5 ms·

$200k for journalism and media studies was a bad investment. It's a tough message, but you have to invest in education more intelligently than 'throw money at i

$200k for journalism and media studies was a bad investment. It's a tough message, but you have to invest in education more intelligently than 'throw money at it and hope for the best'.

dragontamer 11y ago
Indeed. Although I have respect for the highly educated journalists... the industry has been demolished by online blogs. The popularity contest that is the online blogosphere is more important financially than hard work and legitimate, high-quality journalism that they teach. There's almost no money in that business anymore.
- wmil 11y ago
  Besides that most of the top papers only hire from the top ivies. Which generally don't even have journalism programs.
SmokyBorbon 11y ago
> you have to invest...more intelligently than 'throw money at it and hope for the best' You do realize you're on a ycombinator website right?
larrywright 11y ago
$200k for many majors is a bad investment. There are a handful of careers where that kind of education investment will pay off (technology, medical), but most will not.
- gk1 11y ago
  Even for majors with high post-grad salaries (eg, engineering of any kind), you can get a degree for much less than that.
duncanawoods 11y ago
It was $129k for the journalism degree. The $189k is the combined figure for both their sons.
sp332 11y ago
If you're paying that much for a degree, colleges usually have good contacts in the industry and can really give you a leg up on networking and finding job opportunities.
- dasil003 11y ago
  Good luck in journalism though.
  - sp332 11y ago
    It says he was trying to get a Hollywood career.
    - dragonwriter 11y ago
      Which makes spending that much money on a journalism degree from a private university that isn't particularly known for Hollywood connections (and certainly not in its journalism program) an extremely poor decision. A Rutgers journalism degree might be a good choice (though still probably not going to pay off quickly, in net financial terms) if you want a career in journalism. If you want a career in Hollywood, you probably want to get a film or related degree from a school where the department has Hollywood connections; I've heard (though I've never seriously researched it, since it was never my interest when going to school) that UCLA is fairly good in this regard. (And, you probably want to research what it takes to actually make a career in Hollywood, and be doing that while you're in school, rather than hoping that just getting a degree is going to magically open doors.)
- gaius 11y ago
  There are 100 people in your class and 1 job - there is no amount of "networking" than can fix this for 99 of those grads.
- inthewoods 11y ago
  Probably more true for grad school than undergrad.
richerlariviere 11y ago
The U.S. educationnal system is wrong. If you go to Canada, you will pay less than 30k$ for you entire program. It's illogical to waste 4 years if you don't have solid chances to get a job and make it profitable, maybe it is not the place to go and/or the career to follow.
- marknutter 11y ago
  Getting a journalism degree in Canada doesn't somehow make it more viable. We don't need more journalists, plain and simple. Nobody should be paying money to become journalists.
  - enraged_camel 11y ago
    >>We don't need more journalists, plain and simple. I disagree. In a country with free press, journalists play a critical role in uncovering truths and disseminating the information among the public. The problem is that the vast majority of people with the title "journalist" today aren't really journalists. They're just brain-dead writers for news conglomerates and PR firms. And yes, getting a degree just for that is dumb. But if you want to become an investigative journalist, then getting a degree for it is a very good idea.
    - serge2k 11y ago
      There is a difference between not needing more journalists and not needing journalists.
- okcs 11y ago
  That's about how much it would cost if you get a degree from an in-state public university. At that cost I can only imagine that he decided to go to Rutgers as an out-of-state student. That was the big mistake here.
- serge2k 11y ago
  I did my entire education on loans (in Canada, lived at home and worked part time but actual tuition and books was paid with loans). 5 years (double major) of mostly full time tutition (last couple semesters when I was just finishing requirements were less) was just right around 30k.
dragonwriter 11y ago
> $200k for journalism and media studies was a bad investment. It wasn't $200K for the journalism and media studies degree (it was $189k total for two students, only one of which got a journalism and media studies degree.) And, maybe the journalism and media studies degree from Rutgers would have been a good investment -- if the student wanted to be a journalist; instead, he seems to have wanted a Hollywood film career, but for some inexplicable reason paid for a fairly expensive journalism degree, rather than seeking a film-related degree.

