Master's Degree and Full time Job - Applying for Food Stamps

[zibazinski]

Easy majors don't pay dick

[Works4me]

Below is a bio I found from when Nico Lang was in grad school - "Media & Cinema Studies." Frankly, it appears that even now while living in NYC, he is not really "employed" full time but instead is very busy with various causes, projects and works that are not true salaried positions. I think of those types of things or businesses as polite fiction that makes a person appear professionally successful when they are in fact not. To afford to do something like that, traditionally people need to come from money. Unfortunately, he does not.


"Nico Lang is the a blogger and correspondent for WBEZ in Chicago, covering LGBTQ issues. Lang is also the former Associate Director of The Civil Rights Agenda, the Co-Creator and former Co-Editor of In Our Words and a graduate student in DePaul University’s Media & Cinema Studies program. Lang is the Co-Founder of Chicago’s Queer Intercollegiate Alliance and a columnist for HEAVEMedia. At HEAVE, Nico writes a column on film called Found Footage and talks about nerd stuff on a weekly podcast called Pod People. Elsewhere in podcasting, Lang hosts Broad Shoulders, a monthly podcast for Chicago's Live Lit community. Nico is also a contributor at Thought Catalog and the Huffington Post and has been featured in the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, The Guardian, The New Gay and on their mother’s refrigerator. Follow Nico on Twitter @nico_Lang or on the Facebook."  
ETA - 2013

[TheHaitian]

Aug 3, 2015 3:40:51 GMT -5 Works4me said:

Below ow is a bio I found from when Nico Langwas in grad school - "Media & Cinema Studies." Frankly, it appears that even now while living in NYC, he is not really "employed" full time but instead is very busy with various causes, projects and works that are not true salaried positions. I think of those types of things or businesses as polite fiction that makes a person appear professionally successful when they are in fact not. To afford to do something like that, traditionally people need to come from money. Unfortunately, he does not.


"Nico Lang is the a blogger and correspondent for WBEZ in Chicago, covering LGBTQ issues. Lang is also the former Associate Director of The Civil Rights Agenda, the Co-Creator and former Co-Editor of In Our Words and a graduate student in DePaul University’s Media & Cinema Studies program. Lang is the Co-Founder of Chicago’s Queer Intercollegiate Alliance and a columnist for HEAVEMedia. At HEAVE, Nico writes a column on film called Found Footage and talks about nerd stuff on a weekly podcast called Pod People. Elsewhere in podcasting, Lang hosts Broad Shoulders, a monthly podcast for Chicago's Live Lit community. Nico is also a contributor at Thought Catalog and the Huffington Post and has been featured in the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, The Guardian, The New Gay and on their mother’s refrigerator. Follow Nico on Twitter @nico_Lang or on the Facebook.

Yep, seems like he has a lot of busy work indeed but none that actually PAYS! He either needs to keep pushing till he makes it or he needs to find a JOB.

Less than 16k/year in NYC is freaking insane!

[skubikky]

Considering that there is the City University of New York available, I'd say her $100k loans are amazing.
Not in that I don't believe her, just that she willfully chose to enter into that much debt.
I'd even go further to say that without regard to her area of study for the masters it was foolish and ill advised.

Maybe as she was raised on food stamps, it was easier to just continue to get them as opposed to devising some other way of
supporting herself while getting an education.   I just looked it up and the highest amount of tuition is $7450 per semester(full-time) for law school in CUNY.
The other Master's programs about $5065 per semester for full-time.  

[Deleted]

A person can make it through graduate school and not even receive the most basic level of education on personal finance.

It is something we almost all have to use and you can get in so much trouble before you realize it when you don't know what you are doing.

I'm not absolving the author for not knowing but they are hardly in limited company. I would make personal finance/consumer issues a required class each year of high school.

[Phoenix84]

The best solution is probably to move. I moved after college, and while it can be hard, it was worth it.

