The College Crisis: It's Not Just Debt 

Banks sure as $hit didnt do that. They were known to NOT give loans for people going into these stupid majors that many of you go into today. They were bashed for being too selective because they knew some rube with a C-Average in high school, going into philosophy, had no way of paying that back. The STATE is who opened up the spigots. That got the universities to crank up the prices, because people like you cant do math.

We live in interesting times.

And this is why Wisecrack is one of the best on RU-vid right now... Some of these videos are so well edited and informative, and it's not that people don't believe in the college system anymore, its that every generation after the next has a new way of doing things. There are some jobs in life that are so essential to our well being as HUMANS, such as doctors, dentists, plumbers, builders and so on. But what happens when we are all at peace, what happens when people truly know how to take care of themselves and put their well being first without the need of some of these super expensive amenities. Lol I think schools, and people going to schools, should know that, what the job really is, waiting for you is the one that older people are forgetting how to do or just gettin too aged to continue to do so. Thats what education really is. Even in higher paying jobs, you still have to figure out how to market yourself, sell yourself and services to others, and so forth. The job market is shitty, because you have to be more than human sometimes, you gotta be super human. Able to sense the changes in your environment, you gotta take care of your own personal ideas, while workin' for other people, and still be tryin to market yourself as an individual. Sometimes I think the world could use a " Reset " But unfortunately, history repeats itself on so many fronts. Its like tryin' to prevent something from happening, because you've seen it before, but then ultimately, you become the reason why it happens. Lol, We're all stuck in this circular way of thinking, trying to find meaning in the reasoning, for reasons that benefit some but not all... And Wisecrack... This is why I draw cartoons. Lol Holla at ya boy if you need some character designs that you can animate, with quick turn around rate, only 5 easy payments of 19.95 plus shipping and handling. LMFAO!!!

exactly the problem, college was equitable before banks. Now its pay a billion in student loans for maybe a chance of getting hired at Starbucks and even less of a chance of becoming a CEO's assistant.

Yep. Greed fucks us all. :)

It's like the military. Jobs back in the day were "for life", so it paid to train people who were expected to work at the same company for 20 years. Today it's more like hiring mercenaries, both for the employer and the employee, especially with "at will" employment. There's no loyalty on either side, and everyone is looking at profits. If you're a skilled mercenary, as an employee you can earn a lot more. If you're not. you have to take what you can get. The gig economy is going to make this worse.

@@dukebanerjee4710 been on the job hunt scramble for a few weeks now. ... man this hits.

@@wonder_platypus8337 Even if you don't stay if you live in the US the postal service is always hiring. it pays well, so it can at least help you for a bit if you need cash. I work here as a mechanic (started as custodian) despite going to school for computer programming. I realized before I incurred a ton of debt that the market was flooded. Most job locations require 4 years college and 4 years' experience. so, I dropped at a 2-year degree and tried something else. At current I get $35 per hour to sit around waiting for machines to break with full benefits.

@@wonder_platypus8337i hope you've found something (ideally something that you enjoys and pays well but yk)

@@wonder_platypus8337wishing you the luck of having a job by now. I’m constantly freelancing and doing contracts. Horrible. Hope it’s better for you!

That's amazing! And yes, community colleges and city colleges are such a great educational resource.

I wish my mom had that aspect that your mom has!

@@WisecrackEDU What are city colleges? I've never heard that term before.

@@bwackbeedows3629 in some parts of the states it's the name used for two-year public schools.

we love you

A big piece of the puzzle, especially with public colleges, is that states pulled out much of their block funding to college systems. Instead, they get paid a per-head figure based on enrollment, which doesn't really cover the full costs - communal stuff like labs, dorms, building & campus maintenance, faculty & staff payroll aren't readily broken down to a per-student dollar amount. So the bulk of the costs are transferred over to the students' financial aid (as discussed), or whatever money the college can wring out of alumni and/or extras like off-campus property rentals, sports franchises, research grants/patents, etc. Basically that $441 was *highly subsidized* and now it's not. Taxpayers collectively decided - via their often-Republican State legislators - that they didn't want to be in the business of paying for Higher Ed at the State level. So we pay at the Federal and individual level 😅

Hell, even inflation can't account for THAT big of a difference

Yeah it has definitely outpaced inflation. For the $585 example in 1970 in the video it would be about $4500 now

@@mandisaw a general problem with the capitalist system, the rich that benefitted from the system is not properly incentivized to return the favor

@@iCarus_A "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." Still true ~150yrs later...

