i personally donāt think itās unethical to go to grad school ā ultimately itās exploiting the student in many ways: financially, via TA labor, and in getting to boast student achievements.
this is a US perspective but as someone who went to school in one of the states banning a bunch of topics and defunding DEI programs etc i will say the laws banning academic topics are a huge issue right now and incredibly disruptive to experience, mentally and especially academically because profs canāt teach certain topics or start to just leave the state bc of it.
iām considering grad school as well but as my academic work is centered around gender, queerness, social movements, a huge part of it for me would be working out in what states could i have a realistic chance of actually being able to do that work, given the increasing censorship of those subjects in many places?
and this is not even to mention student loans nor all of the repression of studentsā right to protest even in states without academic censorship laws!
tl;dr? i feel for us prospective grad students, itās more of an issue of what are we willing to put up with for an advanced degree rather than is it unethical to partake in higher ed again.
May 17, 2024
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but rather from a purely pragmatic viewpoint of asking yourself whether this is something that would benefit you and if you could use the credentials networking opportunities and experience you would gain in pursuing graduate education to serve others. And just weighing that against other ways you could gain knowledge experience and perspective outside of an academic institution. Just the opinion of an autodidactā¦
May 17, 2024
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what school? What degree program? how is it being funded? why do you want to go to grad school - professional reasons? Do you want to enter academia?Ā
donāt pay an institution whose investment portfolio you have serious ethical qualms with for a masterās degree - but you probably know that. Ideally you go somewhere where you get a TA or RA-ship and your tuition waived and where graduate student workers are unionized. Having done the PhD app process this past cycle, it involves a lot of cost benefit analysis, self interrogation, and vulnerability - keep stewing on the tension.
Somewhat related, breakdown of Columbiaās finances from earlier this month by Adam Tooze. Maybe a good reminder know that the academyās labor can audit the system?Ā
May 17, 2024
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I never wanted to go to grad school either but I decided to get my mba and countless career advancement opportunities have come my way as a result.
a huge component for that was the affordability of the program I enrolled in, so please dont go into crazy debt for this degree unless youre confident the career earnings will outweigh the effort it will take to pay off that debt.
Also understand you will be incredibly broke during this grad program unless youāre already making good money or have a decent savings to fall back on. thats part of the commitment.
Overall I am in support of pursuing higher ed, but only if the economics are safe and youre ready to grind.
Mar 17, 2025
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being traditionally cool is really quite boring and iterative, and itās actually very cool and sexy to geek out about something you like or share bits of knowledge on a topic youāre passionate about
Aug 17, 2024
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i had it for a little over a year until i was like wow this is actually terrible! i genuinely think it has negatively impacted society by ruining peopleās attention spans, having a horrific algorithm, and most of all by the most mind-numbing or outright harmful trends -
fake words that people now use IRL (āunaliveā), trad wife tiktok, shein hauls, body-focused fitness vids that encourage fatphobia and unhealthy habits, shallow political/feminist theory and queer discourse, āalpha maleā podcaster tiktok, encouraging overconsumption in general, trends ruining local spots or niche thingsā¦ the list goes on
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a million times cooler than the lackluster āsleekā tech color palette used today
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