[zibazinski]

I think if you've milked the system or been around people who have milked the system most of what you're going to think is how to milk the system. 

[steph08]

Aug 2, 2015 19:55:26 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

Probably unprepared for college so chose an easy major.

Oh a nice slap at humanities majors - haven't seen one of those in a while!

I was an English major. I was prepared for college, and it wasn't easy. Now Criminology or History - those are easy majors.

[zibazinski]

When you went to college, it probably wasn't but the easier majors have been dumbed down even more so. Criminal justice is now the easy major. 

[zibazinski]

DH makes a decent living but in NY, we'd probably be on food stamps!

[NancysSummerSip]

Aug 3, 2015 8:58:27 GMT -5 steph08 said:

Aug 2, 2015 19:55:26 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

Probably unprepared for college so chose an easy major.

Oh a nice slap at humanities majors - haven't seen one of those in a while!

I was an English major. I was prepared for college, and it wasn't easy. Now Criminology or History - those are easy majors.

Oh, just wait until I break out my handcuffs on you, young lady!

[zibazinski]

Yup, criminal justice, the new college degree for cops.

[The Captain]

Aug 3, 2015 9:02:24 GMT -5 NancysSummerSip said:

Aug 3, 2015 8:58:27 GMT -5 steph08 said:

Oh a nice slap at humanities majors - haven't seen one of those in a while!

I was an English major. I was prepared for college, and it wasn't easy. Now Criminology or History - those are easy majors.

Oh, just wait until I break out my handcuffs on you, young lady!

[NancysSummerSip]

Aug 3, 2015 9:22:43 GMT -5 The Captain said:

Aug 3, 2015 9:02:24 GMT -5 NancysSummerSip said:

Oh, just wait until I break out my handcuffs on you, young lady!

What, handcuffs aren't sexy?

And FWIW, it's not an easy major. Wasn't when I went to school back in the extremely Dark Ages, and isn't now. More forensics and science in the major these days. And it's true that a lot of officers do go (or go back) and get their degree. Mainly because their pay grade increases with that degree.

I think an educated cop is a good cop, or at least possibly a better cop. If you've got a bad apple in uniform, no amount of education will change them, I admit. And I knew my share of very bad cops, but their education, or lack of it, wasn't the issue. They were just psychologically unfit for duty, period. No book learning would fix that. And I don't thing a degree is a substitute for street experience. You don't learn the day-to-day how to deal with people sitting in a classroom. But going to school is a good way to augment what you know as you go out on patrol. A lot of departments understand that, which is why they pay a good percentage of school costs, or favor new hires with degrees.

[zibazinski]

[CarolinaKat]

Aug 3, 2015 9:33:02 GMT -5 NancysSummerSip said:

Aug 3, 2015 9:22:43 GMT -5 The Captain said:

What, handcuffs aren't sexy?

And FWIW, it's not an easy major. Wasn't when I went to school back in the extremely Dark Ages, and isn't now. More forensics and science in the major these days. And it's true that a lot of officers do go (or go back) and get their degree. Mainly because their pay grade increases with that degree.

I think an educated cop is a good cop, or at least possibly a better cop. If you've got a bad apple in uniform, no amount of education will change them, I admit. And I knew my share of very bad cops, but their education, or lack of it, wasn't the issue. They were just psychologically unfit for duty, period. No book learning would fix that. And I don't thing a degree is a substitute for street experience. You don't learn the day-to-day how to deal with people sitting in a classroom. But going to school is a good way to augment what you know as you go out on patrol. A lot of departments understand that, which is why they pay a good percentage of school costs, or favor new hires with degrees.

BFF's first degree was criminal science or justice don't remember the exact name. It was a whole lot of psychology and paper writing and case studies. All the 'required' math and science courses were very simple. None of them were transferable outside of other humanities majors. It was interesting stuff, I enjoyed looking over her assignments for her as a proofreader. However, nothing in the material was particularly difficult to understand or process. It was definitely considered an 'easy A' major.

