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Many years ago my neighbor was a woman in debt up to her eyeballs with a sociology degree, who dreamed of working in the nonprofit sector. She got a series of (

Many years ago my neighbor was a woman in debt up to her eyeballs with a sociology degree, who dreamed of working in the nonprofit sector. She got a series of (unpaid) internships with nonprofits around Boston but could never land a permanent position. She wound up taking a job at a local sandwich shop. Domino's Pizza managers make over $40,000 and don't require a college degree.[0] They also have benefits. In 2007 when I worked at Dominos the manager was salaried and worked about 50 hours a week, but he was an ex-convict and really enjoyed his job. He was a super nice guy who made us excited to work there. There is no need to pay $200,000 for a worthless degree to make minimum wages as you are overworked and stressing yourself to death. If that was me, I'd go back to Dominos, it was a pretty fun place to work. [0] https://www.glassdoor.com/Hourly-Pay/Domino-s-General-Manager-Hourly-Pay-E2770_D_KO9,24.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Hourly-Pay/Domino-s-General-Manage...

impendia 8y ago
> There is no need to pay $200,000 for a worthless degree In general, and certainly in my field (mathematics), Ph.D. students don't pay tuition, and they get a modest stipend (around 20K) in exchange for being teaching assistants.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- mac01021 8y ago
  I think the discussion here is mainly of undergraduate degrees.
- barry-cotter 8y ago
  Ph.D. students outside top tier programmes in the humanities and social sciences often get admitted without funding and enrol as students. They might get a teaching assistantship or they might go into enormous debt. Then if they graduate they’re competing for jobs against people from graduate programmes in their field that are well known and respected. Most of those people don’t get tenure track jobs. The ones from no name programmes are just screwed. Fredrik deBoer got a Ph.D. in English (Rhetoric) from Purdue, applied to more than 300 tenure track jobs and gave up, eventually becoming an administrator at NYU. Unfortunately he’s deleted the essay along with most of his blog but he said that the tenure track job hunt was the worst thing that ever happened to him and he’s an orphan. That’s someone with statistical and programming skills graduating from one of the top programmes in Rhetoric.
  - puranjay 8y ago
    Apparently, the chance to get funding for a PhD in UK is about 1 in 20. Most startups have a higher success rate than that.

impendia 8y ago

> There is no need to pay $200,000 for a worthless degree In general, and certainly in my field (mathematics), Ph.D. students don't pay tuition, and they get a modest stipend (around 20K) in exchange for being teaching assistants.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
mac01021 8y ago
I think the discussion here is mainly of undergraduate degrees.
barry-cotter 8y ago
Ph.D. students outside top tier programmes in the humanities and social sciences often get admitted without funding and enrol as students. They might get a teaching assistantship or they might go into enormous debt. Then if they graduate they’re competing for jobs against people from graduate programmes in their field that are well known and respected. Most of those people don’t get tenure track jobs. The ones from no name programmes are just screwed. Fredrik deBoer got a Ph.D. in English (Rhetoric) from Purdue, applied to more than 300 tenure track jobs and gave up, eventually becoming an administrator at NYU. Unfortunately he’s deleted the essay along with most of his blog but he said that the tenure track job hunt was the worst thing that ever happened to him and he’s an orphan. That’s someone with statistical and programming skills graduating from one of the top programmes in Rhetoric.
- puranjay 8y ago
  Apparently, the chance to get funding for a PhD in UK is about 1 in 20. Most startups have a higher success rate than that.