There are some things in life, we all agree, on which you simply cannot put a price tag. The pursuit of knowledge surely qualifies as one of those things—or so we in academe tell ourselves. Thanks to the popular MasterCard marketing campaign, the word "priceless" has become code for "something so inestimably valuable that you will shell out oodles of invisible dollars to attain it." In an era of skyrocketing college costs, those invisible dollars have certainly come in handy for students wanting to earn that "priceless" degree now and pay for it later. But if we have learned anything from the accumulative frenzy of past decades, we should not be deriving our values or our spending habits from credit-card companies' pithy aphorisms.
No shortage of attention lately has focused on the way creditors took aim at college students, enticing them with the plastic power to obtain not just the latest edition of a Chemistry 101 text but limitless late-night pizza deliveries, iPhones, and trips to Daytona Beach. Those who were duped will be sweating out those ill-advised purchases for years to come, and we will very likely see fewer cases of such reckless extravagance in the future. But in this moment of sober reflection and energetic reform, it seems that we are overlooking a critical population: not the students intoxicated by consumerism's free-for-all, but the young people for whom credit cards bridge the chasm left when scholarships and student loans drop off. Those earnest scholars, who may be the first in their families to attend college and who cannot prevail on parents for even basic necessities, have relied for decades on those invisible dollars to make their priceless dreams come true. As the credit boom goes bust and the smoke clears, our nation must confront two imposing questions: What do we do about the mountains of perhaps insurmountable debt that are locking those young graduates into the same struggles from which education promised to free them? And in the gaping hole left by the implosion of credit dollars, what is left for the next generation, for whom education has become increasingly essential and yet staggeringly unaffordable?
While the credit boom ushered in what economists call the "democratization of debt"—anyone can have a flat-screen television, or two, or three—in some ways it also facilitated the democratization of education, and with it, equal opportunity to rise in society. Now, however, we have taken several stumbling steps backward in our efforts to extend the benefits of learning to the citizens who need it most. With lending restricted across the board, even traditional sources of student-loan support have become harder to obtain. I am not for a moment suggesting that we revert to the predatory and usurious practices of reckless lending and borrowing that have long plagued us. But I am acutely aware that we don't seem to have any good fallback alternatives in place.
I grew up in a blue-collar community on Cape Cod, a region driven by tourism in the summer and sustained by working-class labor in the off-season. I attended an underfinanced school district where students had to choose between taking a foreign language or an art class (I successfully lobbied to give up a study hall and take both). Somehow I managed to earn a scholarship to a prestigious women's college. I then went to graduate school in Boston, one of the most expensive cities in the nation. By the time I left graduate school, at the age of 28, I was the proud owner of a doctoral degree and about $30,000 of what credit counselors call "bad debt." If there is a "good" kind, I had that, too—and it more than doubled the initial figure.
By my calculations, I will have long passed the age when I might have retired when those staggering bills are paid down enough to allow me to think about purchasing a home, paying college tuition for children, and perhaps getting myself a brand-new 2045 Ford Fusion. I have attained a level of success that many academics would envy; after holding two tenure-track positions in a saturated market, I recently made a final move to an Ivy League department. And yet I labor mightily to protect the secret that none of my colleagues or students would ever suspect: I am worth less every year.
At my first teaching job, I would park my rusty, sputtering old Buick LeSabre in the far rear parking lot of the campus, hurrying to my office before anyone could spot the dents in my polished, professional exterior. I have been cultivating that veneer to a high-gloss sheen for a long time.
It helped to have a mother who worked hard (scrubbing other people's bathrooms, mostly), dreamed big, and considered money "green paper" that could buy only momentary happiness. Even when we lost our home and were forced to spend a miserable year holed up in the basement of a distant relative's house, my mother managed to shield my sister and me from the worst effects of poverty. And during those years, America was growing exceedingly adept at helping people like my mother keep up appearances at all costs. I remember spending a rare Saturday at the mall with my mother and sister, and pining over a momentarily trendy polka-dot skirt and matching cropped jacket. My mother, armed with a fresh department-store charge card, impulsively insisted that my sister and I each pick out an outfit. Soon enough those cards were cut up, and we were paying for those silly outfits long after they went out of style.
To the world, we were sweet, well-groomed, smart, and attractive—and amazingly, the world did take notice. In 1989 my mother was invited to appear on a "Deadbeat Dads" episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, explaining to millions of viewers that my father was one of the top 10 child-support evaders in our state. At the time I was fiercely proud of my mother's courage (and I also thought she looked strong and pretty on-screen), and that sentiment remains today. But for a number of years after I left my coastal town for elite, ivy-covered campuses, I found it difficult to be proud or even honest about where and what I had come from.
As an undergraduate, I surveyed my privileged peers with envy. While many of them dipped into apparently self-regenerating bank accounts for various necessities and indulgences, I worked several part-time jobs to cover what my scholarships didn't. One particularly demanding year, I trudged to my shift at a local dry cleaner every afternoon, then to my evening job as a waitress at a pizza parlor. I returned to my dorm in the wee hours of the morning, only to get up early to help serve breakfast in the cafeteria before racing to class. On weekends, I cleaned the opulent homes that skirted the college's idyllic campus; sometimes I wrote essays for English class in my head while scouring bathtubs.
While my dorm mates lounged around most of each day, I bore down, studied hard, and graduated with enough decorations, medals, and awards to set off a metal detector. But I often found myself boiling in silent rage as affluent peers trumpeted self-righteous Marxist rhetoric. On the rare occasions when I let slip something about my humbler background, I had to endure middle-class refugees lamenting how bad they'd had it, too.
I kept silent throughout much of graduate school. As zealous as I was about my studies, I felt naïve; I lacked the perspectives, pedigrees, and deep cultural knowledge that my peers brought to the courses. My dissertation, on literature and economics, grew steadily more cynical: I remember my adviser looking at me over the corner of my first draft and asking, "Is there anything hopeful in here?" It was years before I realized that my dismal thesis reflected my persistently undernourished spirit.
Despite my misgivings, by the time I finished my graduate studies I had achieved a modest level of visibility, a tenure-track job at a respected university, and even a book contract. Yet those signs of progress were repeatedly balanced by moments of shame that sent me reeling back to the world I was trying to forget. Checking into a prominent scholarly conference one spring, anxious to give my first paper as a newly minted Ph.D., I passed my credit card nervously to the hotel clerk. That morning I had nickel-and-dimed my finances until I'd freed up exactly the right amount of credit on my nearly maxed-out Visa. Apparently, I had miscalculated. The clerk patiently tried my card several times and helped me phone the company, while I shielded my crimson face from the well-known scholars milling about the lobby.
Such moments shatter professional credibility in the world of academe, where hardship is a category of analysis and occasionally a metaphor (as in, "I slaved over that article!") but almost never a reality. The poverty-stricken graduate student is a cliché, and often a flimsy veil for a not-so-distant past of privilege; but the debt-ridden professor is a humiliating aberration. I have studiously concealed my shame under an elaborate cover of cheerful togetherness and quiet pride. No one ever saw me rolling coins from my change jar during a particularly bad month, and I prayed that no one saw when, as I rushed to the bank, those heavy coin rolls plunged through the Ziploc bag and pirouetted all over the parking lot. It took almost 15 minutes to gather them up, while impatient cars swerved around me.
That seems as apt a metaphor as any for the scrabbling, scrounging, perilous difficulty of trying to finance one's way, nickel by nickel, into a better life. Education is an integral part of that journey. But it may no longer be possible for people like me to struggle up this road. I will be paying off my education for a long, long time to come.