True! I think we only avoided that direct quote as we put out a RU-vid short a month or so ago that revolved around that one. But what a chilling thing to say.

@@WisecrackEDU First of all thanks for replying, and thanks for all the work that you do. If you really want to be spooked read the portion of the Powell memo calling for increased participation of business in the workings of higher education against the nefarious influence of social sciences departments graduating "scores’ of bright young men … who despise the American political and economic system."

A large number of highly educated people who are unemployed... hm why does that sound so familiar.

@Andrew Hart The video makes the point though that universities didn't begin as a kind of vocational school for knowledge workers, they were a place where people were able to explore philosophy for its own sake. There's no reason you couldn't have tradesmen who are also philosophers, and in the past you often did. They were the ones fomenting change among workers, and what the Reaganites were afraid of.

@Andrew Hart why should there be any ‘premium’, especially an artificially created one? that is called ‘privilege’, if one is honest. in any case, the real premium is in natural talent and character

I hope you chose a good STEM field major and not some liberal arts useless deegre

Shit a Summer job doesn't even compensate for what I make the rest of the year working at a junior high (tech, not teacher).

Most older adults are willfully ignorant of the economic prospects for younger generations.

SO well-put.

as my dad would put it. they want you smart enough to do your job but not smart enough to ask questions.

This is perfectly exemplified by the sadly common attitude that "college (and K-12 education too) forces you to take useless classes that you'll never need for your career." People just don't think of education as inherently valuable. They only care about its usefulness. I used to think like that too, and school was always a drag. But when I shifted my mindset and realized the real value of what I was learning beyond its direct usefulness, college stopped feeling like a waste of my time and money. I enjoyed my classes (except for language requirements. That one is kinda bullshit).

I wonder why business elites, Christian fundamentalists, and jingoistic nationalists are so opposed to learning literature, philosophy, and other humanities. It's almost like all three of those groups benefit from a populace that doesn't think too much ...

@@Orsonfoe more importantly not smart enough to ask the question “why do I need a job at all?”

Corporations that look for Masters level minimum candidates are looking strictly for students on F-1 visa who are working on their masters in the US as a method of bypassing the H1-B lottery. They can pay them less and they can use them to displace American workers with the added argument that their American counterpart is unlikely to have a masters.

We need highly subsidized public universities and trade schools to provide a cheap alternative to for-profit schools and drive down their tuition. Not likely to happen in the current political environment but it would solve the problem.

Agreed that the problem is too systemic and entrenched for any tugging on the margins to solve it. That said, since I [still] work in higher ed, I'd say the first step is obvious - we need to get taxpayers more directly invested in State/local education. Funneling the money through the Federal gov't & banks was a decent idea, but it transformed segregation rather than reformed it (i.e. economic vs racial), and shifted way too much of the burden onto individual students/families, who lack the experience or expertise to make an informed decision. As for employers, I'd say what we're seeing is degree-inflation - a lot of graduating undergrads flinched at either the '08 or '20 job market and ducked back in for a Masters, regardless of academic interest or even career ROI. Employers know they can get away with underpaying new-grads, regardless of what their credentials are, and so we get "entry-level" positions asking for Bachelors+4 or Masters+1. That's a different clusterf*ck though...

and people BEG them for the opportunity to get paid poverty wages after accumulating massive amounts of debt!!!

I would have nearly have sold my soul to the Devil to get those kinds of wages, and I have a Master's Degree.

That's horrible 😟

Yes ☝️😌 I majored in dance and people often have a difficult time understanding the concept of me picking a job based on love and a desire to improve the feild and continue the legacy of the dancers who came before me 🤷‍♂️☝️ honestly, I think if you really love something and devote your life to it, you will find some level of success. 👀😌 Some things are just more important than money 😅🙈 its more expensive to live than it was in 2014 when I made my choice, but I dont regret it. According to national data, 75% of working dancers in NYC are considering quitting the feild ☝️🙃🤷‍♂️ like neoliberalism and divestment could actually kill the heart of American dance in the next decade and thats dead sad.

The world would be a pretty boring place with everyone having a business degree.

