Just a casual looks shows that salaries in the Social Work field don't pay that well. I'm not sure how getting a Masters Degree will help someone. I see this in some other fields here at the University I work at. Students will get a degree that has a limited job outlook, and in order to actually get a job in that field, they believe getting a Masters will help them out in the long run, but often times does not. If I were in that position, I'd only look at Public Universities where the pricing should be far better than a private University.
USC pushed a $115k online degree – graduates got low salaries, huge debts
31–40 of 261 posts
Re: USC pushed a $115k online degree – graduates got low salaries, huge debts
#32Cheapest online US regional accreditation is WGU, which you can do at own pace so if you know calculus you can just write the exam. UK open u is probably the next cheapest but not by much. UoP is on regional accreditation path but only national right now. Everything else is going to be min $40k bachelor or $20k+ Masters but even Arizona pricey online deg is cheaper than this article or Florida U, both have real curri…
I think WGU is probably the best model to get degrees to people at a much lower cost and for working class people to do it while they work.
Its more geared like a trade school, online, at a fraction of the cost. Get people into teaching, nursing, business and IT, as fast as possible and cheap as possible.
Many of these workers are less impacted with a 30k loan (same as a car) than a 100-150k school loan.
I know a few people who worked at minimum pay jobs and WGU was an option to get a degree and not go into debt for life.
Thats how I heard of it, and looked into it, and was rather impressed with the courses, cost and speed.
I was even tempted to sign up and pass the basic courses quickly, as I've been in IT for 30 years, and get a degree cheaply. Plus learn some new skills.
Re: USC pushed a $115k online degree – graduates got low salaries, huge debts
#33USC's Computer Science Master's is also a degree mill, particularly targeting foreign students who must pay full tuition in cash.
Most CS masters programs are this way. They are a way to get into the H1B lottery.
In the UK, 90% of masters programs work that way. Admissions criteria for international students are a lot lower, because they can charge them what they like. It's where they make a lot of their money.
Re: USC pushed a $115k online degree – graduates got low salaries, huge debts
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the university that started it all. They've had the program for about a decade now, and they do a ridiculously good job. [1] It's a rigorous degree, they only admit a limited number of students (so your application has to be reasonable), and it's completely affordable. It's also indistinguishable from their on-campus MS in CS. It doesn't say you took it "online" after you graduate. Georgia Tech is a pretty ou…
The failure rate is very high from what I hear. Which i guess is the best way to tell if a program is legit.
It is. It's a legitimate degree and they won't let you slack off.
Some of the classes have a metric ton of homework and projects, and the deadlines can be pretty rough. I know my coworker was sweating after work a few times (this was pre-pandemic) and told me they'd be spending a few evenings implementing project work.
Re: USC pushed a $115k online degree – graduates got low salaries, huge debts
#35Just a casual looks shows that salaries in the Social Work field don't pay that well. I'm not sure how getting a Masters Degree will help someone. I see this in some other fields here at the University I work at. Students will get a degree that has a limited job outlook, and in order to actually get a job in that field, they believe getting a Masters will help them out in the long run, but often times does not. If I…
I’m sure there’s value in a masters social work degree, but not for anyone who wants to do hands-on work. If folks feel they want to do higher level work (i.e. addressing systemic issues that are behind the day-to-day issues social workers help with), then the degree could be useful.
Re: USC pushed a $115k online degree – graduates got low salaries, huge debts
#36not to be too cold about the real people hurt by the mischaracterization, but... My local ferrari dealership basically implies my life will be perfect (all the pretty women will fawn over me!!) if I just buy one of their cars. America made these institutions into for profit companies. We have to stop giving them the goodwill we'd afford to altruistic/idealistic academic institutions. Yes USC has a "not for profit" la…
Exactly. I used to consider academia as a separate entity from the private sector, thinking it was full of altruistic individuals wanting to further the knowledge of humanity. Then I started seeing that most colleges operate as tax-exempt businesses with different marketing strategies, products and target consumers. They're just layers of bureaucracy while those delivering the most value (professors) regularly get treated rather poorly (pay, job security, responsibilities, etc.) while the administrators soak up all of the benefits. How do the objectives get shifted back towards learning rather than building new stadiums and student centers?
Re: USC pushed a $115k online degree – graduates got low salaries, huge debts
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
OTOH, you have schools like (the actual) Georgia Tech offering an online MS in CS for an affordable price: https://omscs.gatech.edu/
This is the university that started it all. They've had the program for about a decade now, and they do a ridiculously good job. [1] It's a rigorous degree, they only admit a limited number of students (so your application has to be reasonable), and it's completely affordable. It's also indistinguishable from their on-campus MS in CS. It doesn't say you took it "online" after you graduate. Georgia Tech is a pretty ou…
My current Director completed the online Tech MCS and said it was "challenging." Considering he's a polyglot tech wiz who masters new material ridiculously fast, it's clear that this program is the real deal.
[disclaimer: from ATL, dad went to Tech, &c.]
Re: USC pushed a $115k online degree – graduates got low salaries, huge debts
#38These degrees are worthless. The fields are worthless. And a constant ongoing propaganda campaign is waged to get people to pay for them. Helping along are an army of useful idiots who will pretend like this is academia when it is pseudoscience packaged up as a program to steal from unknowing young people.
It’s time for us to publish expected income based on major and university.
“God forbid someone study something for the love of it”. No, god doesn’t forbid shit. But the realities of the fact that you gotta put food in your mouth constrain you.
If money isn’t such a big deal, why not just share the data. I’m sure people will say “Oh yeah, I think it’s worth it for me to live my life in undischargeable debt so I can ‘study’ this major at this place and work for minimum wage”.
Re: USC pushed a $115k online degree – graduates got low salaries, huge debts
#39Way more of a scam than any bootcamp
Re: USC pushed a $115k online degree – graduates got low salaries, huge debts
#40And almost all got loans backed by the US government that they won’t be able to repay and will fall on the US taxpayer to cover. Essentially USC bilked the US taxpayers out of millions, with these poor students serving as the unfortunate middlemen. Solution: make the universities have some skin the game - cover 20% of the principal on defaulted loans.
Won’t that solution make it harder for students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds to get loans? Or is the idea here that universities would be prohibited from applying risk management to their loan portfolio?