Yet although the shame of poverty haunts me, I know that I wouldn't change my life for the world. That book contract eventually became a published monograph on economics and identity, one that helped me to land my dream job; and my work continues to explore the complex trauma of living under the warping influence of capitalism. I know that I wouldn't be able to continue that work if it weren't for a magical confluence of hard work and invisible dollars, and for that, I feel incredibly lucky. But in these dark days of economic catastrophe, I am keenly aware of how expensive that illusion ultimately is—for me, as I battle the true cost of that lifeline indefinitely, and for the generations to come, for whom the word "priceless" may mean something entirely different. In an ideal world, education should not have a price tag; but in this world, it is hefty, and few can afford it outright. Perhaps exposing this brutal truth might shame us as a nation into recalibrating our values, and financing—free of interest and penalties—our last best hope.
Comments
1. aeevans - November 30, 2009 at 08:10 am
Wonderful and thoughtful article. And I agree that the costs of schooling today is it indeed a shame of this nation.
2. teddifish - November 30, 2009 at 09:39 am
Part of the irony of academic life is that we can't escape understanding the precarious (and contradictory) positions we occupy. Thank you for putting into words the situation many of us (myself included) find ourselves in.
3. completecollege - November 30, 2009 at 09:41 am
Thank you for writing this.
4. greentara - November 30, 2009 at 09:50 am
This is a very well-written and compelling article. What strikes me is the terrible shame that the author felt for so many years. While the financial burdens have been horrific for this author, the psychic burden appears to have also weighed heavily. I am glad to see that while Dr. Benson is not yet free of the actual debt, she is now liberated from her shame.
Her approach to poverty and disadvantaged socio-economic status stands in marked contrast to the graduate students that I met in graduate school both in the Ivy Leagues and in the state schools. Most people that I knew who were disadvantaged economically and whose families were struggling, told everyone about their class origins and wore the "working class" identity proudly. Our professors were very sympathetic to those who self-identified themselves as "poor" and every possible accomodation was made. In fact, I would say that those who came from a privileged background were viewed with suspicion. Many of the dissertations written in my field start off acknowledging relatives that were of working class origin. All of this is to say that being of a working class status can be a source of pride and that universities seek to promote working class students because it helps to justify their mission in the eyes of society.
5. allye - November 30, 2009 at 10:49 am
I remember rolling coins to bridge the gap between my husband's adjunct and first tenure-track job, and students laughing as they saw our broken car hood held together with duct tape. We are incredibly lucky in managing to avoid "bad" debt but I can emphasize with the struggle of trying to keep up a professional exterior while worrying about your bank account balance.
6. sherbygirl - November 30, 2009 at 11:11 am
I'd like to thank CHE for making the article free for everyone to read. As my husband starts his tenure-track job and we look at the debt (both good and bad) that we have, I wonder how we will pay for our children's education down the line.
7. jffoster - November 30, 2009 at 11:38 am
Evidently a case of desired achievment through hardship, Professor Benson's motto might well be "Ad astra per aspera".
I wonder though about the "good debt v bad debt" distinction? Which one is borrowing a lot of money to support graduate study at an expensive university in a field likely to be highly competitive and unlikely to be relatively remunerative?
8. btm018 - November 30, 2009 at 01:06 pm
It's reaffirming to hear that some level of success is possible when you start with little. After growing up in a trailer park to a teenage mother and a father with limited knowledge of English, I also worked odd jobs to get through college. The degree of privilege and luxury I witnessed in college were nothing compared to the backgrounds of my peers when I moved to New England for graduate school. For many, assistantships were optional and summer employment burdensome and unnecessary. It wasn't until, while traveling to a conference with another student, I stopped in Manhattan for dinner at my travel companion's home. Her parents, though wonderfully kind, paid more for their parking spot than my wife and I could afford for rent.
I've always been curious about the class background of others in academe. While I'm sure it would be impossible to gather such information, it'd be interesting to see the correlation between income and success in academic careers. Do those from poorer backgrounds choose to pursue careers at community colleges or smaller state schools more often?
9. greenhills73 - November 30, 2009 at 02:18 pm
My eyes got big when I saw that #7 quotes the motto of the State of Kansas.
10. lattanzishutika - November 30, 2009 at 04:30 pm
Unlike the writer of comment # 8, I am certain that it would be possible to research the relationships between class backgrounds of those in academe and their career paths. It's a study that is long overdue.
11. amnirov - November 30, 2009 at 05:11 pm
If you dislike capitalism so much, why not quit the job at Dartmouth and go to work at a public university?
12. amnirov - November 30, 2009 at 05:22 pm
You know, this article makes me so angry. There's an underlying sense of entitlement that runs through it, nauseating, petty-minded, simpering. You are so lucky to have the education you have. You are so lucky to have had access to $30k of credit. Complaining about having to work hard, demeaning hours to earn a PhD? My heart bleeds. Did the sight of the well-heeled at your college hurt your widdle feelings? Tough. A lot of us are first generation college students. A lot of us come from blue collar backgrounds. A lot of us had to work multiple jobs, collect food stamps, go to the Vincent de Pauls. Get charity. Go without. And you know what? I'm freaking grateful for it. I'm glad I'm out of the working class. I don't miss it for a minute. And as for the struggle that climbing up entailed? You're supposed to let that stuff all roll off you like water. You're no longer in that class. You escaped it.
I suspect that you have no idea what it is like to have no chance of attending any college. No chance of securing a loan for anything. So you worked some crappy jobs for a few years. Well, now you're a professor at Dartmouth.
13. mercy_otis_warren - November 30, 2009 at 09:13 pm
Without quite feeling the level of bitterness of #12, I sympathize with his/her frustration at the self-pitying narcissism of this piece. I too am from a working-class family. I too am first-generation college. I too went to a prestigious college full of rich kids spouting Marxist rhetoric. I too had to work a crappy, dirty job during college, blah blah blah.
I too amassed an enormous degree of debt--$40k of "good" debt, if by that you mean educational debt. (It helped that I was wisely advised not to go to any doctoral program that would force me to take out loans.) Newsflash: after several years as a professor, I'm almost done paying it off (over $400/month for ten years). That's what happens. And I still roll coins and am a skinflint. So what? Who gives a damn?
I don't see the point of this article, other than that you have serious issues not having as much money as other people do. And you have a doctorate and a job at Dartmouth, which makes you more fortunate an academic than almost anyone else I know.
What the hell did you buy to amass 30k of "bad" debt, and how in the world does that serve as a critique of educational costs? Congratulations: sitting comfortably at Dartmouth and writing about "the complex trauma of living under the warping influence of capitalism," you've become exactly the person who drove you (and me) mad in college.
14. aifos - November 30, 2009 at 09:29 pm
You can always do what Mr. Espinosa did (see the other Chronicle Article): declare bankruptcy and let someone else pay your debt
15. crrobinson1956 - December 01, 2009 at 12:57 am
We all live with our choices. As others who have commented, I was a first-generation college student from a working class background. However, I chose colleges, both undergraduate and graduate that were affordable for my family and me. I completed my Ph.D. with no educational debt and enjoy a tenured position at a regional, doctoral-granting institution. My wife shares a similar background (no Ph.D. yet; no debt). We have a comfortable home, reliable transportation, and manage to save $600 per month for our 2 children's college education. I fear, however, that our children will not finish their educational endeavors without debt. It seems that the current societal focus is on success in K-12 public education, while public college and university costs outpace inflation at an alarming rate due to underfunding from state and federal sources. Whatever happened to the Great Society?
16. atana09 - December 01, 2009 at 01:11 am
No need to pillory Ms. Benson. Her essay is very well written and voiced in a manner that many academics would wish to have expressed themselves.
As far as declaring bankruptcy, no not really. The costs of alphabet soup degrees have in large measure been excluded from bankruptcy protections.