Fellow business management grad here, and my degree is the ultimate cop-out degree. It's the dime a dozen of degrees. It's the "I had to pick something that'd help me get a real job" degree. It's the degree that no hiring manager actually gives a shit about seeing on a resume. Majoring in business management as an undergrad means you need to go to grad school and pick a more specified field to get anywhere. Thankfully I picked finance and lucked into a pretty great career...

Been suggesting the same to students for almost two decades now.

I’m applying into business. Any advice on what to do either now or for when I go to college?

I think the only reason this isn't higher, is because this isn't a verified account (Or people are scared to upvote this). I think your story should be higher, because I know this is more common than ever.

@@paladinplays5886 I don't think anyone is denying that this is a real problem. The problem is that you then get a parade of people who claim the very concept of higher education is a sham.

You're a sex worker? You destroy society and drag men to hell with you. Isn't that special!

@@Bustermachine It's also very situational. A lot of entertainment industry jobs can make you far greater money, as can many trade jobs, but this isn't a set in stone thing. A lot of people scrape by doing those jobs as well.

Can I ask why you wanted to be a stripper?

This is sad to me when we need more therapist than ever. There’s simply not enough therapists to serve the current population.

Counseling programs have proliferated, and so has the number of therapists. Also programs like Creative Writing have increased tremendously. All as a result of the availability of massive student loan amounts.

@@solarmoth4628 The problem is, therapists either (1) serve the community, end up in poverty, and are forced to change careers, or (2) open a private practice and compete for the few elite clients who can actually afford to pay the salary you need make a living and keep the practice running. I want to be a therapist, but I can't afford to actually help the clientele that needs it, so I have to find a career that I won't go destitute pursuing.

Okay thats not bad 🙂☝️ especially for a book like that which you might actually consult again 🤷‍♂️👀

I wonder how many students missed the memo and rented it though. It's something I would've probably done haha

Wait, people actually buy textbooks? I bought one for my first semester of physics, didn't use it even once, then never bought another textbook again

We just xeroxed copied everything, job done

@@kamilareeder1493 Except there's no reason for that book to cost even 50 dollars.

Definitely, the problem seems to be that so many students in America aren't told that there are plenty of trades where you can learn a lot and make a really good living without going into debt. Hopefully that is starting to change.

@@WisecrackEDU because as always, money talks. the more "lucrative" path is to lead them into loans and debt and let them (the students) worry about the collateral damage in their pockets. i too hope the consensus is starting to change but as long as there's money to be made from students being led astray so to speak, its going to be a slow shift.

@@davionwilliams4011 Plus a lot of those people that stand to make that money have a survival of the fittest philosophy. They believe it they are in position to exploit a people that "allow" themselves to be exploited, then doing that is the moral thing to do. Manifest Destiny essentially. As awful as it sounds, if you ask this to them right to their faces, they may pause... but ultimately they would agree that that's how they unashamedly feel.

I relate to this so much. I went into massive debt chasing a degree in IT that ended up in complete due to issues with funding. I was angry as all Hell finding out that a couple of certifications and the right network would get me further than the nearly 4 years i spent chasing that piece of paper. I really wish i would have avoided it. Im going to be paying that debt until I die and it didnt even do anything for me.

Just so you're aware that it's Leftist assholes like this guy who have helped make college into the radical Marxist ripoff it's become today. They don't care about you. They care about the maximum wealth and assets they can squeeze out of your work future and your uninvolved conservative parents.

@@DrCruel See, this how the concept of education has been distorted. Many years ago, it was all about broadening your horizons and exposing yourself to new material that challenged your beliefs and views. Now, it’s all about preparing you for a job, where people like you claim that it’s a scam because not every degree leads to gainful employment. This a fundamentally flawed and wrong way of thinking about education that was born out of the Reagan administration, and its views on economics and the role of education.

