Also posted today, very much related: TLDR; Regardless of how it's broken down, the overall amount of debt is up. We've added a few more million people since 2008, so debt per capita still isn't what it was leading up to when the market took a tumble. veen's article touched on it, but it seems like the secret's out. Experiences are more fulfilling than that $30,000 hammock 'bl00 posted here ~two years ago. So can we blame the baby boomers for falsely inflating the retail market through their rampant consumerism? Sure, why not. None of this takes into account the long term effects of flooding the job market with increasingly devalued college diplomas. The earning power of college graduates should decrease accordingly.
So I should go to graduate school, riiiiiiight?
It's a good time to have a terrible time, I think, yes. How much do you hate yourself?
Eh. Grad school gives you shit pay for insane hours on interesting, or at least worthwhile, work. Industry gives you good pay for decent hours on boring work if you're lucky and work that makes the world worse if you're not. You're probably going to be unlucky, because capitalism. In both cases you're at the mercy of stuffed suits you could replace with a moderately complex shell script if they weren't the ones in charge. I've bounced back and forth a few times and I still can't decide whether I hate academia or industry more. My student loans were paid off before I'd been out of undergrad 10 years though.
Why the fuck are you giving advice to someone who is a potential graduate student? Clearly, you never went to graduate school.
I've been in PhD programs in math and computer science. Then my stipend didn't cover family members' medical bills ('murica!) and I missed sleeping and I remembered I could be writing trivial CRUD forms for 40-more-like-15 hours a week and around 3 times the median income in my area.
Yeah, I'm sorry, I had to do a bit of a performance art piece, here. I thought it might be the best way to help him. In graduate school, everyone is guaranteed to fail at something. Honestly, I had already figured you're some kind of a sysadmingodmindcrypto, or maybe even a pure mathematician, so deal with it. And those don't come out of Phoenix University, usually. ...Is grad school just like this for me? edit: sorry about the line above, I have to remind myself that the demonstration is over
^THIS^ piece of shit again?! Hahah, wow. Fucking tool.
#gradschoolthread edit: the demonstration is now over, thank you! I mean, it's pretty bad, man. :(
Enough to occasionally thinking about getting a Masters in Food Science or Agricultural Studies.
Nope, you don't hate yourself that much. Don't do that.