Sadly, one of my favorite things on the internet – the Paper Cuts blog, a database of newspaper closures and layoffs maintained by Erica Smith – has disappeared. Hopefully it is on hiatus, to return better than before. A little bit of poorly-formatted archival material is shown here.
Law schools long ago mastered the scheme of promising x students who can afford the tuition that they would get great jobs despite knowing full well that only x/2 could actually find decent employment upon graduation. It's a serious ethical dilemma on the administrative side of academia. We need the money so we take everyone who can pay. Then we let the students discover for themselves, several years and $100,000 later, that, well, those six-figure jobs we dangled in front of them are pretty rare.
Journalism schools are on the bandwagon now, and not because they're taking more students. The industry simply is disappearing. I saw an estimate (and lord help me, I can't find a link) that only 40% of current journalism students can feasibly be absorbed by the print media industry. Are they doing the ethical thing and reducing enrollments? No. That's hard to do when no one has a job and the number of applications skyrockets. Just keep taking them, take their money, let reality steamroll them in a few years, and then rely on hacky right-wing moralization to absolve academia of blame ("It's the students' own fault if they're not good enough to find a job. We tried.")
The really sad part is that many of the jobs that are available only loosely resemble what we'd call "journalism." Rather than becoming news reporters, many of these students are going to end up in lifestyle publishing (magazines of the Modern Bride and Stuff variety), re-writing press releases and wire stories for small papers, or freelancing. An acquaintance of mine graduated from Northwestern journalism school, one of the top 5, and was the envy of many colleagues for landing a real, well-paid job…as the "Gadgets" Editor for a well-known national magazine, a genre of journalism which amounts to badly disguised advertising. Many a quality journalist from Columbia or Northwestern are doomed to sit in offices writing about great software for printing one's own wedding invitations, while many more will be unemployed and forced to compete with other desperate people in a race to see who has less integrity. "I have one job here and there are four of you. Whoever writes the most enthusiastic feature about the new Scion tC gets the job. You have an hour."
It might feel a little less dirty if journalism schools took a fully informed, buyer beware attitude about the state of the industry. But to be honest, would that stop any of the current wave of applicants who are unemployed and lack better options for the future? Like Daniel Clowes said in his hilarious Art School Confidential comic strip, (please disregard the horrendous film based on the same) telling a room full of college kids "Out of you 50, only one will land a job in this field" simply makes all of them think "I'll be the one!"
daphne says:
My daughter, a Chicago attorney, attended law school knowing she would never become wealthy once in practice, because she refuses to defend corporations et. al. Instead, she keeps immigrants in this country which is worth a hell of a lot more.
A says:
Ha, that's pretty much what happened at my grad school – they skew the numbers to make it seem like it's pretty much a sure-thing that you'll be easily hired, they have a great placement rate, and starting wages are high – and then they teach you the skills to see through their distortions.
Oh, but that last part comes $100,000 later.
I can't help but wonder what a huge drag on the economy student loans must be – think of all that income that's being sent to Sallie Mae that could be helping out!
jon says:
For many degrees, there is The Proper Job that comes from it and also The Skills. The skills of journalism (being able to ask decent questions, put together coherent sentences, bullshit detection, and others) aren't only useful for newspaper writers. My career, which was helped by a Masters in Library Science, is as a librarian, but many places other than libraries need the organizational, research, and cataloging skills. Of course, since pretty much no one is hiring these days, I would recommend that anyone considering training and education look into solar panel installation and electrical systems, electric vehicle conversions, plumbing with an emphasis on solar water heaters, suppliers to do-it-yourself farmers and brewers, and nursing.
Disgruntled Academic says:
Higher education is, by and large, a giant con perpetrated by pretentious layabouts called professors and administrators and something called Sallie Mae on the students who attend the schools and the taxpayers who fund them. Grad school particularly. "Sure, we'll give you 50k in loans so you can get that master's in philosophy! Sure, take it! We're pals! It's practically free money! Oh, by the way, there may come a time when we will ask you for a favor…."
Web Dunce says:
There is another great piece in the Huffington Post today arguing that journalism schools should be closed all together. I couldn't agree more. As a former graduate student of journalism (and subsequent drop-out), I can tell you first hand that the curriculum is a total joke and the cost of attending is beyond ridiculous. Luckily, I realized the con pretty early into it so I only lost a few grand.
Amanda says:
While reading your blog all I could think was that music performance suffers from the same problem and everyone knows it. Take in all of these students who want to be the next Yo-Yo Ma, Josh Bell, or first chair Chicago Symphony player of their instrument of choice and make them pay exorbitant music school tuition and fees (which are typically much higher than other schools within the university due to performance fees, lesson fees, recital hall fees, etc.). The difference here is that the same university is more than willing to allow these students to continue on to their masters or even their doctoral degrees when they are unsuccessful at winning any auditions after each degree. Once the doctoral degree is earned, and if students still have not won a position in a major orchestra/organization students often will either try to have a studio at the college level, they will get a non-music job and gig on the side, or the same university will often take them back so they can get a degree (masters or doctorate) in music theory, history, or (gag) musicology/ethnomusicology.