@@shogunite1404 Originally it was about preparing you for a job in engineering or as an officer, like with West Point, or in advanced fields. Educated, literate parents would form Societies of Friends would build a school and hire a teacher to educate their children. Then the schools became more liberalized, arguing that children needed to learn about their country to become more patriotic citizens, and to learn how to think critically. Higher schools of learning included literature and philosophy as part of their curricula. Around the early 20th century, socialists began to attempt infiltration into the schools. They began with the colleges, forming the American Student Union (ASU). The argument these groups made was that a good college education was about broadening your horizons and exposing yourself to new material that challenged your beliefs and views. These challenges would invariably be socialist talking points, and later, pro-Bolshevik pacifism such as the Oxford Pledge. There was a terrible crisis in this regard in early 1940, as the anti-fascism of these groups became pro-fascism after the alliance between the Bolsheviks and National Socialists, and these pacifist groups expressed favor for the Bolshevik invasion of Finland. This caused support for the ASU and like groups to collapse for almost 20 years. Later these groups enjoyed a marked resurgence during the Vietnam War period, with some student groups even involved in violence, terrorism and assassination. During this period these socialist groups began to use schools of secondary education to infiltrate and monopolize control of teachers in the elementary and secondary public schools. Now colleges and universities are increasingly becoming institutions dedicated to Marxist indoctrination. Rhetoric about "broadening your horizons and exposing yourself to new material that challenged your beliefs and views" has been declared as fascist and a tool for white supremacists, as free speech or indeed any speech that diverges from socialist doctrine is suppressed in academic institutions and the Left itself becomes increasingly fascist in their own outlook. With the rise of the entitlements industry, socialism has become big business and many students take majors that are openly Left fascist and which prepare them for high paying low skill government jobs in the social services. This a fundamentally flawed and wrong way of thinking about education that was born out of the Johnson and Nixon administrations, and the views of radical socialist revolutionaries on economics and the role of education. It has since transformed into a massively corrupt system, where poor students, often minorities in schools segregated by teacher unions, learn Marxist racism and class hate but not simple mathematics or literacy. This is why, for example, at my alma mater the mathematics and computer science departments were reduced and moved in favor of new and expanded gender studies and race studies programs, and why space for the Interfaith club was assigned to a "Unity Center" that is a radical Marxist group and paid for by student activity fees.

@@DrCruel fuck off. That's not how college works.

@@DrCruel define Marxist racism. Define only plz. There's a lot of implied fuckery to unpack here, not withstanding the need to use Marx as a pejorative as its slapped onto anything conservatives don't like.

There’s nothing that could justify an $800 dollar textbook, that’s insane

@@solarmoth4628 Yay, I'm speechless 😶 just thinking 🤔 about it.

Grandad bootlegged beer, so we could bootleg books with marginal differences from the cheap 20 year old edition

I’ve done the same thing befor the textbook was like $120 so I bought it used from overseas for half the price.

@@anonymousnarwhal4323 ah, Sci-Hub. Even now, I couldn't do my job without Sci-Hub (mostly because management at the company I work for don't see the "value" in their researchers having access to literature and refuses to pay for us accessing articles legitimately, but still)

I'm a professor, and I can confidently say that professors in general are sick of textbook prices. My department has almost entirely switched over to free open-source materials.

Ah yes, but they also flip the er to an re in words. Indecipherable! Lol

Isn't this how Amazon rose to power? Another thing to blame this crisis on.

Thanks Calvin, Michael here! I promise I'm taking care of myself, but you're right that sometimes it's hard not to get a bit depressed when thinking about this stuff so much. Really appreciate you looking out and for all your support!

I was going to say the same, hope you’re okay man!

Lol I don't think the video is depressing or the host is depressed. Just saying, good informative video, thanks!

That's a very nice touch Calvin, cheers 🍻

This is a beautiful comment! There are no words to express my gratitude towards the whole of Wisecrack and you as host! I may life across the ocean, but that does not mean that the topics discussed here aren't worldwide and bring more enlightenment than any college degree. Your worth as an "investment" might not be obvious at times, but you all have enriched my life and for that I'm ever grateful!

I luckily didn't have to pay tuition, but wow if this isn't true. I went to a school where we had NO hopes of ever having major success, yet we kept throwing money into our sports programs and fields- that the majority of students just ignored.

Yeap, my school pays the coach a million a year and the team sucks ASS

I like a quote I heard recently about athletics funding. Universities are an athletics institution with an education side hustle. When I attended the University of Arizona, my mom got a job in the finance department there. She got to see some of their expenses. The basketball coach, Lute Olsen, was a legend but the thousands spent for even his office chair is gross to think about now.