As far as the current generation of profs being little more than educated sharecroppers-welcome to the generational brave new world (or toxic debt swamp) propagated by an academe which sold its moral soul to the lenders in the temple. Ms. Benson is somewhat privileged because she's found work at an elite school, but extend her troubles out to those working as adjuncts, at smaller schools or on year to year contracts...and somehow dismissing the whole situation as entitlement whining loses its credibility. An entire system which is now premised upon feeding upon its own is a moral scandal which cannot be dismissed as a sob story.
The whole situation is as Ms. Benson stated, an aberration.
The problem is the words out, and although the current generation has bought into the educational dream/phantasm/scam the next may not do so. US Higher education due to costs and debt is rapidly becoming a fools or idealists fantasy. And when the promises are belied, and the bills come due...fools and idealists tend to become something very different. And by becoming so they transmute into warnings 'do not believe as I did or do as I did'.
Better keep her essay away from the students, they might learn too much...too soon.
17. 22228715 - December 01, 2009 at 07:42 am
To my ear, this sounds like an essay about envy, rather than an essay about debt. Her mother was correct - it is green paper that buys momentary happiness. I thought that the essay began with, and would affirm this life lesson, but at some point it became a lament about the injustice of a world where rich people exist. I don't know what kind of momentary happiness was bought with the bad debt, or whether the good debt could have been lessened through more savvy organization or partnering with financial aid, but from working on a college campus I know that most traditional student experiences should not require tens of thousands of additional spending beyond what is covered by financial aid. But that is fairly peripheral to the actual theme of the essay. I do hope that the writer is able to find some peace, or that perhaps the essay is a bout of venting in an otherwise more philosophical life view, because otherwise it sounds like an awkward adult relationship with money will ultimately poison even the things that most look like they should bring happiness.
18. catfiche - December 01, 2009 at 08:08 am
There are some mean spirits out there. Dr. Benson makes some good points about even the most successful academics turning to debt for their success.
Let's not blame the victim. If the latest recession teaches us nothing else, it should teach that the deck is stacked against us, the devil is in the details and when nothing else works, the crooks on Wall Street and in Washington just steal our money.
19. uidaho1 - December 01, 2009 at 08:16 am
Well due to cancer and crappy student health insurance while a graduate student I graduated with $116,000 in school loans. Will be paid off when I am 83. It took me way too long to finish my PhD due to that illness and another one. I am following the bankruptcy Supreme court case closely. I can't afford anything. The other law that needs changed is the federal discrimination laws. I was fired from my assistantship due to the cancer. Guess what - we are not considered employees and so it is legal to discriminate and fire you if you have cancer (and I could have worked as a TA, just not been the instructor of record for only one semester of the entire mess).
20. lee77 - December 01, 2009 at 08:26 am
Although I couldn't relate to Melanie's experiences ('back in the day' when I went to college, it wasn't as expensive) nonetheless I found the piece very interesting reading. I was fully prepared for it to end with 'Jane Doe is a pseudonym for ...'. I looked Melanie up on the Dartmouth web pages, and that added dimension to her comments.
21. atana09 - December 01, 2009 at 09:34 am
Incidentally a appalling example of how morally low the propagators of student debt can be is that it is a common practice for them to aggressively target economically vulnerable populations. And this condition is way beyond general loan sharking of the working class and poor.
There have been clear cut cases where certain schools and their associated lenders have been very aggressively targeting Native Nations people who've just moved off the reservations and into the larger cities. To survive reservation conditions one needs to be both persistent and intelligent. But those abilities need transition time to be applied in the larger cities. The pressure by some of these schools and lenders is very blatent and intended to hold out a tarnished and poisoned apple before the potential students have time to realize what's being done. And then its too late...
22. medeapoetica - December 01, 2009 at 10:21 am
I worked in a hospital kitchen and threw newspapers to dig my way out of poverty/attend college and relate to much of what Melanie writes here. I also know that, though some peers will always deem reflections on class struggles as whining, it is crucial to share these struggles now, as higher education becomes unreachable to the children of the poor.
Before college, I believed higher ed was unattainable because of the cost. I believed college students must be smarter -- why else would they be there while I worked? Student loans provided the means for me to learn firsthand that a degree often says more about your family's affluence than it does about your intelligence or desire to learn or to even bother to show up for class.
After grad school, my peers from more affluent backgrounds purchased homes -- often with down payments from their parents -- went to Europe, purchased new cars -- or received them as graduation gifts -- upgraded their jeans to more professional clothes. I shopped in thrift stores (hoping the clothes didn't once belong to a colleague), lived in tiny duplexes (that I never invited my peers to), drove ten-year-old cars (that I parked in the back, and early), worked hard, and spent my late twenties and most of my thirties paying off my massive debt.
Those who classify this situation as whining are very likely the ones who helped me understand early that, in order to stand some chance of academic success, I would have to occasionally reach for a credit card -- because I had nothing to wear to a dressy event that I was required to attend in order to be perceived as a "team player," because colleagues scheduled meetings at expensive restaurants while 50 percent of my salary was going to monthly financial aid payments, because my car broke down again, because it was important to my career that I attend a conference or workshop and I was working on my long-term goals. The resentment and helplessness I felt each time I reached for a card that I knew was screwing me are still fresh enough in my mind that I understand the resentment that many note in this article though.
And, yes, it was worth it -- but not for the new car or the home or the savings account that I can access when the need arises. Today, when I visit my family -- most of whom still live in poverty --I feel most fortunate to have created a space where I have the luxury of time to think. I recognize how hard I had to work to avoid the bone-grinding poverty that eats away at their souls with worries and eats away at their bodies while they're still young. And I cringe every time a colleague whines about summer break not being long enough or the rising cost of gym privileges.
I also worry about the many folks I know here in the south who can count on nothing but faith to get them through their daily struggles, since so many politicians and evangelists seem intent on handing them specious lines and jingoism to get their money while eroding their already precarious economic positions. Learning to research assertions and arrive at documentable conclusions is clearly worth its weight in gold.
23. cwinton - December 01, 2009 at 10:34 am
While I can empathize with the author's plight since like other posters I was not one of those fortunate enough to come from a monied background, I can't help but wonder about her money management skills. I survived graduate school debt free by picking up odd jobs to supplement meager TA pay and skimping in ways I now find almost unimaginable (although I dropped a bit of weight in the process and my dress and living conditions were rather shabby). Part of the author's issue seems to be her insistence of keeping up appearances ("To the world, we were sweet, well-groomed, smart, and attractive", "I surveyed my privileged peers with envy", "I have been cultivating that veneer to a high-gloss sheen", etc). I know we are all imprinted to one degree or another by our upbringing, but perhaps if she concentrated more of her evident intelligence on reigning in her propensity to hide her personal history behind what is evidently an expensive facade, she might be better able to deal with the financial pinch she has managed to create.
24. beryl - December 01, 2009 at 10:35 am
It frustrates me that some commenters here seem to follow the Horatio Alger line that working class academics should simply pull themselves up by their bootstraps and be grateful they get to be in academia at any cost. That attitude just contributes to the invisibility of poverty in university settings, an invisibility that lets people assume that all academics come from privileged backgrounds. It's hard to be the one talking about poverty or repesenting the working class in a room full of academics--the shifting postures, the awkward looks, the many feet that end up in mouths. For all the lip service paid to class in the academy, most people don't want to talk about it. Thank you for talking about it.
