Scene: The Empire Hotel rooftop. 11:47pm, Friday night.
Attractive female: So... What do you do?
Me: Ummmm, I do a couple of things, but I am a student mainly.
Female: A grad student?
Me: Yeah.
Female: That's pretty cool. [Pauses. Sips cosmo.] MBA?
Me: No.
Female: What do you study?
Me: Ethnomusicology.
Female: Ethno-- what? I have never heard of that!
Me: I basically study the history of American music and how it relates to our culture and the American identity.
Female: That's pretty cool.
There is a long, awkward pause as I down the rest of my overpriced vodka and soda. She takes a long haul from her Parliament, staring off in another direction.
Female: So.... What are you gonna do with that?
The transcript is a conversation that I have had many times while living in New York. Ever since ditching my job in the Financial sector on Bay Street (Canada's version of Wall Street) and moving here to study the history of American music, I have been asked, and pondered myself, a million times what I was thinking. Like most graduate students pursuing arbitrary arts degrees, I quickly grew annoyed with the doubt and pity others have for those of us who have decided to forego a life in a cubicle in exchange for pursuing something desirous. Sadly, after two years of grad school and tens of thousands of dollars of debt, I wonder if the skepticism and pessimism directed my way was that unfair or inaccurate after all?
Fact: The amount of money Americans owe on student loans recently exceeded the nation's credit card debt. That's a tough pill to swallow, especially for those currently in or about to enter school. However, that cold, hard fact does not necessarily mean bad things if the debt is linked to someone pursuing a career in investment banking, software development, law or medicine. Regardless of how big a student's debt may be, for many professions, some simple budgeting techniques, discipline and common sense will see such students out of debt in five to ten years, and oftentimes much less. But what about the literature graduate student? Or the ethnomusicologist, the philosopher, Latin linguist, historian, or art curator? How will he or she get out of a $100,000 a financial hole on a $23,000 per year starting salary? The truth is most of them won't, or won't at any time soon, at least.
Making the decision to go back to graduate school has become tougher these days because of the costs involved. It calls into play the very old mathematical equation simply known as 'ROI'--an equation often used to measure problems in physics and economics, but is now used in so many other forms of logic. 'ROI' stands for "return on investment" and essentially measures how much of x one will receive back for every amount of x invested. X can stand for physical energy, mental energy, capital, time, effort, or whatever metric the person wishing to determine the calculation desires. It is a reliable formula that solves a simple problem: Am I going to get out more than I put in?
Perhaps the best example of this in modern science (or maybe the most important) that will fully help you to understand the importance of this equation is found in the oil deposits that run north-south through central-west North America. Scientists and geologists are fully aware of how rich the plains of Alberta, North and South Dakota, and Montana are. Just underneath the earth's surface are billions in oil sitting there for the taking. The problem is science has not yet figured out a way to extract the oil from the earth in a method that makes feasible sense. Yes, it can be extracted, but it takes more energy (i.e. 'use of oil in machinery') and costs more than would be gained from the oil itself. In other words, the ROI yields a negative result. Drilling on the other hand, whether it is in the ocean or from the sands surrounding the Red Sea, produces an ROI of great return and therefore continues to be the most profitable and used form of extraction. If we could just figure out a way to get the oil out of the plains as cheaply as we already do on our shores, the entire central-western region of this continent could become the new Saudi Arabia.
So what does all of this have to do with education and arts degrees? Well, it's simple--and depressing. The ROI of higher education in many disciplines is nil, if not grossly negative. That being said, one has to wonder why so many people still pursue it (including myself). It is fair to surmise that formal education is losing its clout on a resume. Employers seem to be less interested in one's classroom experience and more interested in practical experience when looking to hire permanent employees. Student financial aid expert Steve Kantrowitz has this piece of advice for those swimming in the decision: "It's smart if it's enabling you to invest in your future. But if you borrow more than your expected starting salary after you graduate, you're going to struggle to pay your loans." This is an excellent metric to use as a guideline. Before going back to school, one should ask themselves, "What job market will I enter upon graduating? What is the likelihood of being hired? And what are the starting salaries and long-term opportunities?"
To push the pessimistic reality even further, it is one thing to measure the starting salary versus the anticipated debt; it is another thing to determine if there will even be a starting salary! "I can see someone borrowing perhaps $10,000 a year if they're majoring in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, computer science or nursing," says Kantrowitz, the publisher of the FinAid and Fastweb websites. "But I can't see borrowing that amount of money for a degree in art, or humanities, or sociology, because the jobs just don't pay as well for those fields of study."
Justifying $50,000 spent on a master's in ethnomusicology is tough to do, especially when the careers obtainable with such a degree are limited to 1. Teaching other students of ethnomusicology, or 2. Becoming a music librarian. It is critical to note that in a majority of the cases, both jobs pay very little. If music is your dream, however, and you are miserable doing whatever else it is that you are doing, and you know you are not good enough to make it as a professional musician, then this presents the paradox: What is the price of happiness? Is it worth the interest of paying back $50,000 over twenty years? The fiscal ROI may not be even close, but including the added value of happiness in what you do may be enough to balance the equation.
If you were to take a loan out today for 50 grand and it took you 20 years to pay it back, the total cost of the loan would be close to $86,000 (assuming a 6% APR). Now, you would have to ask yourself: Is pursuing a career in something you love worth $86,000 plus the lost years of income while you were at school? Some would answer that it is and others, not a chance. One thing is for certain--the ROI, financially, is a major loss. What has to be brought into the equation is the price of happiness.
There are two schools of thought here. Two old, retired men sit at a bar sharing a couple of pints. Both worked their asses off for their entire lives selling life insurance, and both were less than eager for the profession. The one man, when asked about the fruits of his labor and the opportunity to go back in time and do it all over again offers the following: "I wouldn't change a thing. I got up every morning, worked hard, saved money, and here I am--retired, happy, and enjoying all that I have worked for. A job is a job. Americans today seem to think a job is about fun and happiness. There is no work ethic anymore. The dignity of hard labor and commitment has been lost."
The other gentleman chimes in: "I'd go back in a second, even if it cost me twice as much as $86,000. I would go right back to being a young twenty-something and risk it all to chase my dream and live a profession I'd be proud of and wasn't a job at all. There is no price tag on that. My advice is to go after it, whatever it costs, and live everyday of your life doing something you love regardless of the financial burden."
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