I am an athlete, but not a college athlete. My school, and region, never offered my sport as a school sanctioned sport. Btw it is ice hockey. So, I played on local youth competitive leagues and once I turned 18 all I had were recreational leagues. It sickens me how new and pristine these school fields and courts are for football and basketball (generally speaking the sports that make the school money), and yet other school sports struggle to get a player a jersey. Then, there are ppl like me who play sports that are not even school sanctioned. Meaning, if I ever wanted to play competitively in an organization that wasnt a part of my school, I would have to drop out of school bc the schedules would not work and my school would not accommodate. There is some truth behind every joke, and so when ppl joke that the star football players’ professors pass them in their classes……it makes you think how broken this all is The one nice thing I think benefits students greatly is student athlete advocacy and compensation. These athletes do a lot and can do a lot of harm to themselves mentally and physically. Especially in football with concussions, and all they get is their tuition covered at best and can go to bed hungry? If you are going to make them your performers for a few years they need more!

The only problem with this assessment is athletic programs aren't funded by the school. They have independent athletic funds that pay the coaches and support the facilities. You can argue that people shouldn't donate to those athletic programs and should instead donate to the school, but that is the individuals choice. There are people that only follow schools for their sports teams and wouldn't give any money if they couldn't give it to the sports program. I'm not saying that there aren't issues with college athletics because there are, but to say the university is choosing a basketball coach over staff isn't true, because that money can't be used for anything other than athletics.

Or Tantalus, given the water XD

Sisyphus pushed that boulder for the promise of eternal life. Never stop asking this world for more; please keep on fighting.

Be wary, as soon as they can, every executive/politician will quickly computerize your job away

Probably the most hopeful comment I’ve read so far. Thank you for protecting ppl financially much appreciated 😊👍

You are fortunate to have had the aptitude for and interest in accounting, a readily employable skill.

Thanks for taking the time to watch it, no worries if you break it into a few parts! Sorry to hear about what's happening in Brasil. Sadly, in Europe it's similar, where many countries that used to have strong public university systems are leaning towards an American model to pretty devastating effects in terms of educational quality for students, and working conditions for professors.

Nah dawg, you gotta watch it while you're supposed to be working like us lazy, self-centered, and sheltered Millenials.

@@ezmodey1105 Hooray for working all day and not being able to afford a studio apartment, amiright?

I'm an Indian and I study at IIT, best university available in my country. And my fees for semester and hostel is 200 Dollar for the whole YEAR (i.e. 100 dollar each semester) zero scholarship . And I just realized how expensive the education is abroad. Hence every parent in India wants their kid to study in the premiere government institutions. And I've come to realisation why government hospitals and education institutions are necessary for middle class and lower class people.

@@ezmodey1105 RU-vidr Some More News and Second-Thought both explore Debt and where its coming from. Their whole Channel is specialized on intereting Video-Essays!

Thank you!

Congratulations, that's amazing!

I’m on pace to do the same

I did too, but man it’s hard and I was incredibly lucky to have family willing to support me.

That’s literally how we survived universities 😑 and sometimes we were lucky enough to get a heads up WHEN meaning which semester the new book edition would be used.

@Pushiswin yeah, my favorite part is that my professor wrote the textbook

@@itisred100 In undergrad we had a mix of actual published textbooks, instructor-penned notes & lab manuals printed by & bought from the college, and all the many smaller humanities books. There were a lot of resources that we got through the school though, that many of the college students nowadays seem not to know about or use. Like the libraries had to maintain reserve copies of course textbooks, had all the journal subscriptions you'd ever need, and could request items for you via ILL. Now you can also get book rentals via the Financial Aid office, if you qualify. Even when I had to go live in the desert for field camp (Geochemistry! Rocks in their natural habitat :), much of my equipment was loaner gear from the department. It was a stretch for my family to afford my hiking boots & sleeping bag, no way could I have afforded the $$$$ that full-prep required.

Z-Library is also a great source for free books

@Pushiswin Education isn't a ponzi scheme. The attached parasites are who have made themselves gatekeepers to an education are.

My friend I really feel your struggle, I can’t say I’m in the same boat, but a very similar one …

Excellent comment.

I can't think of a single american college movie that is accurate to my experience as an american college atudent today.

Understandable. Coincidentaly those movies are made that way on purpose to trick american kids into thinking college will be the time of their lives. That way they sink into more debt, and faster.

Partying every night lol I wish. More like doing 8+ hours of work every single day, including weekends.