25. stannadel - December 01, 2009 at 11:00 am
Having gotten my PhD withe $30,000 worth of student loan debt back when the dollar was woth a lot more than it is today I have a lot of sympathy for Prof. Benson and anyone else in her position. When I started to go into this debt I thought that if it didn't get me a decent job I could at least declare bankruptcy and escape, but midway through my student years they changed the law and took away my escape hatch. But I was lucky and managed to keep employed in temporary positons long enough to pay off my loans even without a tenure track job, but what made that possible was the rapid inflation of the 1970s and even more the catch up increases in academic salaries over the next two decades that reduced the burden of my fixed repayment schedule. Perhaps Prof. Benson and her cohort can take encouragement from the prospect of substantial inflation to come in the not too distant future, as a result of massive US government debts abroad and a longstanding negative balance of trade and payments that can only be aleviated by devaluing the dollar and inflating the currency. That's bad news for the country and anyone who is on a fixed income (like those of us who are now retired) but it is good news for debtors like Prof. Benson.
26. physicsprof - December 01, 2009 at 11:24 am
"Somehow I managed to earn a scholarship to a prestigious women's college. I then went to graduate school in Boston, one of the most expensive cities in the nation. By the time I left graduate school, at the age of 28, I was the proud owner of a doctoral degree and about $30,000 of what credit counselors call "bad debt.""
Why didn't you go to UMass Amherst instead? You wanted expensive and prestigious education in an expensive city so you can land a faculty job at a private Ivy League institution. Smart thinking. But, sorry, I (faculty in a state university) cannot hold your hand and cry with you. Life is full of tough choices. Case closed.
27. madamesmartypants - December 01, 2009 at 12:02 pm
I sympathize with Dr. Benson, too, but more than that, I think her story is an important one. Her story shows that even if you have a scholarship, you still have to work-- so how are our current scholarships helping students? We are either underfunding them or need to help them get good budgeting skills (not something a lot of 18-year-olds may have), or both.
Another important point is the debt trap. There was an article in the Chronicle a few months back that argued that we should get rid of all student loans and financial aid, and I am increasingly convinced that that is the case. Financial aid makes schools feel free to price their education however they want, knowing that students can pay with debt, and, far from equaling the educational and socioeconomic terrain, just perpetuates poverty, to which Dr. Benson's story attests.
Lastly, I'd like to point out that no matter how great your job is and how much you love academia and the chance to be here, that sentiment doesn't justify the exploitative system you have to go through to get in and stay in. If universities can't guarantee highly educated people a decent job and standard of living regardless of background, they're not going to attract talent.
28. busyslinky - December 01, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Cute and smart. She'll go far. The debt is only temporary. Good investment overall.
29. jffoster - December 01, 2009 at 12:19 pm
And not only that, Physicsprof (26), she went into "Native American "Studies"".
30. lawman11 - December 01, 2009 at 12:57 pm
I have no sympathy for the author. None. My parents were refugees, my dad was tortured; he earned a PhD from an Ivy League university; and you did not have it tougher than he. Indeed, you had an easy ride.
31. barbzirk - December 01, 2009 at 01:10 pm
It's commendable that Ms. Benson managed to survive all those terrible horrible things in her life...imagine, having come from a blue collar background, a less than ideal k-12 environment, having to work through college, pity, pity pity. I sense more self-pity and self-loathing in her essay than erudition. If she couldn't afford the high priced spread she could easily have opted for the more comfortable and less expensive but equally academic surroundings found in the excellent community college and public higher education community in her home state. And what newbee in any field hasn't searched car floors, couch cushions, and shirt pockets and pants for change to pay for groceries. I remember standing in line with a $4.00 worth of scrounged pennies to buy dinner.
Methinks the lady doth protest too much and puts too little into paying down the debt and not enough into exhalting that, at the end of the day, she has a job she apparently likes in a place she wants to live, with the skills to write such a self-righteous article.
32. tautumeita - December 01, 2009 at 01:12 pm
I agree with #23. Why would one need to accumulate debt while in graduate school? I arrived in the States in the mid 1990s enrolled in a graduate program with, I kid you not, $200 in my pocket. That was all my family could give me. I got TAships and tuition waivers and lived on about $1300 a month, but it never even occured to me to take out loans (I guess being a foreigner I did not even know how that would work and I probably would not have qualified). So I earned an MA and a PhD without accumulating any debt at all. I think, the bottom line is that Dr. Benson has a complicated relationship with "capitalism." She deeply hates it and sees it as one of the main causes of her problems, but she also wants to benefit from the advantages that this economic system can give. A classic case of estranged intellectuals.
33. jffoster - December 01, 2009 at 01:30 pm
Indeed, tautumeita (32), It's called 'wanting to have one's pemmican and eat it too".
34. 11245928 - December 01, 2009 at 01:33 pm
I found myself in very much the same position when,as a newly minted PhD, I left Hawaii many years ago to pursue a faculty position on the mainland. Back then, Hawaii was as daunting a place as any in terms of costof living (it still is) but New York City cost a 'bomb' as well. My American Express Card, the only one I had, and Gold at that,had let me max out at $5000, and I found myself in the same position as Melanie. I was making a whopping $10,000 and $5000 was a huge amount at the time. I had the same issues with the nearly maxed card, and once had to ask the department to front me convention travel. I got a part time job on Saturdays during the yearas a mover. With the dept. chair's permission I tended bar for about 8-10 hours a week during the 9 mos. year. I stayed up late writing grant proposals, and conducted fieldwork and publishing at a tremendous rate. I made it, and atfer the first three years didn't need the second job. Oh yeah, we ewre on food stamps as well since there were 4 of us.
Now I am the academic you are interested in becoming. I won't elaborate on that, but just hang in there, Melanie. It happens!
35. medeapoetica - December 01, 2009 at 01:39 pm
#32 - Graduate assistantships in the sciences may cover more than tuition, but most grad. students still need to pay for books, food, and lodgings. For these, most rely on savings, parents, a part-time job, or loans.
36. evannelsonund - December 01, 2009 at 01:43 pm
Cry.
Let's now consider people how can't get grandeloquont about their lot in life. Let's now consider students who are already being asked to fund an MBA in order to enter a corporate structure. Or the mechanic whose recertifications/licensures cost tens of thousands of dollars a decade, which is roughly equivalent to 65% of a Jiffy Lube salary.
But, at least they don't don't provide the same societal good that the 5000th obtuse book on Southern American Literature provides.
With this drivel, English departments and their ilk have another two generations, tops.
37. gypsyboots - December 01, 2009 at 01:48 pm
Our 16-year-old gifted daughter, with top grades and a loaded resume including scholarly publications, is now a senior in high school and applying to colleges. She has already been accepted by one Tier II institution and offered a Dean's Scholarship--which will, however, cover only part of her yearly costs.
Among the schools she is applying to is the University of Chicago and another Top 5 institution. We're hopeful she'll be accepted by most of her first choices. However, if they accept her but don't offer enough support, we will have no hesitation at all about having her attend a "less prestigious" school where (we're sure) she can get an equivalent education for much less. We are teaching her to live within her means, and that means we will not mortgage the house for a "name" college.
38. 22203047 - December 01, 2009 at 01:51 pm
The writer has a tenure-track appointment in an Ivy League college and has a rather small amount of debt, I would say. Many of us, tenured at research institutions with relatively decent pay scales, have managed to pay off our own college loans, but we have no inheritance and no parental support to fund the college educations of our children. I am paying $1000 a month on college educational loans for my daughter, having spent all the resources I had for the private school primary and secondary educations of my children. I made the choice to do this, instead of using the money to ensure a comfortable retirement for myself. We all make choices of this sort; if we have the credit and the means to take out loans, we decide how to take advantage of that resource.
39. flyaway - December 01, 2009 at 01:54 pm
Although I agree with the general premise that education is too expensive, and there should be more awareness that affluence and entrance into academia are inextricably linked, this article still disturbs me. It could've only been written by someone who grew up on the east coast, and unaware of all the advantages that had. There is an awareness on the east coast of educational status and prestige that does not exist in other parts of the country. Without the right educational steps, the Ivy League is closed. This is why the author made the choices she did, even though they led to poverty.
