High-Cost Useless Master’s Degrees And Who’s Offering Them
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 mantra.
Don’t Donate A Penny!
Endowment money is not for students, it’s a slush fund for administrators, coaches, and their pension plans.
Solutions
- At the individual level, don’t go deep into debt for useless degrees.
- Study overseas where costs are much cheaper
- Free courses, some really are free, but you don’t get the college credit
- More competition
- Accredited online universities
- Free College Courses
- Pension reform
- Better use of endowments to help the students
- Alternative education programs
- Bankruptcy reform
- Require universities to go over typical graduating salaries and costs of their programs.
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.
Most walk away with a useless degree, because the mindset is “I need a degree to get a job”. People are not going to university to learn something, as used to be the case. And ultimately, a degree isn’t necessary to get a job. About … I think around 8 to 10 years ago I did a bit of work with the TEC and ITO sector, back in the days when there were still many of them. The principles of on-job training are damn good ones. It’s practical, it is hands on and I think far better than the shit that goes on in universities.
Bachelor’s degree: you feed the lab animals, record the data, clean up the lab
Master’s degree: you have some input in designing the experiment, administering it and writing up the results
Doctorate: you design the experiment, seek funding for it, and present the results (with your name on the paper) at a conference in Hawaii
Polytechic’s offering basketweaving and such like courses, are only designed to get bums on seats!
Finish an apprenticeship in plumbing or qualify as a registered electrician & you’ll own your own home, a high powered boat & a flash ute to drag it to where the fish are biting. You’ll asked if you want fries with your McDonalds burger by a University graduate.
All before you’re thirty-five!
That sounds like a legitimate UTE.
APPROVED
by the 9th floor !!
I did an apprenticeship. The continuous cycle of learn, apply. Learn, apply. It is the most effective way to learn and for the knotting stick. And I earned a living while was doing it, not a debt. Good experience for my future being self employed. That Arden thing is dangerous beyond belief. A commie student mentality with free reign as prime minister and not an ounce of common sense.
Cindy of the clown car is paid $400k odd and is the worst PM in NZ history. Why wouldn’t she believe life is easy.
Endless bachelor or arts. Possibly the most useless waste time that exists.
University’s are bereft of morality. They convince kids they need a degree, milk the kids dry and then spit them out.
The careers advisory wankers at colleges don’t cover themselves with glory either.
They steer kids towards university & sneer at those interested in the trades.
If I had a son, I would have advised him to learn accounting and take up a trade (with the view to employing staff and growing his own business).
Thats a very sexist thing to say. Don’t you know girls can do anything?
BA = Bugger All degree.
Bullshit Artist
With No Honors!
However some degrees are useful, I have an MSc in Paleaoclimatology. At least I know when politicians are talking shit about Climate Change. Does it earn me any money? probably not. ( My Ba(Ed) earns the money and My BA (Hons) – in South Africa Honours degrees were an extra year after your Degree, looks good between the two… although it did set me up for my subsequent masters degree….
Having said this, having read a degree should make a person slightly less gullible and a lot more skeptical. Sadly many never learn.
Remember that Universities are about research, they don’t care bout the students, these are an inconveneince that researchers have to put up with to gain funding for their research. Occasionally they are useful to tally data.