For the majority of people, commenting on blog posts is useless and teaches us nothing. And yet, here we all are! 
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Whoops! Of course, edited original
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The Cuban medical system is impressive, but far from perfect.
Naturally the WSJ finds state rather than private indentured servitude to be horrific. (Although they see nothing wrong with the state used as collector for private debt.)
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I don’t deny that “easy and fun” is important when you’re coming from a family with money and the provenance of your degree matters in those circles. But for people (and these are adults, not kids) incurring massive debt to take a Masters program at a school like Columbia, it’s much more the case that they are taking a risk to pursue their passion. Their parents aren’t underwriting the degrees because they can’t afford to (unless they co-signed the loans).
It’s not just the arts where getting practical experience is of equal value to the education. I’m sure the guy quoted in this article had the internships and apprenticeships, too. The problem is that education is beyond the reach of all but the wealthy and so society has created a large pool of highly skilled indentured labourers. The solution isn’t to dissuade people from pursuing what they are passionate about, the solution is to level the playing field.
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No they wont… you miss the point. everyone’s job will be replaced… including those that service the machine… somehow you think they wont be able to be repaired by another machine… it will happen eventually.
Huh. I’m a mechanical engineer as are many of my co-workers, and the majority of folks at my work don’t have a masters. But I haven’t had to look for new work lately so maybe it’s a lot harder than it used to be.
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Seems to be mainly a problem with younger people/new graduates, but could be regional here too. It is true that a lot of people rushed to this area at once.
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One degree the article touched upon but ignored for the sexier choice of film studies is social work.
To get a job as a social worker in most states, you have to be licensed, which strangely enough means you need at least a Masters and preferably a Doctorate.
The starting salary for a social worker (licensed) is about $30,000. That’s less than $15 an hour.
Our society needs social workers for everything from child welfare to therapy to replacing police in communities; we expect them to have higher education and licensing, yet they make the same as a fast food worker in the suburbs.
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But the greatly enjoyable work of investigating abusive families and then removing children from the only people they love must surely be its own reward, right? /s
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Many jobs do not pay enough for an “independent livelihood”.
Many areas lack for any sort of job to be had even with a “viable skill or trade”.
Where I grew up the only real job sectors are tourism, retail and construction. And that is pretty damn common these days.
The backup plan for many younger Americans is and always was that if that degree (or trade school, or civil service test) thing doesn’t work out (and it mostly didn’t), I can always swing a hammer, or sling drinks.
Where upon you are locked into low paid, unstable, often seasonal work of a sort that tends to not provide an “independent livelihood”.
Then she is exceedingly lucky. Or knew some one.
Your typical film school is a trade school. Mine would even teach you carpentry and welding. In concert with the theater school and the craft section of the art school for set design and prop making. I spent 30+ hours a week in an editing lab. And I was on the screenwriting track.
There are theory programs that don’t do that sort of thing. But they tend be part of journalism or literature programs. They’re what you do to be a teacher, or to write. That’s often where media reporters and film critics come from.
The sort of training program you’re talking about is typically for profit, usually unaccredited, and the name ones are more expensive (by a lot) than the equivalent time at a college film program. Especially compared to a 2 year film program at a community college.
They tend not to teach anything different than the tech end of a film school. And the better ones do it just as well. But don’t result in an accredited degree or a liberal arts education. So it’s less portable.
A number of them have been sued for misrepresenting the value of their degrees or certificates, or had student debt associated with them cancelled (where student loans were even offered). Semester at Sea was once a big player in this sort of thing.
Others do put out well trained people. The big one on the East Coast is the NY Film Academy. But a lot of value there is in networking, and lot of their students are either coming out of or about to go into a full film school.
I ran into A LOT of people who ran through those “schools” while I was still beating my head against the media industry. And on the whole they didn’t do any better with it than any of the film school kids did. And they weren’t necessarily any better trained. The NYFA people tended to be more familiar with AVID, and a couple other things that are more common in movie production than other industries. Cause that’s NYFA’s selling point, and a lot of universities standardize around something else due to cost or focus.
However you came to it. Everybody was still staring at the same unpaid Buzzfeed internships and $20k a year freelance gigs.
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Ok, if that’s a solid number, then no one graduates Yale owing $200K unless it’s a ten-year Bluto Blutarski stretch, right?
I can’t speak for all Universities. But at my current one (Canada) and last (USA) we refer to the MD students as undergraduate medical students.
In Canada where I am most familiar with the nitty gritty technical structure of the department it is absolutely an undergraduate program w(hich requires another undergraduate degree before entry). The Faculty of Graduate studies oversees all graduate degrees including those within the Faculty of Medicine. (MD PhDs are in both programs.)
At my previous US institution we always referred to the MDs as being in the undergraduate medical program excepting the MD PhDs. Fellows and residents are different. This was 4 years ago now so maybe the language has evolved?
Since I apparently mainly exist to add confusion to this thread 
There are both tenure and non tenure track professor positions. So it’s not always so simple.
At my University clinical faculty can be associate or full without tenure (as our primary job duty is not academic).
I forgot if this is the right sub thread but
salaries and general renumeration structures tend to be complex and highly variable across job titles and Faculty rank both within and between Universities. It’s really hard to gain much insight from aggregated numbers.
Some people can’t stand the idea of their tax dollars being used on things that are useful to other people, but not them.
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I agree. I’m speaking as a jack-of-many-trades without an independent livelihood or “viable” skill to trade.
But if I had a young human being in my care for as many years is normal in the school system in my country there’s no way they’d come away without a trade or two under their belt.
If I had my time again I’d forego my varied work experience and arts degree and join my brother and other friends who had apprenticeships on the go at 15/16 and had either houses or financial freedom at an age when I only just entered tertiary study.
There’s always work all over the world for chefs, brickies, and sparkies (even during recessions - check the job ads) and always the opportunity to be your own boss.
Edit - Shit, all of a sudden I sound like an old man…
Speaking from personal experience. While there is usually work for chefs. That work pays like shit. Like below the poverty line.
Which is why when I went back to restaurants after college I became a bartender. Which also pays like shit, but a bit less so.
While there are places in the world where these things pay less like shit.
If you aren’t in that place. You can’t afford to get there, unless you already come from money.
As for the “brickies and sparkies”. I know a lot of people in construction. Including my brother. He made a low hourly for a decade before he found a job that would give him the working hours and pay for the certifications on the large excavation machines he now runs. It was even longer before he could afford to hang out a shingle as handy man.
My dad always used to joke about there always being work digging ditches. Turns out it’s pretty expensive to get into doing it professionally.
I spent an awful lot of time looking at the job ads during a major recession. And there definitely weren’t always jobs of any particular sort. Especially not well paying jobs or jobs with a future.
Blue collar workers haven’t been raked over the coals any less than anyone else.
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