Also, there are few other places where one would call a high school which made students choose between an art class and a foreign language class "under-funded". I call it normal. In the 1990's my high school didn't offer calculus. It didn't offer AP classes. It didn't offer art. It was the only public school available, and there were no private schools. About 3% of my graduating class went to the flagship public universities. Everyone else went to smaller state schools, community college, or straight to work.
There are many "woe is me" stories. There are always people who have it better than you, and worse than you.
40. franklinscity - December 01, 2009 at 02:08 pm
Isn't the goal to have a happy and fulfilled life? Isn't it easier to reach that goal having little debt?
41. anonscribe - December 01, 2009 at 02:19 pm
lawman, it didn't really seem like Dr. Benson needed or wanted sympathy. It seems like she wanted to point out that 1) credit lending practices were and still are unethical in the U.S. (if a bank won't give you a credit card at 12%, then it should probably be illegal to give you one at 28%) and 2) we should be more open in academia about how class plays into departmental politics and the pressure on graduate students to present themselves in a way they can't afford.
and, really, our bar for whether or not things need to change is whether or not they're worse than getting tortured in a dictatorial regime? nice. maybe the only reason your dad had the opportunities he did in this country is because those before him didn't use that metric. none of that bitching about not having the vote, ladies, my dad was tortured! stupid union organizers wanting living wages! ever been tortured? then shut it!
disgraceful.
42. mmm1919 - December 01, 2009 at 02:31 pm
Thank you for this piece. I think that class should be more visible in many respects within academia. I was hoping though Dr. Benson would argue for less enrollment in graduate programs to curb some of the borrowing. The idea that anyone who wants an M.A. or a Phd can get one if they are willing to take out loans is not helping these graduates when they can't find work in the field for several years or those that give up looking.
But I suppose that if someone wants to do that we should all butt out. But I think the prevelance of students graduating with this type of student loan debt (or "good debt) is certainly related to other economic problems.
43. krawlings - December 01, 2009 at 02:40 pm
Interesting article. I eventually made a decision to attend a tribal college at $100 per credit hour. It is nice to have the degree without debt.
44. gtkarn - December 01, 2009 at 03:04 pm
"What do we do about the mountains of perhaps insurmountable debt that are locking those young graduates into the same struggles from which education promised to free them?"
Bingo. Thank you for putting the question so well. Here's another: who benefits (i.e. profits) from such swelling of the debtor class?
The "sell" of a college education has become exclusively careerist with purely economic justification. So, like buying a home, "buying" an education is a private investment in a commodity whose "value" is supposed to increase. Once considered a public good whose costs could be deferred or significantly reduced by public investment for the common good, that notion was tossed beginning with Reagan. Revenge on the '60's. It is shameful that a higher education has become less accessible for our children than it was for us. And tonite we will be told that yet another "investment" in another war is justified.
Where's the protest? Students too busy working to forestall even greater debt? Bowl games coming up. Don't worry, be happy.
45. gtkarn - December 01, 2009 at 03:20 pm
My first comment was prompted by reading only the first couple of paragraphs of this piece. Having finished the piece, I have some sympathy for the reservations of #'s 12 and 13.
However: perhaps the larger question is whether we can work past, through, and beyond our own personal histories, which are sometimes delivered narcissitically and treated as definitive, and get to the issues of public policy that might maintain the relative ease of accessibility to higher education that many of us enjoyed at one time. I do worry often these days, when the memoir genre has so infected non fiction, that an excess of dwelling on one's own personal situation has its risks, and that a piece that did a better job in linking one's situation to larger groups would have been more successful.
46. janetnewhall - December 01, 2009 at 03:40 pm
Thank you, thank you Professor Benson for writing about this experience. I live in a similar world, sacrificing my financial future for academic achievement. The "priceless" notion is something I struggle with far more now than I did when I agreed to tens of thousands of dollars in student debt for the very best education my money could buy. Many forget that the conversation about financial aid in education includes student loans for non-wealthy students. These price tags will continue to drive students out of civil service and less lucrative industries such as education or law enforcement for the sake of financial survival. I do not take this as an essay of envy as another commenter wrote, but one of a dire situation facing those of us who believe in the American dream and end up paying a huge sum of money to those who promise it to us.
47. clean - December 01, 2009 at 03:50 pm
Perhaps “The Millionaire Next Door” should become required reading. Why are so many people embarrassed by having to drive an old car or to have to roll coins? Yes, we “need” transportation, but we “want” a shiny, new, red, fast, stud/chick-magnet one. The bad news is that studs and chicks are not magnetic.
It is about the choices. I am amazed by people who think or concede that they will be in debt until they are 85. Generally these are people that are driving nicer and newer cars, living in bigger houses, and wearing flashier clothes than I. But for those that know my posts, Im debt free in part BECAUSE I drive a 15 year old car and made a point to pay off my debt rather than live beyond my means.
The article was interesting for many reasons, but for me, the most telling parts are the shame at the appearance of living within her means brought. She accomplished lot on a little. She worked hard and made it. I wonder if she would have accomplished anywhere near as much if she had not faced the hurdles.
48. john_barley - December 01, 2009 at 03:59 pm
Wow, I haven't seen such poor close reading since my 9am composition class. Is this Townhall.com or the Chronicle?
49. mercy_otis_warren - December 01, 2009 at 04:23 pm
I would be more sympathetic to the conversation about public policy and the question of accessibility to/affordability of higher education that #45 suggests if Dr Benson herself hadn't been so stunningly unpersuasive in (and apparently even uninterested in) getting us there.
What's the evidence in this piece that Benson "sacrificed her financial future for academic achievement" (in the words of #46)? I see $30,000 of "bad debt," and an amount of "good" debt (presumably educational) that more than doubled this figure. Let's say the good debt was $40,000, which was my 4-year undergrad debt from the Ivy League.
For what, then, did Dr Benson really sacrifice her financial future? $40k, to me, isn't a bad bargain for a degree from Smith that presumably helped to get her to Dartmouth. And if she thinks it was, as others have noted, she could have attended a cheaper school.
So key, for me, in that "mountain of insurmountable debt" -- which supposedly puts the lie to educational opportunity and social mobility -- *isn't* the 40k on Smith. It's that 30k of "bad debt." Did it all come from trips to the MLA? Book buying? As many have said, most people manage to go to grad school (even in expensive cities) without amassing that much debt.
Someone out there is indeed the poster child for "price tags... driv[ing] students out of civil service and less lucrative industries such as education...for the sake of financial survival" and the "dire situation facing those of us who believe in the American dream and end up paying a huge sum of money to those who promise it to us." But that poster child is *not* a Dartmouth professor whose educational debt seems to have paid dividends precisely as expected, who remained in that less-lucrative industry, and who seems to be a pretty solid example of that American dream.
If she racked up $30,000 on her credit cards, that's an argument about something. But it's hardly a logical argument that education in the United States is "staggeringly unaffordable."
50. fizmath - December 01, 2009 at 05:09 pm
One thing missing here is the income side of the equation. Why have incomes not kept up with the cost of school? Also there is the problem with our income tax system. If Dr. Benson were a corporation, then she would be taxed on profits. Education and transportation costs would be deducted from her revenues (income). I am doing well on a modest salary since I live close to work and have low cost housing. Others don't have that choice. The income tax system does not factor in the necessary expenses we must incur to get and keep a job.
51. azprof - December 01, 2009 at 05:46 pm
I'm sorry... but we all had to make choices (that is what adults do, not children that later regret their purchases and want someone else to pay). Now you want your accumulated the $30K debt forgiven so you can purchase a new car. What about the poor guy that got the new car for his kids to ride safe in but had to forgo the expensive education. I feel sorry for your fellow faculty member that will have to endure your brand of entitlement as you whine for the next several decades.