@@friedrice4015 So that's why I find the culture really weird. In my country, it does not make sense to be partying at all while in college because it is too expensive and very tough to get through. Only a quarter of graduates passes the board exam where they get the license to practice their degree/trade. The last thing any of them want to do is burn through their parents saving and produce nothing in the end.

hsgjdkfkfk if the rates of college debt matched our purchse and consumption rates of substances, wed all be dead. it wouldnt even mathematically be possible for that to be the case. i realize that conclusion you came to is not a reflection of how poorly you view americans, but more of how it is nearly impossible for you to be able to comprehend just how massive the college debt rate is.

That's amazing, Charles. And it makes perfect sense, administrator salaries have jumped up in recent years where faculty salaries have stayed pretty flat, and like you all found out, many universities seem to be adding more and more administrators while getting rid of full time faculty.

A lamentable compromise of becoming "a unit of investment" becoming more and more solidified and day-to-day actual lives and living. We are all "human resources"

People could imagine the end of the world before the end of capitalism

@@joshuaijaola2145 With my father it's not a matter of can't, it's a matter of he doesn't want capitalism to end, he drank the kool aid and refuses to even consider alternatives.

I find appealing to anti elitism helps break through to conservatives. I'm a lefty and explaining the incestuous relationship between corporations and government in more detail helped them see things from my perspective. Yes the government sucks and can't do anything right but that stems from prioritizing lobbyists (e.g. Private prisons) to the detriment of everyone else (e.g. The drug war decimating inner cities)

My stubborn evangelical mom is no longer on the "weed=heroin" train

Sorry to hear that. A lot of people refuse to see it for what it is.

Art schools are near scams. A lot of the information you learn can be acquired via online classes. There are tons of art teachers in various industries who are willing to not only teach you how but also the tricks of the trade itself. The upside of attending an art school is easier networking, in-person learning, and a community of artists, but if you're looking for a way out without giving up on your dream, you might want to look elsewhere and save your funds for your future.

@@Window4503 this is true, what's really harsh for some arts careers is that a degree is almost needed to get into the industry, and that alone is almost like a dream you have to throw away cause you can't afford it. I go to fashion school, which is like really helps you get into the industry that is very tight knit because of the superficial etlism in the industry. Even I find it annoying but I love studying something I've been admiring for years.

*me thinking of going back to school and switching to psychology* 😬

In a world without money there is no debt and there is no more blockers to you learning my community friend stay strong!

@@Anonymoose66G I'm not sure to be honest. I currently work for a historical museum in my city, and I absolutely love it, pays decently and above minimum wage, but it's not exactly helping my debt.

Should have avoided college then man, Only reason I’m college atm is for data science I wouldn’t really go unless it’s stem or finance ngl

@@jordijimenez2634 bruh what a totally ignorant thing to say lol

@@Anonymoose66G It's more that History - like most humanities - is not Bachelors-terminal. If you want a career in academia, you'll need to go for the doctorate. Even most good K-12 systems will want a double Masters - subject + Education. As for specialties, there are certainly professions like Library Science, Museum Studies, Conservation, etc, but again, you'll need more schooling, and often a dual-focus program or double-degree. I think the biggest flaw in the Humanities - for decades now - is that the careers are becoming economic class-locked. You have to already know what the opportunities are, and be able to afford a PhD (or double-Masters), and ideally have the sort of social & professional network that gets you in the door at places like the Symphony, major museums, etc. The career guidance is sorely lacking.

That's really cool, and seems like a good model to help keep students out of debt.

What’s this school called?

Couldn’t the school pick a more affordable book? surely there are good german books that don’t cost $800.

FUUUUUUUCK!

Despicable

Thanks so much! We're just trying our best to make some sense of what's going on in the culture these days. Thanks for sticking with us.

I wish it was possible to sue the U.S. government for forcing people into this position, because what else are you going to do? -this, if anything, should start a serious conversation not bashing. Seriously. Too many have suffered and some are looking to suicide.

I feel you lol. I work in an unrelated feild (dance) but I get how you feel. I think that the people who aren't really about it end up filtering out over time 😌☝️ Your true passion for your work will stand out

Farrah, that's horrible to hear. Similar stuff was happening at the UK university I was teaching at. It's like these people don't get that if they enjoy reading books and watching plays and movies and things of that nature, then they need to provide courses in the humanities.

You have to go for an assistantship or it’s rarely ever worth it.

Same 😕 I'm looking at grad school now even though I'm just about to finish paying for undergrad

@@recon441 my best advice is figure out whatever your academic interest is and figure out how to channel it into a nonprofit or startup without the university credentials. Nonprofits/startups are where the money and job opportunities are, you don't need university credentials anymore and it's really the only way to use an education these days, rather than get paid to endorse someone else's point of view because you have the credentials for endorsement.