$200k for journalism and media studies was a bad investment. It's a tough message, but you have to invest in education more intelligently than 'throw money at it and hope for the best'.

dragontamer 11y ago

Indeed. Although I have respect for the highly educated journalists... the industry has been demolished by online blogs. The popularity contest that is the online blogosphere is more important financially than hard work and legitimate, high-quality journalism that they teach. There's almost no money in that business anymore.

wmil 11y ago
Besides that most of the top papers only hire from the top ivies. Which generally don't even have journalism programs.

SmokyBorbon 11y ago

> you have to invest...more intelligently than 'throw money at it and hope for the best' You do realize you're on a ycombinator website right?

larrywright 11y ago

$200k for many majors is a bad investment. There are a handful of careers where that kind of education investment will pay off (technology, medical), but most will not.

gk1 11y ago
Even for majors with high post-grad salaries (eg, engineering of any kind), you can get a degree for much less than that.

duncanawoods 11y ago

It was $129k for the journalism degree. The $189k is the combined figure for both their sons.

sp332 11y ago

If you're paying that much for a degree, colleges usually have good contacts in the industry and can really give you a leg up on networking and finding job opportunities.

dasil003 11y ago
Good luck in journalism though.
- sp332 11y ago
  It says he was trying to get a Hollywood career.
  - dragonwriter 11y ago
    Which makes spending that much money on a journalism degree from a private university that isn't particularly known for Hollywood connections (and certainly not in its journalism program) an extremely poor decision. A Rutgers journalism degree might be a good choice (though still probably not going to pay off quickly, in net financial terms) if you want a career in journalism. If you want a career in Hollywood, you probably want to get a film or related degree from a school where the department has Hollywood connections; I've heard (though I've never seriously researched it, since it was never my interest when going to school) that UCLA is fairly good in this regard. (And, you probably want to research what it takes to actually make a career in Hollywood, and be doing that while you're in school, rather than hoping that just getting a degree is going to magically open doors.)
gaius 11y ago
There are 100 people in your class and 1 job - there is no amount of "networking" than can fix this for 99 of those grads.
inthewoods 11y ago
Probably more true for grad school than undergrad.

richerlariviere 11y ago

The U.S. educationnal system is wrong. If you go to Canada, you will pay less than 30k$ for you entire program. It's illogical to waste 4 years if you don't have solid chances to get a job and make it profitable, maybe it is not the place to go and/or the career to follow.

marknutter 11y ago
Getting a journalism degree in Canada doesn't somehow make it more viable. We don't need more journalists, plain and simple. Nobody should be paying money to become journalists.
- enraged_camel 11y ago
  >>We don't need more journalists, plain and simple. I disagree. In a country with free press, journalists play a critical role in uncovering truths and disseminating the information among the public. The problem is that the vast majority of people with the title "journalist" today aren't really journalists. They're just brain-dead writers for news conglomerates and PR firms. And yes, getting a degree just for that is dumb. But if you want to become an investigative journalist, then getting a degree for it is a very good idea.
  - serge2k 11y ago
    There is a difference between not needing more journalists and not needing journalists.
okcs 11y ago
That's about how much it would cost if you get a degree from an in-state public university. At that cost I can only imagine that he decided to go to Rutgers as an out-of-state student. That was the big mistake here.
serge2k 11y ago
I did my entire education on loans (in Canada, lived at home and worked part time but actual tuition and books was paid with loans). 5 years (double major) of mostly full time tutition (last couple semesters when I was just finishing requirements were less) was just right around 30k.

dragonwriter 11y ago

> $200k for journalism and media studies was a bad investment. It wasn't $200K for the journalism and media studies degree (it was $189k total for two students, only one of which got a journalism and media studies degree.) And, maybe the journalism and media studies degree from Rutgers would have been a good investment -- if the student wanted to be a journalist; instead, he seems to have wanted a Hollywood film career, but for some inexplicable reason paid for a fairly expensive journalism degree, rather than seeking a film-related degree.