Posted on 12/06/2021 7:46:40 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Insider (formerly Business Insider) published what was meant to be a heart-rending story about a single mom burdened with $430,000 in student debt and a sick child, all to help promote student loan forgiveness. Instead, the article should remind us that degree jockeys in the liberal arts are, for the most part, incredibly foolish.
“Maria” is a 48-year-old with a Ph.D. in some unidentified major (but it’s clearly in the liberal arts), who took out $360,000 in student loans to get her degree. Insider assures us that Maria was very thoughtful about borrowing the money:
Maria had a goal to teach at a university full-time. Today, she "absolutely" regrets pursuing that goal.
While Maria’s undergraduate education, which she completed in 2001, was funded through scholarships and Pell grants, she knew more advanced degrees would give her a leg up in university teaching — especially as a woman in the industry. So she pursued a master’s degree and a PhD, the latter of which took seven years to complete.
It was not a decision she took lightly, and at the time she believed the commitment would be worth it. Maria, who requested her last name be withheld for privacy reasons, extensively researched the program, and its statistics for employment post-graduation looked promising. However, she was unable to land a full-time university job after graduation in 2014 and found herself unable to afford her student-loan payments.
Now, at 48 years old, Maria’s student-loan balance is $430,000 — all from her advanced degrees, per documents reviewed by Insider.
No wonder Maria says “I feel like I’m in a hole that I’m never going to get out of.” She’s right.
The only genuinely sad thing about Maria’s story is that her daughter got leukemia, sucking up much of Maria’s money.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
That is true for other programs as well.
If you are in engineering or computer science and paying for a PhD you are doing something terribly wrong.
Due to the nature of my position, I am often encouraged to pursue my Ph.D. I got my master’s with a combination of program grants, employer tuition benefits and weekend overnight babysitting/house sitting while working full time.
The ROI on a Ph.D. stopped being worth it when I was 35 even if I had the above financial help.
Exactly.
At some point in the process you become the valuable commodity, not the degree. And if that isn’t the direction things are going, then something is very wrong and you need to figure out what that is or change direction.
Here’s a tip. If you’re paying tuition to get a PhD, the PhD ain’t worth jack.
Humanities and social sciences advanced degrees have reached the point of pure financial transaction.
The school and its bloated administration NEED the money. You borrow the money, pay them, and they give you a useless piece of paper.
Sounds like she really wanted the status achievement rather than the love of teaching. Borderline criminal what tuition costs but over the line stupid that she went into such deep debt saddled with at age 48 without the returns expected.
“Stupid is supposed to hurt.” Lurker’s Granddad.
L
Same with one of my kids, who got tuition plus stipend in exchange for working on research and teaching undergrads.
We should abolish student loans for grad degrees. If you are not good enough that the school wants to pay you to come, then you are unlikely to be in demand once you finish the degree.
A reminder that credentials do not always equal intelligence
But, in some organizations, they equal money.
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Trillions in build back bankruptcy sjw “ human infrastructure” money.
Depends on what one wants to do. It’s a must if you want to go into academia
A masters is usually enough for most anything else
That too
Before receiving a nickel, students should be required to pass a rigorous test about the economics of student loans.
Unfortunately a lot of academic institutions push sales as heavily as a used car salesman nowadays.
I had a friend who had an undergraduate degree in finance from a good school. She applied to a different school to get into a masters in accounting program. They first told her she would need to go back and do some accounting undergraduate courses. Then suggested she do a second bachelor’s in accounting first. Then pushed that she could only guarantee automatic acceptance into that program by getting an Associates degree from them first.
So she came wanting (and qualified) to enter their Master’s program and they were trying to get her to add on an AA and BA degree first.
She went somewhere else.
Clear thinking and writing well are in short supply.
I hope there is a better opportunity for him that doesn’t involve rubbing elbows with Marxists all day long.
The answer to the subject question is clearly, no, it is not. I for one, am teaching my children the utter stupidity of that course of action.
No legitimate university should ever be willing to hire someone that dumb.
I think the snob appeal factor is strong in this one. She obviously thinks she is special enough to have the average middle class American take over her debt so she doesn’t have to.
My 21 year old son is a short haul trucker. He should earn $60 K this year.
This is another stupid tale of someone getting in debt over what most likely is a worthless field, like trans studies with a minor in fisting.
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