[Have you seen this? Essay service scams.]

As said, I was not questioning the ethics of why anyone was offering money for someone else to do their homework for them. As far as I'm concerned, their laziness should have resulted in my being paid for rendering of writing services. I personally would not stoop to the point of paying for a research paper myself, but people make money off the laziness of others on a regular basis. I feel those with money to throw around who hire house cleaners are lazy; you can't run a vacuum or dust a table? But hey, if someone wants to be lazy, they know they can just pay someone to complete the tasks they don't want to do.

And if a student chooses to have someone else get their degree for them - and is willing to pay more money on top of tuition - that's their choice. If they don't get caught, it will just instill the belief in them that they can buy their way to success and will be essentially invincible...and they are very likely to learn things the hard way eventually: that they cannot buy their way out of every little problem.

Maybe it's wrong and maybe it's not. As far as I'm concerned, someone who can't be arsed to write their own papers is only harming themselves, but it's still their choice. Kind of like if I were a cashier at McDonald's and a 700-pound person comes in and gets ten cheeseburgers for themselves. Am I going to judge them and refuse them service because I feel the decision they're making is wrong and potentially harmful? To their face, no...they will pay for things they want, so they will receive the things they want from someone, even if it's not myself. I'm sure this customer, much like a student who buys a research paper, knows the risks involved. But as I said before, since I was not paid, I no longer work for that site. This is something I do with anyone I do any work for....you don't pay me money I was told I'd get, I don't continue to do work for you. Period.

[Non-Academic Jobs: resume and general advice?]

I have minimal work experience myself - mostly freelance work, and one "real" job which I will not list on any resume. Why? My last employer was a scammy call center that I refuse to let anyone know I was associated with. And I think if you're applying to something not in your field of study, consider leaving off the master's degree. If I finish the shit I'm doing and need to work retail or fast food, I will not include my degrees on my resume because I don't want to be told I'm overqualified and that some schmuck with a seventh-grade education needs the job more than I do.

I don't think it's so much employers will worry that you'll jump ship on them as much as they will see you as being too expensive due to your degrees. One of many reasons I was fired from the aforesaid scammy job was because I needed time off to go to class and finish the huge assignment I was given with a short deadline. They weren't interested in someone whose butt would not be in their seat eight hours a day making them money for minimum wage. So if you're going to apply somewhere that looks favorably upon an educated person, then sure, list your degrees and publications and all similar goodies. But if you're looking to stock shelves at Wal-Mart? Yeah, leave off anything beyond a bachelor's degree.

This is just in my own experience.

[Class crushes]

I know, that title sounds juvenile, but bear with me here. I feel strange in the sense that I have a crush (hate this word) on a classmate of mine, mostly because I don't even know him that well and because what I do know of him seems so opposite of anything about me. Frankly, I don't even know how the heck I even have the mental capacity to feel anything but exhaustion during class, and why my mind has chosen to keep my sights on this fellow is way beyond me...at least 10 years older than me, not single, lives several states away. When I spell it out like that, I don't even understand it, but my mind is kind of doing it's own thing, it seems.

I'm not concerned - I tend to get fleeting, superficial crushes like this from time to time (had maybe five in undergrad alone) that disappear almost as oddly as they appear, but geez I want to kick myself in the head for even envisioning my classmate in any sense besides professional. I seem to have some kind of weird intuitive sense as far as crushes, in that I can feel immediate attraction to someone without knowing anything about them, we become friends, and after a while of knowing one another in the platonic sense, the guy will confess feelings for me. Very weird. But thankfully, there seems to be no desire from him to become more than just classmates who make idle chit-chat now and again, as opposed to folks whom I consider to be genuine friends in my class.

The larger part of me is glad things are as they are now, but there's that one little nagging part telling me there is something special about this man I want to find out more about (and also being discontented that that intuitive feeling is wrong for the first time). Any psych majors here who need a subject? Like I said, I know this will pass and I will in no way pursue anything, but damn it's going to bug me for a while, in part because I don't even know why I'm feeling like this.

Not sure where I'm going with this topic...I guess if anyone wants to share similar stories of love in class? Two weeks of cramming and minimal sleeping has made me a little loopy and I'm not sure I know what I'm talking about.

[Have you seen this? Essay service scams.]

