4 ms·
YMMV. A friend/former coworker of mine left to get his Masters in CS at Columbia. He was always a driven, strongly self-directed kind of guy. The connections
by busterarm 5y ago
YMMV. A friend/former coworker of mine left to get his Masters in CS at Columbia. He was always a driven, strongly self-directed kind of guy.
The connections that he made in his Masters program led to him founding a security company with his professors and landed government contracts through their contacts in the federal government. That infosec company is one of the most competitive/exciting local employers.
- mrDmrTmrJ 5y agoRespectfully a Masters in CS is completely different from a masters in a 'creative field' because CS has an excess of demand for talent and tons of new opportunities. Writing, Journalism, Fashion, Fine-Arts, Film - all of these master programs are producing legions of high-debt students with bad prospects, which is the point of the original article that the start of the Twitter thread.
- mabub24 5y agoI think another things is, these MFA programs aren't about scholarship or research. They're essentially exorbitantly expensive trade schools. Even weirder: in the past the idea of going to some ultra expensive trade school to learn how to make films would've been considered bizarre. Hollywood operated with an apprenticeship model (with, obviously a shitload of luck) that was kind of similar to the way a plumber-student would need to apprentice. Even journalism schools when they first started, weren't bathing in the cache of a MFA program, they were trade schools for making reporters. They taught you bare bones shit about writing a column to set lines, and had you interning at newspapers and shadowing reporters right away. MFA programs and the rise of "creative non-fiction" are now making journalists think they're artists. I don't have a problem with MFA programs existing (I mean, some CS programs are awful and churn out students who can barely code), but I think some applicants need to take a hard look at whether they even serve a purpose for their future employment beyond the letters "MFA" after your name; and, whether Columbia is actually the best MFA program to go to.
- germinalphrase 5y agoI worked in the film industry for about six years post college (camera: loader, 2nd AC mostly) and a member of the Cinematographers Guild. The apprenticeship model is still largely in place and folks come into the industry from all sides. That said, above the line and below the line are different worlds, and people I knew who came from money/Hollywood legacy did seem to have real advantages there. I ultimately left because the lifestyle wouldn’t be good for me long term (even if it was fun in my 20’s).
- busterarm 5y agoBoth of the journalism masters programs that the parent mentioned that I was responding to were MS, not MFA.
- dopeboy 5y agoIt's a rich environment where you can build relationships with world class faculty. It's also an excellent launching pad to work in finance. There was, when I went there, a tight relationship with IBM Watson. I remember taking a course with a guy who helped design the Cell processor found in the PS3. I don't know if I'd do it today given how expensive it has gotten. But it made sense when I went there a decade ago.
- throwawaycities 5y ago> …through their contacts in the federal government. In other words it’s not what you know but who you know and the key is to know people who know other people who can get you that sweet sweet tax payer funded government money. Not to get political but that’s why you had Trump’s son in law and daughter working in the White House and Biden’s kid went straight from rehab to $10M contracts with the government of China to selling his art for $500k a pop.
- busterarm 5y agoNot exactly. I'm familiar with my former colleague's research and his firm's work. It was groundbreaking, novel work with high utility. He broke ground on an important, mostly-overlooked area of hardware security and built a world-class product. The DARPA money and contracts were well-deserved and exactly the sort of research that government money should be going to.
- gurumeditations 5y agoThe connections are what enable you to create that in the first place. He’s not going to create it in his bedroom by himself and by virtue of that, have contracts land in his lap. There are lots of great things people could do, but they never get the opportunity to do them.