Posted on 07/09/2021 8:24:00 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,
Financially Hobbled for Life
Unable to discharge debts in bankruptcy, students with useless degrees, especially master's degrees are Financially Hobbled for Life.
Recent film program graduates of Columbia University who took out federal student loans had a median debt of $181,000. Yet two years after earning their master’s degrees, half of the borrowers were making less than $30,000 a year.
The university is among the world’s most prestigious schools, and its $11.3 billion endowment ranks it the nation’s eighth wealthiest private school.
Lured by the aura of degrees from top-flight institutions, many master’s students at universities across the U.S. took on debt beyond what their pay would support, the Journal analysis of federal data on borrowers found. At Columbia, such students graduated from programs including history, social work and architecture.
Undergraduate students for years have faced ballooning loan balances. But now it is graduate students who are accruing the most onerous debt loads. Unlike undergraduate loans, the federal Grad Plus loan program has no fixed limit on how much grad students can borrow—money that can be used for tuition, fees and living expenses.
Panic Attack
“There’s always those 2 a.m. panic attacks where you’re thinking, ‘How the hell am I ever going to pay this off?’ ” said 29-year-old Zack Morrison, of New Jersey, who earned a Master of Fine Arts in film from Columbia in 2018 and praised the quality of the program. His graduate school loan balance now stands at nearly $300,000, including accrued interest. He has been earning between $30,000 and $50,000 a year from work as a Hollywood assistant and such side gigs as commercial video production and photography.
“We were told by the establishment our whole lives this was the way to jump social classes,” said Matt Black of an Ivy League education. Instead, he said he feels such goals as marriage, children and owning a home are out of reach.
Grant Bromley, 28, accumulated $115,000 in federal loans while getting his Master of Arts in film and media studies at Columbia. Mr. Bromley earns around $16 an hour and can’t afford to pay down his loan balance, which is $156,000, including undergraduate debt and interest. “It’s a number so large that it doesn’t necessarily feel real,” he said.
Highly selective universities have benefited from free-flowing federal loan money, and with demand for spots far exceeding supply, the schools have been able to raise tuition largely unchecked. The power of legacy branding lets prestigious universities say, in effect, that their degrees are worth whatever they charge.
Who's Offering Useless Master's Degrees?
The answer is the same as who's offering useless degrees in general: They all do.
Where the heck is someone with a master's degree in stagecraft, art, history, political science, photography, English, foreign language, culinary arts, etc., etc., etc., supposed to get a job that will pay the bills?
A few will get lucky, the rest will be financially hobbled for life.
Dear President Biden, You Need an Education, Starting With the Meaning of "Free"
I had no idea the above article was coming out today. Yet, I mentioned an aspect of it yesterday in Dear President Biden, You Need an Education, Starting With the Meaning of "Free"
George W. Bush signed the "Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2005" making student debt uncancellable in bankruptcy. Guess what happend?
Biden's solution of course is a "free" money student debt forgiveness program.
Student debt is not dischargeable in bankruptcy so the cost of programs soared along with the willingness of universities to promote useless degrees for the masses.
Administrators and teachers who make more when enrolments rise piled on. And of course the unions piled on encouragements in need of money to support ridiculous pensions.
With the money pouring in, the salaries of football coaches and administrators soared.
Don't forget mainstream media parroting the need for everyone to get a degree with no mention ever that most degrees are worthless.
Endowments
Columbia University compares its endowment program to that of other bigger schools. Donate, donate, donate is the mantral.
Don't Donate a Penny!
Endowment money is not for students, it's a slush fund for administrators, coaches, and their pension plans.
Solutions
Biden's Free Education Program
Instead of doing anything that makes any sense, Biden's proposes "free education" as does Elizabeth Warren and Progressives in general.
The problem is "free" someone is paying for the building, the teachers, the coaches, the staff, the administrators, and the pension plans.
Make it "free" and there is no limit on any of the above.
"Free" is the typical proposal, but "free" is never the solution in practice.
Mish
“The world needs ditch diggers, too!: ;-)
Hell, I didn’t pay off my stupid columbia U loans for a poltical science degree until I was in my 40’s. Most useless thing I ever did. I have done many a useless things. After four years of high school and four years of college—I knew how to do precisely one thing that had some employment possibilities. Type.