I worked very briefly for a site like this that specialized in hiring freelance writers to compose all manner of college-level writing, from simple research papers to dissertations. Some folks offered several thousand dollars for doctorate-level dissertations. I wrote a paper for someone(short, maybe 3 pages with bibliography) and was never paid for it despite putting many bugs in the admins' ears, so I never went back. It's not my place to judge folks who need such services, but I'll be damned if I'm doing charity work for a student when I have my own crap to do. But such services can be used to get around Copyscape too (I think).

[how old are you?]

I'm going to be 24 in a few days, and I graduated from undergrad in 2009...and I definitely feel like a youngin' in my program among all the 30-somethings, 40-somethings, and 60-somethings who make up the rest of my class (as in all grade levels).

[Coffee! How do you get your buzz?]

One of the few things my school does right that I enjoy is they have free coffee in both the art building (where I am a lot) and the social work building. I don't know if the coffee in the latter is for anyone but the social work students, but that sure as hell doesn't stop me from grabbing a cup if I'm near there. They have one of those Keurig coffee makers and I love their French Vanilla coffee. And I need to find out what the other coffee is the school serves since it's actually very, very good.

Other than that, I have a bottle of cheap store-brand coffee (which is horribly bitter) I keep in my room when I don't feel like hiking in 90 degree heat to the school for their caffeine.

Also, if anyone is interested, here's a neat recipe for what is meant to be a cafe-style mocha: 1 tablespoon instant coffee, 1/4 cup creamer (liquid), 3/4 cup milk, and 1 tablespoon chocolate syrup. Heat the milk and creamer together until it reaches desired warmth and pour it in a mug over the coffee. Stir in the syrup. That's it - it's pretty good too.

[Things you hate about your school]

Well, I didn't intend for this topic to turn into another armchair psychologist/me-bashing topic...I was part gripingabout my own situation and part asking people what they don't like about their program or school. Which I think is a legitimate question.

The way I see my situation is kind of like how parents arrange their children's marriage sometimes (maybe not so much in America)...they do what they think is best for their kids (which may or may not actually BE the best) and force them to follow that choice. It might be a lousy choice and a useless one, but if you refuse, they just push and scream and do everything in their power to make you do things their way until it just simply is easier on your sanity to do things their way and get it over with. Personally, I have nowhere I can go (yes, I did check...no shelters within driving distance, no friends with space), no job, no money, no way to get on welfare for a short time to get on my feet. Basically, I got nothing, and it seems one of the requirements for living at home is to go to grad school. IMHO, those who feel it's just as easy as "get up and leave" have never ever dealt with abusive, controlling parents - it's far easier said than done. The more I fight, the worse I feel...because putting up a fight simply prolongs the abuse since, in the end, the result is the same as it would be if I just did what I was told. So yeah....pointless to try and live my own life at this particular moment in time.

But anyway, I will just have to assume that every single person in the world has a picture-perfect grad school with absolutely no problems whatsoever and no one has anything bad to say about it...not even about the workload, class time, tuition costs, writing a thesis, etc. I'm sure.

Even the director of my program said that a master's degree is not necessary to find a job in art...I may tell that to my mother. Not that it'd make a difference since she's right about everything (or so she thinks), but it's worth a try. Anyway, I think I will be abandoning this topic since people have chosen to focus their comments solely on something unrelated to my original question and I'd prefer to not be the verbal punching bag. I get that enough outside the internet.

[Things you hate about your school]

Well at $150 an hour (since they aren't "regular" professors at this school - just there to teach certain classes once a year), then yeah, I'd say they are. I can't think of any college that would discourage someone who is enrolled from staying there, honestly. Once they've got their claws in you, they want you to graduate so they can get their money's worth out of you. If one person out of a thousand goes on to get a good career, then hooray - reputation points for the school. The other 999 who end up working at Blockbuster and McDonald's? Ehh, who cares - the school got its money and that's all that matters. That goes for pretty much any program, be it undergrad, master's or doctorate.

[Things you hate about your school]

My mother has always believed that college degree = $100K. Doesn't matter what kind of degree or what field. She believes this because her coworker's daughter went to college for something or another and earns a six-figure income. Well, since I didn't get the coveted hundred-thousand dollar job a year or two out of undergrad, she decided it was for my own good to go and get my master's degree in art. Knowing full well I don't want to teach (thankfully she doesn't pressure me to do that). What she fails to realize is that if I list my degree (and possibly degreeS) on any joe schmoe job application, I will most likely be overqualified.