[tskeeter]

Aug 2, 2015 16:20:53 GMT -5 Shooby said:

"But no matter how well you play by the rules, the cards will continue to be stacked against you in today’s economy.

If it feels like a no-win situation..."

Woe is me!!!

Isn't it amazing that in just a few generations we have gone from a society of the greatest generation, who could defend freedom around the world and send men to the moon, to a society of victims, where we are never given enough and the bed of roses is never comfy enough?

 

[tskeeter]

Aug 3, 2015 8:23:51 GMT -5 Phoenix84 said:

The best solution is probably to move. I moved after college, and while it can be hard, it was worth it.

It appears the writer did move.  From HCOL Chicago, where they got their graduate degree, to even higher cost of living NYC.  Unfortunately, even NYC apparently puts a low market value on watching movies for a lving.

[sarcasticgirl]

Just because someone has a Masters Degree doesn't mean they are intelligent... obviously. 

[TheHaitian]

[quote author="tskeeter" source="/post/2295624/thread" timestamp="1438618662"Unfortunately, even NYC apparently puts a low market value on watching movies for a lving.[/quote]

That is so not cool, you know how much works it takes to be a movie critic...

[swamp]

Aug 3, 2015 4:58:52 GMT -5 TheHaitian said:

Aug 3, 2015 3:40:51 GMT -5 Works4me said:

Below ow is a bio I found from when Nico Langwas in grad school - "Media & Cinema Studies." Frankly, it appears that even now while living in NYC, he is not really "employed" full time but instead is very busy with various causes, projects and works that are not true salaried positions. I think of those types of things or businesses as polite fiction that makes a person appear professionally successful when they are in fact not. To afford to do something like that, traditionally people need to come from money. Unfortunately, he does not.


"Nico Lang is the a blogger and correspondent for WBEZ in Chicago, covering LGBTQ issues. Lang is also the former Associate Director of The Civil Rights Agenda, the Co-Creator and former Co-Editor of In Our Words and a graduate student in DePaul University’s Media & Cinema Studies program. Lang is the Co-Founder of Chicago’s Queer Intercollegiate Alliance and a columnist for HEAVEMedia. At HEAVE, Nico writes a column on film called Found Footage and talks about nerd stuff on a weekly podcast called Pod People. Elsewhere in podcasting, Lang hosts Broad Shoulders, a monthly podcast for Chicago's Live Lit community. Nico is also a contributor at Thought Catalog and the Huffington Post and has been featured in the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, The Guardian, The New Gay and on their mother’s refrigerator. Follow Nico on Twitter @nico_Lang or on the Facebook.

Yep, seems like he has a lot of busy work indeed but none that actually PAYS! He either needs to keep pushing till he makes it or he needs to find a JOB.

Less than 16k/year in NYC is freaking insane!

Less than $16k/year in my neck of the woods is freaking insane.

[swamp]

Aug 3, 2015 11:29:23 GMT -5 sarcasticgirl said:

Just because someone has a Masters Degree doesn't mean they are intelligent... obviously. 

I met some really dumb people in law school. 

I've also met some brilliant HS dropouts.

[swamp]

Aug 3, 2015 8:58:27 GMT -5 steph08 said:

Aug 2, 2015 19:55:26 GMT -5 zibazinski said:

Probably unprepared for college so chose an easy major.

Oh a nice slap at humanities majors - haven't seen one of those in a while!

I was an English major. I was prepared for college, and it wasn't easy. Now Criminology or History - those are easy majors.

I have a French degree. Obviously I'm a fucking idiot.

[ArchietheDragon]

Aug 3, 2015 11:57:52 GMT -5 swamp said:

Aug 3, 2015 8:58:27 GMT -5 steph08 said:

Oh a nice slap at humanities majors - haven't seen one of those in a while!

I was an English major. I was prepared for college, and it wasn't easy. Now Criminology or History - those are easy majors.

