The Academy of Art (San Francisco) is just another place that figured out how to scam the loan system by labeling itself a Graduate School where the $limits are higher. Yale is substantially lower priced so it's not about quality or student degree choice... it's about scamming.
Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees
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Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees
#12tldr The Academy of Art (San Francisco) is just another place that figured out how to scam the loan system by labeling itself a Graduate School where the $limits are higher. Yale is substantially lower priced so it's not about quality or student degree choice... it's about scamming.
Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not by choice exactly I’ve done College -> Work -> Work/College -> Professional Job. The first 6 months of my “real” career job in tech I learned almost as much as the first 2 years of college. I couldn’t imagine having a masters especially an MBA without having worked professionally, internships aside. I’m excluding the medical professions where the minimum to employment is a masters/doctorate. Even non-doctors have…
The good MBA programs basically require professional work experience at a reputable firm. Generally, you graduate perhaps at age 21 to 23, then work for a few years, then go get an MBA, and finish around 26 to 28. Edit: See Wharton class stats, shows a mean work experience of 5 years. https://mba.wharton.upenn.edu/class-profile/ MIT/Harvard/Stanford show similar: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/mba/admissions/class-2020-pro…
I worked with an MBA who couldn't seem to iron his shirts (or just didn't) for a while. Slowly his job duties were shifted to me... the guy he was supposedly help manage after he proved he couldn't figure out scheduling a 24/7 schedule.
He clearly had no experience beyond school and some internships.
Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees
#14Grad school really needs to have a cost/benefit analysis applied. I'd have loved to go and really deepen my understanding, but it's pretty clear that both in terms of income lost and not a huge premium paid by the industry over my BS and experience it's not worth it. It is something I may pursue if I get a windfall and am no longer concerned about retirement.
A masters degree doesn't pay in dollars, but experience that can set you apart in the future.
Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
The good MBA programs basically require professional work experience at a reputable firm. Generally, you graduate perhaps at age 21 to 23, then work for a few years, then go get an MBA, and finish around 26 to 28. Edit: See Wharton class stats, shows a mean work experience of 5 years. https://mba.wharton.upenn.edu/class-profile/ MIT/Harvard/Stanford show similar: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/mba/admissions/class-2020-pro…
That makes a lot of sense. I worked with an MBA who couldn't seem to iron his shirts (or just didn't) for a while. Slowly his job duties were shifted to me... the guy he was supposedly help manage after he proved he couldn't figure out scheduling a 24/7 schedule. He clearly had no experience beyond school and some internships.
Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees
#16Grad school really needs to have a cost/benefit analysis applied. I'd have loved to go and really deepen my understanding, but it's pretty clear that both in terms of income lost and not a huge premium paid by the industry over my BS and experience it's not worth it. It is something I may pursue if I get a windfall and am no longer concerned about retirement.
There's no benefit, so unless there’s no cost, don’t do it. I got a master’s degree that one of my former employers paid for, about 10 years ago. I enjoyed it, learned a lot, felt like I got out of it, but I have no reason to believe that it’s added even one dollar to my income: I’m certain I’m in exactly the same place, career-wise, that I would have been if I had just stopped with a four year degree (in fact, there are plenty of people who consider a master’s degree in CS an anti-indicator of competence: http://blog.alinelerner.com/how-different-is-a-b-s-in-comput...).
Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees
#17Grad school really needs to have a cost/benefit analysis applied. I'd have loved to go and really deepen my understanding, but it's pretty clear that both in terms of income lost and not a huge premium paid by the industry over my BS and experience it's not worth it. It is something I may pursue if I get a windfall and am no longer concerned about retirement.
1 out of 10 masters classes changed my life. I imagine my peers had 0/10. A masters degree doesn't pay in dollars, but experience that can set you apart in the future.
Surely "experience that can set you apart in the future" can be captured in calculations of lifetime earnings?
Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
That makes a lot of sense. I worked with an MBA who couldn't seem to iron his shirts (or just didn't) for a while. Slowly his job duties were shifted to me... the guy he was supposedly help manage after he proved he couldn't figure out scheduling a 24/7 schedule. He clearly had no experience beyond school and some internships.
I would actually assume someone with an MBA without professional work experience either couldn't get a (decent) job, and/or is not smart enough to research the difference between an MBA that's worth something vs another excuse for schools to make money.
Like this guy couldn't manage a taco bell... maybe that should be the barrier to entry, to get into class you have to manage a taco bell for a time....
Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees
#19I wonder as far as education goes if graduating college, working, and then returning for a masters or similar things would be a better pattern. Or even graduating high school, working, college, working, college, or something else would be a better pattern. I've worked with some folks with MBAs who have no clue about how to work with people / think they're just "the boss" and what they say goes because no reason at al…
I really don't like the idea that education is a thing you do once in your late teens/early twenties and then finish. There are good reasons to do something then, but there's no good reason to stop.
A lot of the industries that do require continuing ed, it's often at best a rubber stamping process, or an excuse for junkets - at least from what I have seen from friends and family in education, law and medicine. What doctors do to get their continuing ed credits blows away even the fat old days of tech shows like Lotusphere.
With software, you can't just stop learning, but I'm not convinced that formal education is of much use. An RSS reader and a curated Twitter list would probably be a better investment of time.
Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees
#20Grad school really needs to have a cost/benefit analysis applied. I'd have loved to go and really deepen my understanding, but it's pretty clear that both in terms of income lost and not a huge premium paid by the industry over my BS and experience it's not worth it. It is something I may pursue if I get a windfall and am no longer concerned about retirement.
Work experience has been valuable in a different way, and lost income is a big concern. Personally I opted for a 15 month, 4 quarter program to minimize the debt and start earning as soon as possible.