I learned to type in high school. In college I learned to do essentially nothing that was gainful.
College students are stupid. Really stupid. Few understood how really preditory the universities were becoming even back in the day
He wasn’t thinking. Rather he was living in the church of what’s happening right now.
WOW! Better be UN-hackable!
I thought I would toss in some perspective here.
I lived my life as an “artist” for 15 years after a career in telecommunications and banking. I built a sports photography business from the ground up—until I was billing deep into 6 figures annually. It was fun and very hard work.
My daughter has both an undergrad BFA and an MFA. She has degrees in, of all things “ceramic Arts” and “American Craft Design and Art.” Both of those degrees were from top 5 schools. She has a modest amount of student debt—much less than the national average.
We’ve had these conversations about the “value” of her degree. Her takeaway is that she knew EXACTLY what she was going to do with her degree; and she is doing it. She teaches and has a residency that provides a stipend. It covers all of her bills.
What she also recognized—because of watching me build a company and clientele, is that this is very, very hard work. You don’t make any money for literally years. She understood this and knew it going in.
Her peers are a different story. They are, generally, a bunch of nice—but very “woke” kids, who think the world is going to rush to their doors and buy their “vagina plates” or videos of “assholes.” (Two things I experienced at her grad shows from her friends.) These are creative kids, and they are talented—but they will never make a living with that stuff.
My daughter’s husband is also an artist. He has 2 MFAs. He focuses in metal work. One of his residencies was at Kohler, helping them design new faucet concepts. Very high end stuff. He has been out of school five years and has a ton of debt.
He worked for years teaching, doing residencies, selling small pieces and “building a reputation. He finally hit it big with a show at Design Miami a couple of years ago.
Now, he works his ass off (60-80 hours a week) building pieces and selling them for $35k a pop. And he has orders to last him another year. His stuff is in galleries and museums literally all over the world (NY, Paris, and soon, the Far East.)
So, there are two people with “worthless” degrees. Between the two of them, their income would put them near the $250k level. They are paying their bills. They bought a home and are putting money away at an alarming rate—because they both understand how fickle the art world is.
They make stuff people want. They are doing their “art”, but they understand they have to “live.”
What art schools DON’T do well is explain the “business” end of this stuff. They do not work with the students to develop their career path. They do not explain taxes, and how to write grants (there is a ton of grant money out there.)
So, long story short—there are many people with these “worthless degrees” who do fine.
But seriously, when my daughter told us what she wanted to do, I turned to my wife and said, “She is never leaving home.” On the contrary, she stared her “art” journey and has never looked back.
A friend of mine got a Bachelors in Philosophy. He was going to get an office and put a sign on the door that said “TRUTH” and hope people would come in to get some truth. And now all he says is “Do you want fried with that?”
Most thoughtful post I've seen in years... and you've helped create artists with the skills to transition their art from their private studios to the world. Hats off to you Vermont Lt. You're daughter was blessed having you as a father...and you blessed having her...
“If the student loans are dischargeable in bankruptcy, then lenders will be very hesitant to loan money to students pursuing degrees that will not allow them to repay. “
The federal government took over the student loan program from banks in 2012 during the Obama administration. The taxpayer is on the hook in the event of default, or the president deciding to arbitrarily cancel college loan debt.
A close relative of mine told me that all of her friends, and other students at her college, believed that Obama would give them free college and erase whatever debt they had already acquired for tuition. A huge pool of voters that helped the commie dems elect Obama. Whatever degree a student is going for is no concern of mine, or matters to me if I do not see the value of it. What does concern me and other taxpayers is the idea that somehow we are to foot the bill for the mountain of debt that has been racked up at our expense.We have our own dreams to follow that we do not expect others to pay for.
Barry Diller, head of two Hollywood studios just said that movies are dying.
Do you suppose he knows something all those debtor children do not?
Well I guess mortgaging the family farm for that Masters Degree in Interpretive Afro-Haitian Dance just isn’t going to translate into the corner office and $400,000 a year. Bummer dude.
Stupid kid. Should have learned plumbing.
Plumbers make great money.
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