52. chroniclehandle - December 01, 2009 at 06:35 pm
I agree with those who feel that Benson has pointed out a serious problem with the funding of higher education, and also with those who feel that she may not, in her present situation, be the best poster-child for that problem.
There's no question that, as gtkarn (#44) points out, education has increasingly become a commodity, and that, at its present price and in the present economic climate, it's a risky investment at best. Since education is also, still, a prerequisite to most avenues of economic/class mobility (though no guarantee of that mobility), borrowing to finance an education is still very, very tempting. And, as with mortgages, those who have the fewest resources, and need the loans the most, end up with the riskiest, most expensive loans. We do, indeed, need to get back to treating the financing of higher education, especially for the poorest students, as a matter of public good.
I also don't question that Benson could have racked up the "bad" (credit card) as well as the "good" (student loan) debt paying for personal and/or professional necessities: food (which it's become commonplace to buy with a credit card, a practice which can leave money available for rent when there isn't enough cash for both), car repairs, medical care, a minimum of professional clothing, conference travel, etc. If she, like many graduate students who entered the Ph.D. pipeline without realizing how much the academic job market has changed over the last few decades, had not been successful in securing a tenure-track job, she would have been in real trouble, with few escape routes available (although, ironically, credit card debt is dischargeable in bankruptcy, while most official student loans aren't -- another case where the incentives created by our economic system just don't make sense).
But she does undermine her case by apparently accepting that she is, and will continue to be, "worth less every year." With an Ivy League salary (at an institution in an area with a comparatively low cost of living), she really ought to be able to catch up well before retirement (and one hopes that she does, in fact, have a growing TIAA-CREF account, though she may not be counting that as part of her net worth). Of course, to do that, she would need to accept a standard of living visibly lower than that of other faculty at the same rank who come from more privileged backgrounds, and/or were somehow able to avoid the same degree of debt -- not an easy thing to do when one already feels somewhat marginalized. However, living well below one's means (and not giving a hoot what neighbors, colleagues, etc., think of old cars, out-of-fashion clothes, etc.) is one of the "secrets" of "old money" "revealed" in popular books such as "The Millionaire Next Door" (though admittedly less-practiced by the young of such families than by the older members). Nor is this approach the exclusive province of the wealthy; for a very practical take on the same issues by someone who hails from the African American working class, see anything written by syndicated columnist Michelle Singletary. It seems to me that Singletary, despite a blue-collar background similar in many ways to Benson's, had one very important asset that Benson did not: a role model (in Singletary's case, a grandmother) who cared far more for substance than appearances, and saw no shame in honest poverty. Maybe that's an approach that Benson, having been brave enough to shatter her own facade, can now embrace.
53. mssmiley - December 02, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Good essay for the most part. At the beginning ,I thought the author was writing to make a point about her academic and professional achievements in spite of her difficult financial situation, but she veered of the path to self- loathing and what I sense as an enormous shame and desire to obliterate her past. Hers is a great story of the role of education in achieving social and economic mobility. Not many children are fortunate to have the opportunity she had, coming from the background of a mother who scrubbed bathrooms for a living. Most children from that background are left in poverty and underachievement because their parents do not have the foresight and education to inspire and propel them in that direction. I think Melanie missed a glorious opportunity to make her essay to true story of success in the face of adversities.
54. 22097984 - December 02, 2009 at 12:28 pm
While I find much to think about in Benson's well written note. I find myself troubled by two lines of thinking. First is her justification to take on debt to fit in or to look the part. That Dr. Benson takes on debt to go to school and to appear like an Ivy League professor speaks to her interests and her wants. Why should her resulting debt reflect on some larger problems of school funding? She decided to buy a car. She decided to go to school. She decided to buy the clothes. The choices she made come with consequences. Welcome to adulthood. I decided to teach at a small college, live in a small town and to drive an old car. Do I get to call myself a victim of class issues in that I do not like large cities?
More generally is the interesting tone on this board that somehow this "problem" could be helped by more affordable schooling and/or better financial aid. Nearly all of the humanities have too many Ph.D.'s. The only thing limitting the production of even more candidates is the prohibative cost of education with very little chance of payback. I am lost what alternative you people want. Some giant regulator limiting the production of Ph.D.'s to a certain number? Maybe a "Humanities Czar" will help. If the cost of a Ph.D. in Native American Studies goes down we will have still more experts in NAS. Recently a friend of mine advertised a low paying assistant professorship in English at a nearby small college in small town America. They had more than 200 Ph.D.'s apply for a very average job. By giving more aid we would only make that sad situation worse.
55. mssmiley - December 02, 2009 at 12:33 pm
WELL SAID #12!!
56. sgtrock - December 02, 2009 at 04:08 pm
My son finished his PhD in Life Sciences this semester at a land-grant university. He and his wife have worked at multile part-time jobs over the last 4 years of their graduate education plus he has an RA position. They have no car; they live in a very modest apartment and they buy their clothes at thrift stores. They are respected by everyone around them -- more than 100 faculty, staff and students turned out for my son's PhD defense. Because they work hard and live frugally, they saved over $70K while both finished PhDs.
Ms. Benson does not generate much sympathy from me. She made choices, now she must live with them ...
57. neoconned - December 02, 2009 at 04:38 pm
lawman11
well i guess your dad would have an excuse to be a judgmental reactionary jerk, what have you done which puts you in a position to morally condemn the author?
58. jwise - December 02, 2009 at 05:03 pm
I agree with Ms. Benson, excuse me, Dr. Benson. I have a degree from a college in Boston which has cost me dearly. I am 62 years old and will never be able to retire from teaching as many of my colleagues will simply because I wanted a better education when I was 48. I struggled to make ends meet while in Boston and used the teacher retirement fund to supplement the student loans I received and the salary I received for part time work. I graduated with a 3.8 GPA. I learned from some of the best and I am now passing it on to my high school students. However, I hope they will not follow my path. I hope they will not go into debt to learn and advance their careers. I encourage them all to stay in-state where tuition is less expensive, live at home and attend college if they can, but look for the best program within their means. Unfortunately, this approach will deminish the talent available to solve the problems of some of our more serious national and world issues.--Julia Wise, Texas
59. jffoster - December 02, 2009 at 05:50 pm
I commend Jwise (58) for going back in middle age, but there of course are consequences and difficulties in doing things out of time and season, and it's not particularly anybody's fault. Ecclesiates Ch. 3 might well be kept in mind.
But "staying in state..." will not necessarily "diminish the talent available...". The original postress, Dr. Benson, for instance, could have got very good training in state, at. for instance, Massachusetts Maritime Academy, and been quite employable at a job that needs doing.
60. newprof09 - December 03, 2009 at 03:25 am
I definitely relate to many aspects of Bensen's story and struggle. I also wrestle with the question of whether to define myself as a "success" (tenure track job, freshly published book, although I didn't make it to the Ivy League!) or a "failure" (mountains of debt). But luckily I have never tortured myself with burden of constructing a unrealistic and phony facade of affluence. My strategy has been to embrace my pauperhood. A defensive strategy---probably to an extent---but it beats explicitly buying into (and thereby supporting) the myth that those without loads of money should feel shame. Really, Bensen maybe you just need to get over yourself. In the grand scheme of things I bet nobody really gives a crap how much your clothes and car cost...and if they do its really their problem. It doesn't seem likely you will achieve peace of mind or happiness until you stop defining yourself as a victim of a grand capitalist plot and realize that shame is a choice and happiness is a choice. If shame wasn't a choice how else could you explain an Ivy League college professor (a position of prestige achieved by perhaps .01% of the population) as having a "shattered professional credibility." Maybe it's time for some cognitive reframing and counting your blessings. Things could be worse: you could be a starving villager in Africa, you could have cancer or the clap. Buck up for God's sake. Try volunteering in a soup and working with abused children. Then maybe you would appreciate what you have. BTW, you don't need the overthrow of capitalism to pay off your debt...try a good budget...that's what I'm doing.