@@theletterw3875 interesting, I've never heard this advice before, thanks 👍

@@recon441 yeah everyone wants to be the marine biologist in the documentary, no one seems to grasp how much grant and donor money is available to the organization making the content.

Philosophy is a good major you have to be smart and good at very abstract thinking to get a degree in that. My friend who majored in that says law schools think highly of that major from potential students. It’s a good major to have I think. Maybe not as good as STEM fields, but still very good.

Same in Germany, Private Schools are seen as lower quality for taking anyone

What did you major in and what's your job?

@@emid7373 i major in psychology for undergrad and social work for my masters. We were poor so undergrad was free and my tuition for grad school was around $28k for the two years. Surprisingly, some parts of social work pay very well and i was able to find the jobs that pay more very early on.

@@CaraMarie13 you should probably include the details of that last comment in your OP, to clarify that yours is not a typical situation.

So many... Several of the ones here were from his time as CA governor, which often doesn't get as much flack

Thanks for the comment, and I think this week we'll dig into some of this further on the Wisecrack Live stream. And thank you so much for joining the patreon! Can't say how much that means to us, and it really is the best way to directly support what we're doing.

@@WisecrackEDU Looking forward to it! And yeah, it's sort of nuts that we're coming back full-circle to directly supporting academics & artists via patronage. New society, same as the old society 🙃

Well if you think desegregation and title ix had anything to do with spudnick it’s scary that you teach. You comment seems to imply you have some prejudice

@@willnill7946 1- Not a teacher. 2- It's Sputnik. 3- During the Cold War, the US looked to exploit *every* possible resource/avenue to beat the Soviets - militarily, economically, even culturally. That included giving safe-haven to post-WWII ex-Nazi scientists, which yielded things like jet propulsion and later spaceflight. But it also included pushing public resources into education, sports, and arts/cultural activities like chess & ballet. Over time, we massively expanded who got access to those resources, just to increase the talent pool, and find the best of the best. Didn't matter if you were poor, or a woman, or Black, or lived in Appalachia - so long as the best in the world was an American, that "proved" that we were better than the Russians, capitalist Western Democracy reigns supreme, blah blah. It's all pretty recent history - there are plenty alive now who lived through it, and it was well-documented in speeches and policy, even movies & news. (Go watch The Right Stuff, or Silk Stockings with Fred Astaire, or Searching for Bobby Fischer / The Queen's Gambit, or any Winter Olympics coverage during the entire Cold War era, esp in figure skating.) If anything, it was a period where the Feds were actively working to reduce prejudice - or at least within the context of achievement on the world stage.

Thank you for your comments. I am quite literally a poor, black female teacher living in Appalachia. College was presented as the only chance I had at a stable, decent paying, legally and socially acceptable job for me. I majored the way I did and picked this career with the idea that I would make enough to pay back my loans and possibly have some loan forgiveness as a public servant. I now feel like a pawn in a game I was never meant to understand. 🫠

I had to buy some books, some of which ended up going unused and there was no way to get a refund. Most expensive book was a Spanish textbook that wasn't completely used and it was to satisfy an extracurricular credit. I'm of Hispanic descent. I DIDN'T NEED THAT SHIT! Especially not for my degree.

@@deadinside8781 If you graduated recently you could always try selling them to current students. Wouldn't get all your money back but you could recoup at least some of the costs and help somebody else save a bit of money.

As someone that started using the internet 10 years ago, I can't possibly think that I'd learn critical thinking from an organized institution.

very wild

Never buy the textbook until you see the syllabus. Always ask if a prior edition is fine / check the changes. Find a study-buddy in class and split the textbook. Borrow the course text from the college library, or even from the professor. Nowadays Financial Aid will even rent you textbooks via Amazon, which isn't as known/used as it should be. I used to cross-campus every week to hit the Poli Sci library textbook reserve collection, and my Geochem advisors saved me on some of our $300 texts. Hitting other college's bookstores out-of-sync to your own semester also helped occasionally. Older students, parents/relatives, etc used to tell freshmen this stuff before they walked in the door :(

Thanks Amanda!

Good call! We honestly didn't even think about that irony when writing this one.

Did he go to college for it? No? Well, what is your problem?

Smart!