wasted working in a field that one discovered they did not enjoy. It would also allow the potential of institutions saving millions of dollars in resources and in potential lost revenue, as well as improving the institutions' opportunity to capitalize on the ability to fill their programs with students that have a higher likelihood of successfully and satisfactorily completing their programs which looks better for the programs from an admissions perspective. In looking through literature, it can be reasoned that personality could likely be utilized to provide such an analysis or extrapolation. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]