Posted on 08/08/2017 9:50:37 AM PDT by Theoria
Twelve years after finishing Harvard’s graduate theater program, Katierose Donohue still pays almost as much in student loans each month — about $650 — as for her share of the rent in Los Angeles. She recently stopped hosting her monthly sketch comedy show, “Ma’am,” because she didn’t always break even on her $200 budget. She’s now working side jobs as a dog walker and a social media copywriter, after past gigs serving at Starbucks and handing out free cigarettes for Camel.
She’s never missed a loan payment, but there’s no end in sight: She borrowed nearly $75,000 to attend the American Repertory Theater Institute, or A.R.T. Institute, at Harvard and still owes about $54,000.
“I can’t afford to make my craft, even though I’m regularly booking work,” Ms. Donohue said. “One fellow alum said to me, ‘Getting this degree basically guaranteed that I wasn’t able to pursue it as a career because I immediately had to get a job to pay for the education I received.’”
Most young actors don’t face graduate school debt like this — yet it is common for those who attend the A.R.T. Institute. Despite being at the world’s wealthiest university, institute students receive modest financial aid and leave with a median of $78,000 in debt in exchange for a master of liberal arts degree from the Harvard Extension School. In contrast, the loan debt average for master of fine arts students at Yale School of Drama tends to be around $14,000, a financial-aid officer said. At Juilliard, the average student loan debt for the four-year undergraduate drama program is $27,000.
The steep repayment burdens have been a straitjacket on students and their career aspirations for years. But now they have become a major problem for Harvard and the A.R.T. Institute, too.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Dennis Prager said it 20 years ago. An Ivy League undergrad degree is not close to worth the price. Now it is obscenely overpriced.
BTW,I know many who worked through school and have ZERO debt with a MARKETABLE degree. It is disgusting that Bernie Sander's support was mostly the Millennial Stupid Generation of people who think their debt will magically disappear. I guarantee this will come back next election.
My youngest son owes us about 28k for helping him get thru his first 5 years of college (BSEE). He won a scholarship thru the DoD to fund his grad school and defends his PhD thesis in a couple of days. Should make some good money working at the AFRL. I considered it a great investment. /proud Dad
Just once I’d like to see the NY run a story about a plumber or electrician and their crippling student loan debt.
Or, here’s an idea, how about a story where the New York Times explains to the social science majors of the world why those types of people don’t exist.
I'm still trying to understand how a "community organizer" becomes a multi-multi-millionaire. Was he working at the soup kitchen? Collecting clothes for the homeless?
Joe Biden said it was because the "community organizer" was so clean and articulate. Not what Biden expected at all.
Congrats. Sounds like a plan that will benefit everyone.
Harvard is a joke. I have never met a Harvard grad that was worth a hill of beans.
Listen, lady, the bank did exactly what you asked them to do. Your problem is with the liberal institution, Harvard. THEY are the ones that ripped you off. Then again, what was wrong with going to the local junior college or state college? Had to go to Harvard, eh?
Yeah, funny isn’t it how little of that actually goes to deserving, merit-based students? Instead the greedy jerks in the administration want more and more for themselves and their cronies
Or they piss some of it away with “diversity scholarships” and faculty tokens
Thats a lot of green to prepare oneself for a career as a restaurant server.
Of course the theory of Harvard is that they’re teaching you to MAKE jobs not get them. Not sure how that ties into a MFA but you’re definitely not supposed to be scrambling for improv gigs in LA afterwards.
I’ll bet dollars to donuts she regularly communicates with “professors”, who’s exorbitant tenured salaries are funded by the very college loan debt that is her yoke.
Our Local U now has some kind of an Administrative Position to handle “Cultural Ripoff” cases on Campus.
If she went to work for the National Endowment for the Arts she could enroll in the Public Service Student Loan Forgiveness Program and pay it off, at an income based rate, after 10 years of such service. At 10 years the balance would be written off.....tax free BTW.
Exactly. You should be opening your own theater.
Passing out free cigarettes. Do I detect the faint odor of hypocrisy here? No doubt she’s one of the libs who demand that smokers be stood against a wall and shot.
She should have been born pretty, instead. :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.