The Masters Trap

[Stanislav]

I have no sympathy. Just knowing the demographics of these types of schools, most of these students are not from vulnerable populations. They're applying to PhD programs at Ivy Plus schools; these schools didn't go out and find them. I'm sure they are aware of funded PhD programs, and they probably applied to a funded program at University of Chicago. If you can't get into your school of choice, apply somewhere else. They were so desperate to get into one of their dream schools, they took on $60k in debt.

I have all the sympathy. These are very anxious young people who spent all their adult life getting good grades in humanities programs. This is a bubble that does not resemble real world, and Masters programs like MAPH prey precisely on that particular mindset. It's just like a for-profit school charging a poor person $30K for Pharmacy Assistant diploma. Despicable.