Oh, thought of another thing I hate: Saturday classes. That's more of a minor peeve just because I like sleeping in on Saturdays if I can. And travel costs for the semesters where I need to go to here or there, shell out for hotels and food on top of the damn tuition. Since I'm totally just made of money like everyone else in the program. :rolleyes:I do like one thing about the school...free coffee in the art building (and it's very good). That's about the only redeeming quality. Even the professors who I've told I am enrolled against my better judgment try to encourage me to stay (yeah - greedy pigs want their $$$).

[Things you hate about your school]

Nope, did not know how long it'd take until after I got here. I was under the impression I could get this crap over with in a year, maybe a year and a half. I also didn't think it'd be as expensive as it is. And I don't get the financial aid nonsense either. I went through Direct Loans and I filled out a FAFSA, and the school said they got all that information...they just wouldn't give me the $20K loan I was eligible for, for some reason. As far as grades, I guess I was under the impression that I just had to pass - granted, I have never gotten lower than a C in college (got 2 C's in some very hard classes the whole time I was in undergrad), but I guess it's annoying that I am being held to such a high standard - I can't get a B- or a C+ and still pass. I think that's a bit over the top for any major where neither lives nor other people's finances are on the line.

And the program is just laid out so very specifically (since it's a bit specialized as far as art) that if you skip something, you're going to just screw everything up. I don't know if you'd have to start over or wait a whole year if, say, you wanted to take off only one or two semesters. And yeah, I dislike this place more than I like it, especially since I feel an MFA in art is pretty worthless unless you intend to teach college (which I do not).

Oh, and another gripe: the health center and counseling office are both closed during the summer, which is the only semester my class is on campus. So if you need some peroxide for a scratch or you want to talk to someone, you have to fend for yourself. The school is just overall laid out in a very confusing way, the workload is much too large and you just cannot be expected to work and do this (just TRY getting a new job when in grad school - no one will hire you), it's much too expensive, the instructors are very vague about what they want (they will say "have sketches done for next semester" when they really mean "we want the final versions, but they aren't actually due until next year" and they will mark your grade down accordingly for not being able to read their minds)...it's just little more than a great big headache. Heck, one of the instructors is proud of the fact he made someone cry in his class because his critique was so harsh.

But I'm stuck here, and since I'll be half done with the program by the end of next week, I guess I'll just try and stick it out. If my mother goes senile or dies before then, I will be able to drop out since she's the one making me go so I can get the fantasy $100,000 job she thinks I'll get with a master's degree. Too bad I couldn't sell my degree - I totally would sell this one if I get it and my undergrad degree.

[Things you hate about your school]

My school definitely has its share of things for me to be annoyed about. These include:

- Takes three years to get a MFA (seniors say we have to take on a doctorate-level workload for a master's degree)

- Financial aid office ignores all loan applications because they expect you to fill out their special little form (I was eligible for $20K in loans, but the school would not give it because it was a federal loan. Meaning you can only get private loans here)

- Amount of work. Program claims to be for working professionals, but I hardly got everything done and I don't even have a job.

- People who are not only master's upperclassmen, but who have real jobs in art who make mediocre final projects. How can these people have such crappy skills and get hired? I hate to sound arrogant, but I know my skills surpass some of my classmates' skills, so why don't I have a job?

- Just a rumor...due to working people being unable to meet deadlines, the school is allegedly not letting anyone who works full-time enroll. This does not effect me, but it seems unfair.

- Cost in general. $4700 per semester and $500 for two weeks of food?

- Worthless classes like art history. Methinks this is just the school's way of squeezing a few more thousands of dollars out of everyone each year.

- Need to have an average grade of at least a B in each course.

- My major is set up in such a way that you cannot quit and come back.

I know a lot of those are money issues, but hey, I don't have any money whatsoever. And when I can't get a loan, it becomes a big deal. What about you? What goes on at your school that you hate?

[What to do with MFA in a small town]

It's just every single professional artist I have ever spoken to or heard a lecture from has said they HAVE to teach in order to supplement their income enough to live. Like one lady I listened to had a degree in medical illustration and she illustrates children's books now, which is pretty much the single easiest thing for an artist to do. The thing is I don't know if anyone would ever hire me to illustrate a children's book, for many reasons: one, I have a very odd sense of humor and I often draw very naughty, dark, strange or gory things. Two, I have had work published for some not-so-kid-friendly books. Three, I think I would not be able to put my heart and soul into it like some other artists. I have to do storyboards for a children's book for school and I begrudgingly designed characters and backgrounds because the story was so stupid.

