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The worst are expensive "professional" master's degree programs in careers that seem like they'd be very promising in terms of job opportunities at first glance
by jnbiche 8y ago
The worst are expensive "professional" master's degree programs in careers that seem like they'd be very promising in terms of job opportunities at first glance: public health, public administration, biotechnology, legal interpreting, etc. I'm afraid that many grad programs in data science have the potential to join this group.
They all seem like "responsible" careers that someone worried about making a living could turn to. And then these graduate programs make expensive and misleading glossy brochures and web sites to entice students into a career where jobs are plentiful and well-paid.
Well, you can turn those programs into a decent job, but you have to play your cards just right. You have to choose the exact subfield that is hot right now, and pick up skills that aren't necessarily taught at the grad program. And you have to get into the exact right internship, or get lucky enough to snag one of the dwindling number of government jobs in your field. But no one at these schools bothers to tell the students these things. So in the end, relatively few graduates end up working in the field they studied.
But they do keep the $50,000-100,000 in debt they accumulated.
- scarejunba 8y agoPerhaps we should align incentives. A good start is to make it so that education loan payments are only required on higher paying jobs and the payment increases progressively (like taxes).
- scotty79 8y agoIt would be great if loan payments couldn't exceed some percentage of income for example 10%. If it exceeds 10% of your current monthly income you pay just 10% and rest is written off. If you are unemployed, you pay nothing and have the capital you owe reduced by the full payment. This would quickly defund useless education.
- scarejunba 8y agoHmm, yeah. When I think about it, these things will probably end up with a system as complicated as (or more complicated than) taxes. Can you imagine? Someone studies Mathematics and then makes money primarily through capital gains, or they get inheritances, or they sell their home after studying to be a carpenter and fix up their house. The complexities are huge.
- scotty79 8y agoSure. There will be people that will get undeserved benefit. But this idea is not about perfect justice. It's about aligning incentives so that financial institutions don't fund expensive degree's that will get you janitorial job or no job at all. Currently student loans are pretty much no risk at all. You can even shake them off with bankruptcy.
- selimthegrim 8y agoUh, only if you’re disabled.
- dragonwriter 8y ago> And you have to get into the exact right internship, or get lucky enough to snag one of the dwindling number of government jobs in your field. There aren't a dwindling number of government jobs in public administration or public health. > But no one at these schools bothers to tell the students these things. Several schools' in those fields big draw is their internship/fellowship programs and connections to key employers in the public or private sector, and these things are heavily marketed as important. > So in the end, relatively few graduates end up working in the field they studied. A number of professional degrees are competitive advantage in related and even distant fields as well as their exact field, so that's not a sign of not getting a significant career advantage from the degree.
- selimthegrim 8y agoColumbia? Sure. Tulane or Wash U? Uhhhhh...