In this case not only are these students being hurt in a similar fashion as what you describe in the journalism schools, but their continued existence in the school of music siphons funding and scholarships away from other students undergrad and grad alike who are either just starting their degree or who may have chosen a path less competitive than the one they have chosen. There has been a call for performance schools to be more truthful or to accept less students, but the truth of the matter is that high school band and orchestra programs often produce students who think they are the SUPERSTAR of the world and music performance professors/schools are more than happy to help them try to reach that potential while taking $30,000-50,000 a year from them. If they don't win an audition…well…life is hard, better get a helmet or a different degree.
Desargues says:
All these things happen in my field, too. Philosophy, that is. I can't help but feel that, had those assholes been more honest with us, I'd have chosen to turn them down or leave with a master's. People stupider than me make close to half a mil per year as doctors, while I'm in danger of getting sucked in by the black hole of endless adjuncting for shit money. Sigh.
displaced capitalist says:
all post high school education is overrated these days. Unless you have a strong entrepreneurial drive, you'll never succeed no matter what or how many degrees you get: you'll just be doing data entry/free lance proofreading/document reviewing/telemarketing/burger flipping for the rest of your life. Yey.
Jon's got the right advice for kids above. Get a job as an electrician specializing in renewable energy. It's your only hope. Forget nursing, journalism, law, accounting, programming, graphic design, music, video game design, or whatever childish fantasies you may have.
Maybe writing might work, who knowsm you may become the next JK Rowling (or just another welfare mom).
willf says:
Appropos music/art education, this pretty much sums it up:
"If you really want to hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living, They are a very human way of making life more bearable." K. Vonnegut
Amanda says:
What about the fields of education or business or medicine? These are among the fields for which higher education degrees are not only worthwhile, they are almost mandatory. Many states have a requirement for teachers to have their masters degree within a specific timeframe once they have been hired, and in order to move up on the payscale "professional development credits" or higher education courses/masters degree are necessary.
Also I think there is a danger in jumping on the bandwagon in terms of careers. I think the safest route is to attempt to combine interest with a career that seems to have staying power in our society (education, medicine, city/state government needs i.e. trash collector/electrician) and train for that field. In some cases that might only require a community college degree, in others that might require as high as a doctoral degree but I think the answer lies in the quality of the advice and guidance we offer students at all stages of their education as opposed to allowing them to take a path that might make the university a lot of money but hurt them in the end.
Amanda says:
willf: There is a difference between music education and music performance in terms of their definition as a career. Both are equally important but both have very different degree requirements and end goals. A person with a music education degree is more likely to find a job than a person with a music performance degree in any instrument because they graduate certified and qualified to teach anywhere in the United States. A music performance graduate must take extra courses (usually as part of a masters degree in music ed when they discover the job market for their degree blows) in order to become certified.
To displaced capitalist commenter: Imagine a world in which we all are electricians which handle solar panels like pros and dance a la Mary Poppins on rooftops everywhere. My suggestion is to put down Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, set aside those cheetos, quit whining about being displaced and find something to do.
Matthew says:
You know desargues, one of the things that I liked about philosophy (one of my undergraduate majors) is that it's pretty clearly something that you want to study because you don't care about being successful.
If somebody suckered you in with a line like "Go into philosophy; that's where the REAL money is!" then maybe you should have "examined your life" a bit more.
Nate says:
I majored in Psychology and discovered by the last semester of my senior year that I was woefully unprepared and unwilling to shell out the cash in order to get a "worthwhile" job entering a masters or doctorate program. Much less that I wouldn't be decent competition of getting into any good schools with a good Psy masters or doctorate program with my B average GPA. So, I tooled around Bloomington for about 3 years doing jobs that I either hated (see Crosstown Cleaners) or wasn't too enthused about until I got lucky enough to get hired to my current job, which while doesn't pay much is one that I am totally in love with.
displaced capitalist says:
Amanda:
What's wrong with cheetos? I like cheetos. They make my neck-beard a delightful shade of orange.
TelemarketingLeads says:
The Ten Commandments Of Employment… 1. If it rings, put it on hold. 2. If it clunks, call the repairman. 3. If it whistles, ignore it. 4. If it's a friend, stop work and chat. 5. If it's the boss, look busy. 6. If it talks, take notes. 7. If it's handwritten, type it. 8. if it's typed, copy it. 9. If it's copied, file it. 10. If it's Friday, forget it!
Work is too serious joke a little!
Indoor Grills says:
solar water heaters are great for reducing electricity bills and you also help the environment~"
Thomas Morris says:
the good thing about solar water heaters is that they can help you conserve energy :;;