Maybe when I'm homeless, I can use my degrees to line my coat or start a fire in a barrel. I think that's true of many people with art degrees. I'm not being a pessimist - just a realist. Maybe I should go to community college and get a practical degree - if I do another undergrad, I might be able to get enough grants again to cover most of the tuition. No job, not independent, mother is divorced, father was a Vietnam veteran, maybe I could fake mental illness (I have been told I might be autistic, so who knows)...I could possibly go to community college for free with grants.

It'd help if I were good at...well...anything. I'm mediocre at everything at best. No one wants an average employee, especially in a creative field. I have already resigned myself to the fact that I will never have the job I want because I don't know what job I want. I hate working, for some reason. So I need to find a job I can deal with. No telemarketing - I was on the brink of having ulcers after doing that for about a month.

[I'm unfunded my first year of grad school, any advice...]

I feel a bit slighted myself with my school. They have a gargantuan list of scholarships and grants they have for the graduate students, and I managed to qualify for a small one. Apparently being dirt poor and having good grades is not enough to get more money. Cheapskates - then again, it's a Catholic-based college, so it makes sense to me that they'd be such tight wads. Not only that, but despite the fact I do qualify for $20K in direct loans, the school will not authorize the loan (which is a federal loan). I did not apply anywhere else because this is the only school in the state with the desired major in a master's program. The fun part is I'm beginning my second year and while I'm glad to get that whole $2000, a loan would help since I just do not have $4700 three times a year when I have no job. Time to start learning to make fake money now, I think.

[Business Cards]

I majored in graphic design and I simply included my name, my chosen title of "designer/illustrator", my website and my email. I would never personally include my undergrad school because it's a diploma mill and I know some people will specifically toss out an application based solely on the fact that an applicant attended my school. I was always taught to keep info short and sweet on a business card to keep it from getting too cluttered. Just the basics - who I am, what I do, where my work is and how to contact me. The End. And of course some kind of obligatory artwork.

[Anyone else sometimes feel terribly unsuccessful?]

Nope, I don't sometimes feel unsuccessful....I feel unsuccessful every moment of every day. I feel like a failure when I am struggling with deadlines made to work for people with careers. I feel like a failure when I have a degree in art and can't even get hired to do freelance jobs for two bucks an hour. I feel like a failure when I try my hardest on a piece of artwork and then see someone do art that is worlds better. I feel like a failure reading about fellow grads who are working for places like DreamWorks or have their own design firms. Basically, I feel like a failure because I know I'm a failure, and trying to become otherwise only provides further proof of what I am not capable of doing. Grad school rubs it in my face even more when I get told by "professionals" that my art style is wrong, I can't do something because it doesn't follow their precious little rules, or I have some prick breathing down my neck for three hours because THEY think one line is half a degree off in my figure drawing.

Basically, I try and stick to stuff I'm good at so I'm not depressed 24/7. Sadly, what I'm good at isn't anything practical or useful in a work environment. Oh well - not everyone can be a success in life. Someone's got to be the big mistake to make the successful ones look even better. And I know I'm one of the mistakes.

[Let's compare student debt! How much do you have?]

I hear a lot about taking public service jobs to pay off debts (teaching, I assume). The thing is that those jobs are becoming scarcer as well. In one town alone in my area, 17 teachers are getting laid off. Teachers used to be untouchable as far as being terminated, but now they no longer have that security because everyone's cutting corners to save on costs. Even if for some reason, I did change my mind and decide to teach, there is nowhere around here where I could actually work as a teacher.

Also, I'm just going by what my private loan contract and the conditions under which loan debt can be forgiven told me. One of the ways in which my private loans can be discharged is if my co-signer passes away. That may just be specific to my lender.

[what does your family think?]

My mother is the one who makes me go, so she's thrilled when I don't object and starts with the passive-aggressive guilt trips when I have a nervous breakdown ans say I don't want to go.

I don't get to speak to my other relatives too much due to my mother keeping me from them, but they are happy for me. Seems everyone's happy about it but me (yeah, because they aren't the ones paying for it). Oh well, hopefully it'll grow on me by the time my thesis is due.

[How Lonely is it Out There]

I was honestly too damn tired to be lonely. Right after class was done for the day,I'd go right back to my room and fall asleep. My classmates would go out for drinks, but not only did I have no money, but I also don't drink and I just had no desire to talk to people I had next to nothing in common with. They're all nice, but I had no interest in being their friends and going out with them. I would honestly rather sleep.

