Totally agreed. Hence the comparison with graduate school: you often have to work other jobs to support the effort, you've got a dream you'll make it big, you r

Totally agreed. Hence the comparison with graduate school: you often have to work other jobs to support the effort, you've got a dream you'll make it big, you realize the toll it's taking on your life, and you probably stop doing it eventually. Even if you "make it," you're probably not a top model (a prof at Princeton) but instead a commercial model (prof at directional state U or small Midwestern religious school). Below the top tier, the work is not what you were sold on in grad school, but you do get to make money doing something you kind of or really like. (Please quit if you don't like it at all.) Even American literature has way better job security and pension prospects than modeling, though.