61. cousinannie - December 03, 2009 at 02:11 pm
In high school I accepted, and later backed out of, an offer to attend an expensive private university. Instead I went to a regional state university with low tuition. I later transferred to the better regarded state flagship R1 institution and stayed on for a Ph.D. It was a good decision and I'm better off for it.
But along the way I made many small crappy financial decisions that added up. I wanted to not be poor, or at least not to feel poor, especially around my more affluent friends and colleagues. The temporary fantasy fulfillment sometimes trumped the reality of my actual net worth. I get it - credit cards act as a disguise. It's a way of not having to publicly reckon with your difference or your less privileged background. But at the end of the day is boils down to bad judgment, with class issues as a complicating backdrop. I don't think that working class folks alone are guilty of it, either - there is just a different sort of emotional stake involved. I certainly sympathize with those who've been there. We failed. It will be all right. It is, after all, just money.
62. dmaratto - December 03, 2009 at 02:55 pm
A typical Massachusetts woe-is-me story, who cares? Everyone else has nice clothes, so what? Your car is old and beat up, BFD! Nobody ever said you had to "keep up appearances," and to be honest, that's a sign of personal inadequacy that you judge yourself based on how you think everyone else sees you. I have done that myself at times, trust me that as soon as you stop giving a damn what other people think of you, then you will start being happy.
Intelligence doesn't always equal smarts
63. spunkymunky - December 03, 2009 at 08:12 pm
Reading this article made me think about something I often don't think about. My story is pretty dismal, too. I'm a war refugee from a family fractured by one of the United States' most destructive military actions. My family members slowly disappeared from my life because of the pressures, both economic and psychological, that resulted from a terrible war. Suicide, malaise, in-fighting, you-name-it were a commonplace of my childhood furniture. Like the writer, I always felt the constriction of economic difficulty and, only in the a-temporal world of picture albums could I ever be mistaken as stylish. Most of my clothes were ensembles put together from the Goodwill cast-off's that formed the stratigraphy of the preceding decade.
I too wound up tenure-tracking at an exclusive institution that considers itself a peer of the writer's. But I didn't leave grad school with any good or bad debt. I did notice that most of my peers in grad school ended up being financed by their parents or, often, kept up the appearance of a rock and roll lifestyle by living on plastic. I did take the odd job or two. But I never took out student loans to live that grad student high life and I never used credit cards in grad school, mainly because I knew I couldn't be trusted with that temptation. I also very rarely thought about the vast difference between me and the other grad students. As a refugee, I had always known that people were richer, better, smarter and much, much more privileged than me. And I hardly thought to think about it, except to participate in my own pity party. It is curious to me why people would choose to think about thinking about it, as it most often leads to self-laceration, recrimination and compulsive behavior.
64. rickinchina09 - December 04, 2009 at 07:27 am
The irony is not lost on me that the very faculty and administration who are most responsible for the skyrocketing cost of higher education, especially at elite institutions, also tend to be those who extol the virtues of armchair Marxism.
And while I empathize to a degree with the author's plight, having experienced similar financial woes, she at least has the advantage of affirmative action as an American Indian working for her.
65. jamylle - December 04, 2009 at 09:31 am
Interesting article. Fascinating discussion afterwards.
Here's my two cents:
I grew up middle/upper class with well-educated parents. My parents took out massive loans to finance my undergraduate degree from an Ivy League institution. (I graduated with a minimal $10K in loans.) However, after four years, they were done. They made it clear to me that I was on my own for graduate school and beyond.
I earned my Ph.D. from an urban public research university that offered me an excellent fellowship. When my fellowship ran out, I applied for more fellowships, teaching assistantships, and research assistantships. I worked. I lived within my means, which was challenging in an expensive city. My generous parents bought me a car and maintained it while I was in school. But I decided that if I had to take out loans, I would leave grad school. For me, a Ph.D. needed to be debt-free. I understand that others don't have that luxury and are willing to finance their education at all costs. I respect their commitment, but I chose to finance grad school without debt.
It was an excellent decision. I graduated debt-free, and I continue to live within my means. I now have an excellent-paying tenure-track job at a community college. I also have no shame about working in a less prestigious institution. I'm living where I want to live, doing what I want to do, and enjoying my life...debt-free.
66. issalerhra - December 04, 2009 at 10:23 am
Freedom of speech, a great privilege, exercised with unlimited zeal, pros and cons. This article is not only well written, but it sings the "silences" of many a respondents. To some it is the song of a: cry baby, self-pitying "pound foolish -penny wise" idiot, a latent socialist, hater of the privileged few etc... to others: this is their song, worked hard, under difficult conditions to get to the top, (thanks, he is at the top).
Invisible in these lyrics, is the line of the fortunate few, who went through college without the encumbrance or limitations of "money" yet, who dropped along the way, became broke and never landed a good job nor published a book. Even less apparent is the voice of the affluent, who cannot 'afford' the author's "priceless education". They can pay to use your skills, but there is always the regret that crowns that monetary power; "I can pay you, even though I am not a Ph.D." Money does not pay for everything, neither does a Ph.D. guarantee all success.
"Our best song is that which sings our silences"
Good article.
tkm
67. issalerhra - December 04, 2009 at 10:32 am
Is it possible to graduate debt free and still be broke?
tkm
68. chroniclehandle - December 04, 2009 at 11:14 am
Issalerhra -- absolutely, at either the B.A. or the Ph.D. level. While work for Ph.D.s may not be scarce, full-time, secure jobs with benefits that pay a wage in keeping with the local cost of living definitely are.
One more thing I noticed on re-reading the column: the author finished her Ph.D. very quickly, at least by today's standards -- another sign, along with the jobs she has gotten and the publication of her book, that she is a serious and productive scholar. It also suggests that she made some time/money (borrowing) tradeoffs, if not as an undergraduate, then as a Ph.D. candidate. Such decisions are the stuff of everyday life for all of us (or at least all of us who don't have either family wealth or well-paid, supportive spouses), but they're not easy to make, and they're often a gamble. I'd say her gamble paid off pretty well, but there are still consequences.
69. timebandit - December 04, 2009 at 01:12 pm
Ok, this was a good topic to address. While I do agree that choosing poverty with a degree in area studies is perhaps a poor choice for someone with no family money, I'm sorry there are such vicious comments about this. What I think is missing is some discussion of the fact that not everything should be imagined as choices -- some of us who come from low income backgrounds had NO IDEA how to save money and budget, because our parents lack those skills. (I imagine some would say a self perpetuating cycle, but no, my parents came from more solid middle class families - they just never learned how money works themselves. Sigh. Although we can imagine that people from wealthier backgrounds are taught more about how to manage money.) So.... when I started reading things like the dollar stretcher and frugal advice websites a few years ago, it was a complete revelation, and THEN I started to freak out about my student loan debt. Of course I still have debt, but these days I know how to balance my checkbook, I have an IRA and contribute each month, etc. So let's not assume that everyone necessarily has complete information in order to make a good rational decision, and let's not blame the victim when these people have little idea about better choices and how to weigh different choices. Maybe a required financial literacy course would be a good investment for helping college students to avoid various pitfalls.
