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In light of this important thread from @haszombiesinit I wanted to re-share some recommendations I raised in an old post when the news of graduate fine arts degrees came up as it does serially.
@haszombiesinit In the interests of transparency, I think MFA programs should be gathering the data in the screenshot. insidehighered.com/blogs/just-vis… 
@haszombiesinit This doesn't cover all contingencies for what people are looking for from an MFA, but I do think it suggests what the most common, most desired trajectories are and how successful graduates from a program are at achieving these things.
@haszombiesinit I don't think they're the only measure of the worth of an MFA program, but especially with the debt figures, it's important for students to know what they might be getting into. The thread where @haszombiesinit collected people sharing their debt is heartbreaking.
@haszombiesinit The thread also makes me recognize how out of date my knowledge about programs is. I started my MFA 25 years ago this year. There were about 50 MFA/terminal MA programs when I went. There's 3 or 4 times that now. The calculation on the value of the degree is very different.
@haszombiesinit I, personally, benefitted hugely from my MFA, well beyond publishing or teaching (17 years as contingent faculty). I've put that education to use in private industry. Doing an explication of God's Grandeur helped me also learn to do a focus group report. insidehighered.com/blogs/just-vis…
@haszombiesinit But while I can say with confidence my graduate education makes me a more effective and employable person outside of academia, I can make no warrants for that being true today. (Or even back in my day. I could be anomalous.)
What I am confident in is that six figure debt is difficult to manage regardless of how employable you are and the odds of a stable, decent paying academic job are very very low. This is 5 yrs old, but I think it remains true. insidehighered.com/blogs/just-vis…
Heck, even if you get a stable, entry-level faculty position making 50-60k a year, a six figure loan debt is going to hang over you for a long long time.
Teaching positions and publications are not ex post facto justifications for pursuing an MFA, other outcomes can be beneficial, but if programs are doing poorly on the debt measurements, I think they have some deep self-examination to do. They may be exploitive.
You know what the heartbreaking thing is, I've had students who want to get an MFA because they see their writing professors' lives and think how awesome that looks, and I have to tell them that they're looking at either an illusion or a fantasy.
Students told me straight up, "I want a job like yours" when I was teaching a 4/4 for $25k a year and could only afford it because of my partner's career, outside income, and not having the expense of children. I had to tell them the truth.
Then they say they'll be like the tenured faculty instead, but I show them the numbers. Those faculty hold their jobs for a minimum of 25 and up to 45 years and schools rarely add more positions. There is simply no room.
That said, College of Charleston is hiring a fiction writer, and while I only teach an occasional class now, I think it's a good place to work and a nice place to live. Anybody who wants whatever insight I can provide, hit me up. academicjobs.wikia.org/wiki/Creative_…
