$250,000 in student debt after 13 years...

[freeloader]

The woman in the original story has certainly dug herself into a deep hole.  I suppose I can understand her impulse to get the PhD and maybe she's getting a good deal with one of those PhD stipends, etc. but even then. she's only delaying her debt repayment.  The only thing that I can imagine that might help is 
Public Service Loan Forgiveness | Federal Student Aid

Given that public health is her area of study, this is probably the best option she has.

Except, her PhD will be in English: 

“Janell Tryon is a PhD student in English with a concentration in American Studies, studying concepts of home and homelessness. She plans on tracing the racist and xenophobic history of housing policy and mining contemporary American literature for examples of resisting state confinement and shelter. She spends her free time trying to keep her sourdough starter alive and biking.”

https://www.umass.edu/english/graduate-students-english

I can only be so critical.  I almost completed a PhD in history, which has similar marketability to an English PhD.  Money has never been a huge driver for me, which partly explains why I initially studied business and economic history rather than business and economics. Clearly, money doesn’t seem to be her prime driver. No issue with that. 

That said, I managed to get through 4 years of undergrad and 10 years of grad school with around $12,000 in student loans. In part, that was because of my understanding that, if I finished my PhD and got the “dream job” as a tenure-track assistant professor of history, I was going to be making in the $40-60k range, almost certainly, unless I ended up in the Bay Area, NYC, or similar.  It is pretty darn irresponsible to go into that type job with the kind of debt this young woman has.

[Alpha]

The woman in the original story has certainly dug herself into a deep hole.  I suppose I can understand her impulse to get the PhD and maybe she's getting a good deal with one of those PhD stipends, etc. but even then. she's only delaying her debt repayment.  The only thing that I can imagine that might help is 
Public Service Loan Forgiveness | Federal Student Aid

Given that public health is her area of study, this is probably the best option she has.

Except, her PhD will be in English: 

“Janell Tryon is a PhD student in English with a concentration in American Studies, studying concepts of home and homelessness. She plans on tracing the racist and xenophobic history of housing policy and mining contemporary American literature for examples of resisting state confinement and shelter. She spends her free time trying to keep her sourdough starter alive and biking.”

https://www.umass.edu/english/graduate-students-english

I can only be so critical.  I almost completed a PhD in history, which has similar marketability to an English PhD.  Money has never been a huge driver for me, which partly explains why I initially studied business and economic history rather than business and economics. Clearly, money doesn’t seem to be her prime driver. No issue with that. 

That said, I managed to get through 4 years of undergrad and 10 years of grad school with around $12,000 in student loans. In part, that was because of my understanding that, if I finished my PhD and got the “dream job” as a tenure-track assistant professor of history, I was going to be making in the $40-60k range, almost certainly, unless I ended up in the Bay Area, NYC, or similar.  It is pretty darn irresponsible to go into that type job with the kind of debt this young woman has.

I can't really be critical but I'm really not willing to be too sympathetic either.  To have all that debt and then enter a doctoral program that is unlikely to result in better employment seems, well maybe I could just use the word "counterproductive."

[bluebooger]

> Sounds like you want people to live with nothing because they have student loans.

I want people to live responsibly

> Netflix is less than $15 a month!

that's $15 month that could be going toward paying off your debt
every little bit adds up

people have to make a choice

I have $15 I can use to pay off part of my debt or I can use it to subscribe to netflix
the responsible thing would be to pay of my debt, but I think I'll subscribe to netflix instead and then tweet about how I had no choice but to sell my eggs

> A landline phone costs more than my monthly AT&T bill for our smartphones.

good for you

[Jonathan Whatley]

It looks like UMass Amherst employs her as an adjunct, which further suggests that her PhD is funded. She has unanimous rave reviews for her work on ratemyprofessors.

UMass Amherst is a large state flagship R1. Cost of living in Amherst, in semirural Western Mass and outside the Boston commuter shed, isn't the worst.

English teaching, while not the hottest field right now, is an inherently high-touch field that will always need human instructors. And the distinctive intersection of graduate training in English and in public health actually might constitute a hot field right now and into the future.

This PhD program for this student doesn't seem like an unreasonable choice.

[LevelUP]

It looks like UMass Amherst employs her as an adjunct, which further suggests that her PhD is funded. She has unanimous rave reviews for her work on ratemyprofessors.

UMass Amherst is a large state flagship R1. Cost of living in Amherst, in semirural Western Mass and outside the Boston commuter shed, isn't the worst.

English teaching, while not the hottest field right now, is an inherently high-touch field that will always need human instructors. And the distinctive intersection of graduate training in English and in public health actually might constitute a hot field right now and into the future.

This PhD program for this student doesn't seem like an unreasonable choice.

The problem is adjuncts don't make much, often only around $3000 per term.

You would make far more money flipping burgers at McD's than being an adjunct teacher.

[Jonathan Whatley]

While she's completing the PhD. Once it's completed, she will have a shot at tenure-track or alternative secure career employment (e.g., director of a college or university writing centre) that she didn't have prior.

[ss20ts]

> Sounds like you want people to live with nothing because they have student loans.

I want people to live responsibly              

> Netflix is less than $15 a month!

that's $15 month that could be going toward paying off your debt                
every little bit adds up

people have to make a choice

I have $15 I can use to pay off part of my debt or I can use it to subscribe to netflix            
the responsible thing would be to pay of my debt, but I think I'll subscribe to netflix instead and then tweet about how I had no choice but to sell my eggs

> A landline phone costs more than my monthly AT&T bill for our smartphones.

good for you

$15 isn't going to make much of a difference in the interest her loans are accumulating. Who said anything about tweeting anything? I mentioned my AT&T smartphone bull because you were rambling on about how people have $1000 phones today. Everyone doesn't. Many people have phones that are paid off and don't have a landline. People need a phone today.

---

The problem is adjuncts don't make much, often only around $3000 per term.

You would make far more money flipping burgers at McD's than being an adjunct teacher.

How would she have time to work at McD's while completing her PhD and her adjunct duties? Being an adjunct gets her experience in the field! McD's doesn't. She also wouldn't be networking there unlike her adjunct position.

[freeloader]

With the proviso, previously noted, that I am not a person who is particularly driven by money...

Assuming good credit and a decent little bit of money for a down payment, banks will typically loan people 3-4 times their annual income to purchase a home. Sometimes you can borrow a little more, but unless you live a pretty frugal lifestyle, borrowing more than that becomes very burdensome.

If this woman finishes her PhD and gets a good to very good job in academia, an $80,000/year starting salary would definitely be on the high end. On that income, she could potentially borrow money sufficient to buy a home roughly equal to the amount of money show owes for her student loans IF SHE DIDN'T HAVE THE STUDENT LOANS. Put a different way, this woman likely has made the choice (whether intentionally or unintentionally isn't really consequential) to never own a home. She is also going to be burdened with this debt, in all likelihood, for the rest of her life.

Realistically, the only way that would change would involve some combination of 1) inheriting money, 2) marrying into money, 3) debt forgiveness, and/or 4) living a lifestyle that the vast majority of people are simply unwilling to live. Barring one of these, there's a good chance she will die with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of student loan debt.

I actually feel for her. She has made some decisions that people may question financially, but objectively, she hasn't done anything "wrong". Given that she did her undergrad at NYU, she almost certainly is smart and did well in high school. She has done well enough subsequently to get into an MPH program and into a pretty good PhD program, seemingly with funding. I am a parent, if one of my kids follows a similar trajectory from an academic standpoint (if not necessarily a financial standpoint), I would be exceedingly proud of them.