I have a French degree. Obviously I'm a fucking idiot.

At least you can order poutine in style. 

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

I have a biology degree but only make $30k a year.  So I'm a fucking idiot with an STEM degree.

[phil5185]

Isn't it amazing that in just a few generations we have gone from a society of the greatest generation, who could defend freedom around the world and send men to the moon, to a society of victims, where we are never given enough and the bed of roses is never comfy enough?

the greatest generation?  You mean that rosy period in history where 12 years olds lost their fingers or worse working 10 hours shifts in factories to feed their younger siblings?

Well, all thru the 1940's I milked the cows, fed hogs, fed the sheep, gathered the eggs, cleaned the pens and hauled the manure to the fields. In the Spring, plowed fields with a brand new 1948 Ford Tractor, loved it (I was about age 10). We spent our summers baling hay - the kid that was too little to buck bales was assigned to drive the tractor pulling the baler.  In spite of all the govt over-reach projects of today (don't let 12-yr-olds drive a tractor, don't allow them around cattle, horses w/o a helmet, yada)  kids seem to take to it and learn life-lessons from it.

I can't see that it hurt me all that much, I still have all 10 fingers, 10 toes, can still ride a horse, ride a bike, ice skate, hike - and still posses enough mental agility to enjoy our world.
(And I was part of the engineering team that put Man on the Moon) 

[TheHaitian]

Aug 3, 2015 12:07:29 GMT -5 @tbird said:

Aug 3, 2015 12:01:22 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

I have a biology degree but only make $30k a year.  So I'm a fucking idiot with an STEM degree.

ouch, I'm afraid FT fast food workers in NYC are making the same....

Not till 2021

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

ouch, I'm afraid FT fast food workers in NYC are making the same....

Yeah but my $30k goes farther here in potato farmer country.

[NancysSummerSip]

Aug 3, 2015 10:58:51 GMT -5 CarolinaKat said:

Aug 3, 2015 9:33:02 GMT -5 NancysSummerSip said:

What, handcuffs aren't sexy?

And FWIW, it's not an easy major. Wasn't when I went to school back in the extremely Dark Ages, and isn't now. More forensics and science in the major these days. And it's true that a lot of officers do go (or go back) and get their degree. Mainly because their pay grade increases with that degree.

I think an educated cop is a good cop, or at least possibly a better cop. If you've got a bad apple in uniform, no amount of education will change them, I admit. And I knew my share of very bad cops, but their education, or lack of it, wasn't the issue. They were just psychologically unfit for duty, period. No book learning would fix that. And I don't thing a degree is a substitute for street experience. You don't learn the day-to-day how to deal with people sitting in a classroom. But going to school is a good way to augment what you know as you go out on patrol. A lot of departments understand that, which is why they pay a good percentage of school costs, or favor new hires with degrees.

BFF's first degree was criminal science or justice don't remember the exact name. It was a whole lot of psychology and paper writing and case studies. All the 'required' math and science courses were very simple. None of them were transferable outside of other humanities majors. It was interesting stuff, I enjoyed looking over her assignments for her as a proofreader. However, nothing in the material was particularly difficult to understand or process. It was definitely considered an 'easy A' major.

Maybe BFF went to an easy school?

I didn't, and the demands were quite heavy, including science (chemistry and physics) and math (calculus). Yes, there was a lot of psychology and sociology along with it. I did well, and did get a fair number of "A" grades. I did it while working part time, taking additional credits, and doing both through the summer so I could graduate with as little debt, as soon as possible from that very good, but rather expensive university.

[Deleted]

My kids have mowed lawns since 10, son has worked laboring for husband since 14.. (Still has 10 fingers! Thanks be to the fates or youth! ) ... 

My neighbor worked farms since he was a kid. Another neighbors kids have also worked from that young, work for us sometimes too. 

That sort of thing hasn't gone away, it's just always been localized. Not everyone has that access.