Yeah, I think it's about how many people spend huge amounts for a degree that will only really benefit a small percentage of them. I could say the same thing about an MFA in writing. Give me twenty MFA graduates and one of them will publish regularly and successfully.

I've had little/no ROI on my Communications degree. My ROI on the entire college experience is tremendous. The people I hung out with in the Comm department were much more educational/entertaining/enlightening than the people I knew when I was doing a Library Science major, which would have had a bigger ROI.

LinkedIn endorsement bombing.

[link]

Be careful out there.

It's not about picking one degree over another, Matt. It's about ROI on what you do pick, and whether you can get an education that provides similar returns for a much smaller investment.

You're better suited than anyone else here, pretty much, to evaluate the options he lists, but he does list many options instead of traditional art school (including ateliers, as I mentioned before). If you didn't incur the kind of debt he's talking about, then you're not the target market, and if you did but get the money so that it's not a burden, then he's saying you're not typical enough, and that it's not a good bet to make.

Whereas for law graduates, they're on average going to be able to chip away at a similar investment faster. I found the article fascinating.

Don’t start your career with debilitating debt.

Please. I beg you. Think long and hard whether you’re willing to pay student loan companies $3000 every single month for the next 10 years.

You’ve got other options

Seems fair, if the options are valid.

The people I hung out with in the Comm department were much more educational/entertaining/enlightening than the people I knew when I was doing a Library Science major, which would have had a bigger ROI.

Is that a factor of degree or institution? Most of the people I hung out with weren't doing my major, and I would have hung out with them as long as my major gave me enough free time.

Be careful out there.

Sounds like fair reason to unlink from people.

Yeah, I think it's about how many people spend huge amounts for a degree that will only really benefit a small percentage of them.

This is pretty much the situation with law school right now, actually.

We have a sort of schizophrenic perspective on education that articles like that don't help. Do we want people to study what they are passionate about or is college meant to be a jobs training program? Is college an important part of citizenship from a learning the world perspective or is it merely an investment in the work force? And if it is both, then to what extent?

Do we want people to study what they are passionate about or is college meant to be a jobs training program?

The article does not say "don't study art". It does say "don't study art at an expensive university." It suggests meatspace places to study art, as well as other resources.

A guy just wandered by my desk, talked about my doodling, talked about his doodling and his therapist's recommendations regarding same, and...

I have no idea what his name is or why he wandered by my desk, especially since you can't see my face from the corridor. But I do know he has ADD. So, that.

I think in this economy it has to be both, because the cost of education is rising so much faster than average salary. I'd love to go back to school but unless a decent job is going to come out of it, there's no way I can afford it.

I will add, though, that I'm also lucky that I can take advantage of programs like Coursera, and I know enough about what I don't know to use the library to my advantage.

It is so fucking cold in the building I can't think.

OMG my hands ache so badly from the ridiculous AC. I keep hiding in the non-AC pockets between theaters for as long as I can get away with.