I wrote about Master's Degrees, for-profit tactics in prestige lighting, meritocracy traps, & credentialism:

annehelen.substack.com/p/the-masters-…
Not all Master's Degrees are scams, and I don't think that framing is particularly helpful, but I do think it's worth really looking at the tactics, values, and magnetism of a Master's, and how, say, a MAPH from UChicago works differently than a MEd from your local state school
I also think that it's often a big ask for someone to sit down with a 7000 word piece, so I'm experimenting with segmenting this piece into 3. Next part: distinguishing between “Prestige Grabs,” “Only Visible Routes,” and “Career Collateral"
I'm also very ambivalent about thinking about education solely in terms of eventual salary — and will talk about the pitfalls of that — but have been deeply influenced by @louise_seamster & Raphaël Charron-Chenier's work on "predatory inclusion" and student debt
If you want to read the rest of the piece, it's easy to sign up (and not be beholden to the Twitter algorithm for discovery): annehelen.substack.com

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More from @annehelen

22 Jul
So let's talk about the one-year Master's of Arts Program in Humanities and Master of Arts Program in Social Sciences at the University of Chicago!

Current tuition for one year: $62,640.

Cost of living, supplies, and additional quarterly fees: $30k, if not more
If you don't know about the University of Chicago, it's difficult to describe the reputation other than it's not an Ivy but prides itself on being more rigorous than an Ivy. It is home to a lot of very prestigious PhD programs, which is important context
The prestige means it attracts a lot of PhD applicants: people coming from other Ivies or from state schools or SLACs, people whose professors have told them the top schools in the field. But the acceptance rate is low, & there are hundreds of people who don't get into programs
Read 20 tweets
19 Jul
Right now in Missoula: pretty much every restaurant is either short-staffed and/or has signs on their doors announcing that they're closed on certain days of the week because they can't hire people. This is a wage issue, but it's especially a housing issue
In Sun Valley: "The situation has gotten so extreme that Ketchum’s mayor recently raised the idea of allowing local workers to temporarily erect tents in a park so they could have a place to live while searching for something permanent"

wsj.com/articles/ketch…
"Among those struggling for a permanent place is Michael David, a city councilor, who said he can’t afford to rent or buy on his city salary and job as a salesman at a local ski shop, which earns him about $45,000."

wsj.com/articles/ketch…
Read 6 tweets
12 Jul
Wrote about the great promise of the four day work week — and the difficulty of wrapping our heads around the fact that less work leads to better work:

annehelen.substack.com/p/whos-afraid-…
I first started reporting on the 4-Day Week pre-pandemic, wrote a whole feature and filed it, and then...the pandemic hit, and writing anything about work felt very besides the point. Fascinating that the (enduring) pandemic --> huge bloom of writing about work/the office
I was initially compelled by what a very staid, old fashioned New Zealand trust company was doing with the four day week — the CEO basically did it purely for productivity reasons (he saw that it was stuck; read an Economist article, convinced the company to do a pilot)
Read 16 tweets
8 Jul
I've wanted to do a similar piece to this *excellent* WSJ piece on financially & psychologically exploitative Master's programs for some time; I do wish they'd focused on even more programs

wsj.com/articles/finan…
The numbers are higher at Columbia, but the scam — and yes, I think it's a scam — is the same at so many schools, public, private, Ivy, for-profit. Master's programs are *massive* money makers
If the people running these programs don't know that they're exploitative, they're telling themselves very complex stories as to why they're not. In 99% of cases, an MA in Cinema Studies, or English, or "Liberal Arts" does nothing for your job prospects. It only gives you debt.
Read 11 tweets
17 Jun
Steve (the dog) loves every human he encounters.

Except the speed walker.
Earlier this year Steve was fetching the ball in the field where people go to throw the ball for their dogs. The speedwalker was cutting across the field, and Steve ran up to her to give her his ball.

She yelled at him and started windmilling her arms.
(Caveat that I know some people are scared of dogs who are off-leash, but this is a known dog-ball-throw field, and she was cutting across it)
Read 4 tweets
16 Jun
Slack's Remote Employee Experience Index has been surveying 10k+ employees in 6 countries over the course of the pandemic; tons of really interesting insights — like the fact that 21% are currently looking for a new job:

futureforum.com/pulse-survey/
93% of employees want freedom to set their own schedule/a non-linear workday:

futureforum.com/wp-content/upl…
Asian, Black, and Hispanic workers have higher senses of belonging when working remotely (and v. high percentages want flexible working futures) Image
Read 4 tweets

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