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 ...
It’s the Harvard *extension* School, its not even real Harvard.
Ouch...coulda added smart too.
It’s only fair we bail her out.
I feel like no one else is looking at the math on this story. If she has been paying $650 a month for 12 months, and has never missed a payment.... she’s paid over $93,000 on a $75K loan, and still owes $54K ?? Either something is fishy, or her interest rate is really high.
She’s a cutie. She can marry a good man and escape her plight. Women who are not attractive must plan smarter.
‘Getting this degree basically guaranteed that I wasn’t able to pursue it as a career because I immediately had to get a job ....”
The sheer irony....of attending a top level institution for multiple years but somehow not being advised of this particular one sentence dynamic.
I wonder how many degrees Shakespeare had?
Every once in a while it is possible to fix stupid. In this case I doubt it will be possible.
Not only will it not be possible to fix stupid, stupid insists on telling the world how stupid she is.
You can’t fix stupid
I guess that great education never covered areas like zero interest credit cards and such.
She decided to go into debt pursuing a worthless degree. Her problem.
If I had majored in what I had wanted, it wouldn’t have been business. It wasn’t the most fun thing to major. I just thought I would one day need a job.
“She’s never missed a loan payment, but there’s no end in sight.”
She chose that major. Oh...but she was being ‘true to herself’...lol
Sadly, the taxpayers will have to eat her debt.
She is very pretty but given her type of degree there is a 99.9% chance she is a batsh!t crazy toxic feminist.
Most sane, or even nearly sane, men with any wherewithal know this and stay away from her. Also, if she is a feminist, she probably doesn't want to be around men.
No, it’s not the extension school.
But she can tell her friends she graduated from Haaaavaaad, nobody can take that away from her. She should feel lucky.
Harvard delenda eat.
Going to be hard to pay for a minimum wage.
‘Gypsy’ from 1959 is a classic of American musical theater. Maybe the greatest stage musical of all? It has no nudity and never has.
The rate is high, but so is the risk. She’s paying about 8.5%, on a 20 year amortization schedule. It’s good business for the lenders, but this is unsecured debt and servicing costs are probably a lot higher than most home loans. Is the default rate that bad? It’s my understanding that it’s very hard to get this kind of debt discharged in bankruptcy.
Most college students could benefit from having a financial advocate advise them before they sign on the dotted line. Legally they’re adults, but they know nothing of economics or finance and have no understanding of what they’re getting themselves into. There ought to be a truth-in-lending law requiring disclosure about employment opportunities and post-graduation starting salaries so the kids can have an idea what kind of hole they’re digging for themselves. Letting puppetry majors borrow $100K isn’t criminal, but maybe it ought to be. It certainly borders on the predatory.
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.