More USC Probs

 I was recently talking to Andrew about class and our PhD program. Andrew is my go-to person for all things university or college related (see HERE). He is one of the few students who I actually compete with in my classes . . . lucky him.

Andrew is an adjunct professor or something for a small school in Connecticut but more than that he is a Delta Airlines flight attendant. He was written about in a magazine about his dual jobs last year (see HERE). So he does dual duty for work and for me, which is fairly bad ass.

Because he is my outlet for all things airlines he gets a lot of links from me about people getting ducted tape to airline seats, unruly passengers, etc etc. He also gets a lot of links about if grad school is worth it, or any of the other hoi polloi about academics that I run across. (I feel certain he is always thrilled to receive my missives).

I sent him one the other day, this one was about USC and the cost of its Masters in Social Work program (see HERE). It's a bit of a longish article, but wow is it powerful. On the heels of their college admissions scandal, which I still can't figure out. . . . I mean I get wanting to get your kid into a top notch school, but parents actually facilitating the cheating and the fraud? That's absurd. And for USC? That just shows that these parents weren't very smart about their objectives in my opinion. 

Regardless, I sent this link to Andrew because of the cost of the program compared to the expected return. I've already done this calculation for my own PhD work, and you can imagine that since I'm late in my own life and because my job is helping me some, the return is significant on my end. Not so with the Masters in Social Work. The balance is incredibly lopsided on what it costs to get the degree (about 112K) and the expected salary for graduates (around 52K). Now, of course these numbers are stark, but that's a lot of college debt to pay off for a career field that habitually doesn't pay an awful lot. 

The article discusses how a for profit, private company was used to help attract students. I don't find this to be that out of line. I have no problem with this aspect of the story. If there's a private company that a college wants to pay, great! But you better not hide the costs and you better not inflate the return. 

Additionally, I think it's sad that (and the story doesn't discuss this as much) but I think they were taking advantage of student's and our society's own thoughts on social work. Noble? Maybe. But more noble than doctor or lawyer or any other job? Hardly says I. But I betcha if you ask kiddos going into schools these days they will say that it's more noble, and that's why they're doing it.