70. drkatmack - December 06, 2009 at 04:29 pm
Choices, choices...what I find missing from the argument here is recognition that individual choices are constrained by societal parameters. Why does a person from an impovershed background have choices constrained to either selecting a low-cost education at institutions and with faculty mentors that will, face it, make one essentially ineligible for top-tier positions in academe, or to go into crushing debt in order to gain that top-tier position? What do students at those top-tier institutions lose from their education when persons like Dr. Benson make the "sensible" choice that eliminates them from participating in that institution's discourse?
I see the same argument posed in the case of women in academe - one CHOOSES either to be a top-level scholar, or to have a family and work at a lower-level institution in order to have enough time to participate materially in bringing up one's offspring.
What a waste, and one which diminishes the intellectual capital our nation so badly struggles to regain. Intellectuals in many other countries have the societal and institutional supports to be scholars without choosing to amass massive debt (there, attendance at graduate school is highly competitive and state-funded) or live childless lives (childcare is subsidized, high quality, and readily available). Claiming that the choices that U.S. academics make are soley personal in nature ignores the fact that those choices are institutionally constrained.
If we truly want a diverse, multiple-persective dialogue all through higher education, we must make students' access financially viable ALL THROUGH higher education, including the top tiers.
71. john_e - December 06, 2009 at 05:00 pm
Melanie, I don't think this is an essay about debt. You begin with the money-is-paper MasterCard "priceless" premise, but you don't refute the premise at the end. The money you spent on your education paid off. You have a good job now. Granted, if you had chosen another career you probably would be making more money than you are now, but you don't address that issue. Your essay isn't about career choices. It's about career anxiety.
To echo #17, your essay seems to be about class envy. You feel like you don't belong with peers who have, and presumably always have had, more money than you. You feel like you'll never be a member of club. And maybe you won't. However, what is your point in that case--that people who were born poor and lived poor for most of their lives can never be invited to a white-glove soiree? You might test the falsifiability of this--for example, pick a "club," however you define it, and see if there is not one member who comes from impoverished circumstances.
Given that the focus of your professional life is "the complex trauma of living under the warping influence of capitalism," questioning your root premise in this manner may be very hard, or impossible. But to me anyway, it sounds like that money you shelled out for school was well spent. If you feel class alienation, a la "Educating Rita," it may be coming from somewhere other than your wallet.
72. jffoster - December 06, 2009 at 11:32 pm
No 70 asks, "What do students at those top-tier institutions lose from their education when persons like Dr. Benson make the "sensible" choice that eliminates them from participating in that institution's discourse?"
Well, if enough good students make such sensible decisions, the top tiered institutions will lose their effective tier status and the good students will decide they'd rather have "discourse" with students who made sensible decisions. In sensible fields.
73. curtisrt - December 07, 2009 at 10:18 am
I'm with you! I would say it is the debt that very well may lead to the destruction of academia as we know it.
74. gmd1057 - December 07, 2009 at 11:04 am
You know one creepy thing about these I-have-it-so-rough essays that the less self-aware of academics are so prone to? This:
If someone has so little perspective about the really difficult, and often unfixable, things that many other people live with, in comparison to their selfpitying perception of their own personal challenges as a full-time professor at an Ivy League school, then HOW CAN READERS HAVE ANY FAITH IN THE JUDGMENTS THEY MAKE ABOUT INTELLECTUAL MATTERS IN THEIR ACADEMIC WRITING??? This is particularly an issue in the case of someone whose field involves critical judgment of society, and advocacy of social groups.
Academic study's unique contribution is to find better ( = less imperfect) insights into how things are. Simply coming up with verbal constructs to cast blame or demand sympathy (for oneself; for a social group) is the function of politics, law, and other active advocacy professions in society.
A lot of academics really want to be politicians, but they know deep down that they don't have the charisma (ability to interact effectively with the preponderance of people), the endurance, or the practicality to succeed there. So they function as social/political advocates from the safety of a tenured job with a nine-month contract and no heavy lifting.
One reason school loans end up so large is precisely **because of** the work conditions ( = how much tuition they generate, as against salary/benefits) of professors in job positions like the author now has. Why can't she see that that makes her lifetime "screwed/benefitted" cume is *not* negative?
75. charlesfrith - December 07, 2009 at 08:42 pm
Why is everyone complaining?
76. amnirov - December 08, 2009 at 06:04 am
Everyone is complaining because The Chronicle has given yet another whinging crybaby a giant, ivy covered platform from which to moan about the unfairness of life.
77. schaber - December 10, 2009 at 12:51 pm
What do we do about the mountains of perhaps insurmountable debt that are locking those young graduates into the same struggles from which education promised to free them?
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I hope nobody is promissing Native American studies majors that their lives will be free from struggles.
78. agusti - January 20, 2010 at 09:54 am
This article raises lots of questions, some the author intended and perhaps some she did not. As a doctoral student at an ivy-league institution who is not from an "ivy-league" background, I was surprised upon arriving at said ILU at the sort of "keeping up with the Joneses" mentality of my fellow PhD students, who seemed to be worried about things a lot like the ones Benson mentions - clothes, cars, vacations [ok, Benson doesn't mention vacations] etc., all of which seemed completely absurd to me as I assumed that everyone knew that we were all just "playing professor" until we found out which small handful of us would actually get jobs in the field we were studying. Of course we couldn't afford to dress like our professors, drive cars like our professors, eat in the same restaurants as our professors (or any restaurant, for that matter).
Don't we all know that graduate school in an area like Dr Benson's (and most of our areas) is a wild gamble even when it's "free" (via assistantships/stipends etc) and and absoltuely insane one when it means going tens of thousands of dollars into debt? I would never have dreamed of borrowing so much as a dime to do what I have done, given the odds of landing a job that would let me pay it all back. I'd say, all thing considered, Benson gambled and WON - big.
Which brings me to my next point, which I'll begin by asking if anyone has taken a look at Dartmouth salaries lately. Last I checked (just now), an average AP salary at Dartmouth is about $80,000/year and that area of the country is certainly not among the most expensive there are (unless Benson wants to buy a home in downtown Hanover, in which case she's still trying to keep up with the Professor Joneses). How much debt do you have to be in to not be able to pay it down on a salary like that? Let's imagine she's carying $60,000 in debt. How hard would it be to live in NH on 3/4 of her salary (60k), pay 20k a year toward debt and be done with it in three years? On that schedule she could be well on her way to saving for kids' college tuition and a home well before many of us do.
Not knowing what the exact figures are, it's hard to know how much of a "hole" she is really in, but I'd say it has to be pretty damn deep to not be able to get out of it on 80k/year.
79. asknelly - January 24, 2010 at 07:42 am
This article left a funny impression on me - I interpreted many of its arguments as personal grievances that seem petty and narcissistic. (especially the off-topic deadbeat dad paragraph)
What is the average salary of a Dartmouth professor? $40K, 50, 60, 70+? If you have 100K in student loans, and a salary of $50K, your individual returns to education should still be very positive. (if your spending is modest)
My wife and I have a phd and a masters degree, and at the moment, we exist on about $30K a year (while paying down $30K in student loans). We are comfortable, happily living, without bitterness. We were fortunate to have the opportunity to chose academia over jobs with better fiscal rewards. Today we chose to work part-time, so we can volunteer our time to causes we enjoy. We chose not to own real estate (it's historically a bad investment anyways), or cars, or participate in consumerism. These are the choices we make, the choices we all have to make.
If you can't live on a Dartmouth salary, than I think its your spending that needs better managed. I don't feel sorry for you, nor do I imagine most readers will. The 'shame of poverty' mentioned here is a concept foreign to me - does a phd holder really live with such social insecurities? I thought academics were free of the trap of keeping up with the joneses?
I've always felt Americans make the mistake of comparing their personal wealth to that of CEOs, celebrities and athlete salaries, instead of comparing with similar jobs in other parts of the world. Your dollar buys more, locally, than probably any country on earth.