Posted on 08/30/2018 9:12:49 AM PDT by 11th_VA
For Alexandria Butler-McDow, 28, going to university didn’t provide the freedom and financial security she'd hoped for. After graduating with an associate’s degree from the California Culinary Academy (CCA) in San Francisco, CA, in 2008, Butler-McDow struggled to find a job that would allow her to support herself and her disabled mother while also paying off her enormous student loan bill.
Hopeful that a more advanced degree would help her make more money and better manage her debt, Butler-McDow went on to pursue a bachelor’s degree in culinary nutrition, concentrating on clinical dietetics at Johnson and Wales University (JWU) in Providence, RI. By the time she had finished her second degree, Butler-McDow was even deeper in debt.
Now, nearly four years after graduating with her second degree, Butler-McDow (better known as Chef Alexandria at Better Taste Productions) is a Los Angeles-based chef and culinary consultant focusing on nutrition and education — and she is still six figures in debt. Though she has defaulted on her loans and deferred some of her payments, the end of this ordeal is still out of her reach. “We are sold the notion that getting an education is what will improve our socioeconomic standing,” Butler-McDow told Refinery29. “My degrees were supposed to bring me out of poverty but they’ve just anchored me.” ...
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
A degree in cooking, music or art, without the natural talent to back it up is a recipe for failure. This is what happens when you tell people they are "special" and "you can be anything you want", instead of recognizing their strengths and weaknesses, and guiding them to a career within their limits.
You may be right. For those who think being “a cook” is easy, culinary school really teaches you how to manage restaurants - how to buy product, how to cut it up properly so that it serves 50 people IN EXACTLY THE SAME WAY and serve exactly the same way. Culinary math is not for sissies. It was certainly my downfall and all I wanted to learn was how to properly chop and plate. (Did learn that!)
Don’t most chefs make under $60,000 unless their the head chef?
Hi.
“After graduating with an associate’s degree from the California Culinary Academy (CCA) in San Francisco, CA”
$100k for an AA culinary degree!?
Something is missing in the story.
5.56mm
Well, she does have a degree in nutrition...
(evil grin)
“I see the problem right there. “
No, that’s not the problem.She could have gotten a job as a chef. Instead, she went back and got more degrees and deeper in debt.
She paid $100,000 for an associates degree???!!!! A two year program at a community college?
And free college, so we will have even more kids who make hanging out at college a long term profession.
1. Hyphenated name.
2. Lives in San Freaksicko.
3. Degree in cooking.
4. Belived tall tales about education being the sure route to financial success and then wants to blame someone else when the fantasy falls apart.
Sympathy score: approaching zero.
Obama went after vo-tech schools and tried to shut them down with onerous ‘Gainful Employment’ regulations that were designed to shut down 25% of them. Public four year universities were exempt of course. Eventually a federal judge threw the out the GE regs on the grounds of a lack of a rational basis. (The Deptartment of Education targeted the 25% shutdown and then worked the numbers backward to hit that target.)
“Alexandria Butler-McDow”
Ahhh...one of those dashipanated name kind of folks.
Being a dumbass has its drawbacks.
I wonder if she learned how to make me a sammich.
At that age I was a TSgt about to sew on MSgt and letting Uncle Sam pay for my college degree.
No problem. McDonald’s is hiring.
She made several poor decisions. First, she took an unsubsidized loan, so interest accrued while she was in school and added to her principal. Second, she has deferred a number of times, further adding to her principal. Third, my suspicion is she borrowed more than she needed to (hey, free money, right?) Fourth, and not least, she didn’t select a degree program that would enable her to earn sufficient wages to pay for her other poor decisions. Who knew restaurant back-of-house staff make squat for wages? Umm, everybody!! Predictable snowball effect. And now she undoubtedly wants a bail out.
Here in Maryland there are endless numbers of jobs yet those with a biology BS get jobs selling things at the Mall or sometimes as a Personal Trainer(which again is sales)
Some Best careers here:
Engineering, computer networks, Cyber defense(really hot) , nurses, dental hygienists(can get a job anywhere), medical technology,....
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