Then again, I've always been quite a loner and I don't really have many friends to begin with. I don't know how some of my more active classmates found the energy to go for a swim or a jog after class - being torn apart by finicky, meticulous instructors for 7-8 hours wears you out. I felt lonelier in undergrad when I cried myself to sleep for the first half of my first semester. Grad school? I was happy to watch videos on YouTube with a bottle of Diet Coke while chatting with friends, take a hot bath, and attempt to sleep. I cried a lot too and I still do, but it's not due to being lonely. It's just good stress relief since I don't exercise, smoke, drink, take medications or do recreational drugs.

[How to cope with forced schooling]

I don't really have too many friends who could help because I don't have many friends to begin with. My BF is closest, but he also lives with emotionally and mentally (sometimes physically) abusive parents, so living with him would just be me moving to another abusive environment. Plus, his parents smoke in the house and I don't feel like getting lung cancer for the sake of freedom. He's stuck in a similar situation: deals with abusive people, but too broke and helpless to move out.

I also have to be able to find a place where I could go with my cats, and I refuse to leave them behind, give them up, or abandon them. To some, pets are just animals, but I love my cats far too much to just leave them behind like luggage. So if they can't go, I don't go. This is why I can't live with my friend in the city - his parents have allergies.

And I'm not saying nothing is my fault - I know some things are my fault, but some things are also not. What I'm saying is that I cannot envision success - I understand being poor and nervous. It's just I don't have any stepping stones to get me going and it seems any time I get one - like money - it gets taken away. If I take even one step forward, I fall back two more steps because something goes awry. It's not like 15 or 20 years ago when someone could move out, get a job, and live on their own with a bit more ease. It's not like that anymore. And

In any case, I may have to just stop responding to this topic. I appreciate everyone taking the time to respond, and if I can use any of the advice, I will. But for now, I don't think there is much more I can say. It's so easy to say "get up ad leave," but unless someone has actually been stuck in a similar situation (which I know one or two folks here have), they have no idea how difficult even one step is.

[How to cope with forced schooling]

I did have a job, but I was fired from it for many reasons...one of them being my need to take time off for school. But I was also verbally and mentally abused at that job, so it was not a big loss. I honestly almost hit my boss because I thought I could have a little escape from the abuses I suffer at home. But I got them worse at work on top of my home life and I genuinely wanted to hurt her badly. And I honestly have nothing in savings. All I have right now is maybe fifty dollars and that is going toward homework (need lots of posters printed).

And I have read the advice offered here, and I admit I'm afraid to take it because deep down, I really do feel like nothing will work. I feel deep down anything I do will backfire and just make my life even more miserable when I end up right back here. I feel like any domestic violence shelter would laugh me out the door because I'm not being abused by a spouse. Maybe I'm just so used to the crap I deal with regularly that I have learned how to overall cope with it,and I've learned that my life is simply not mine to live and it never has been. I feel a sense of defeat only because that's all I've experienced - there have been no small victories to encourage me further down the path to freedom. It's all just been a bunch of failures when I step outside the little box people expect me to stay in. Besides, I couldn't live for the rest of my life in a shelter.

Unfortunately, since I live with my mother, there's no way for her to not know how much money I bring in from any job. Believe me, my mother has been poor her whole life. I am poor. Living frugally has never been an issue because we've never had another option. Also,I'm not saying I personally am holding out for a six-figure job - my mother is the one who believes a master's degree will guarantee me a $100,000 job. I just want to be able to afford to live - I couldn't do that at my last job, at which I was making less than $10K annually. And yes, my mother maybe did at one time have my best interests at heart - maybe when I was five and I was prone to doing silly kid things that might harm me. But now she's at a point where she just feels she is right and must reign over me that if I deviate from the plan she's got laid out for me, I will hear about it. I wish for one second she would think about whether or not I actually want to do something...or more importantly, if I can afford to do it to begin with.

She expects me to do everything her way, but if I want something, I either can't have it or I have to endure lots of screaming and sobbing to get it. Like visiting a friend of mine a few hours away. I don't ask for money, don't ask for a ride, nothing. But I literally have to put up a fight and be so stressed out just to do something that in no way inconveniences my mother. And frankly, I am at a point where I am just sick of fighting for myself - I can do it for friends, but not for me. Otherwise, I would be fighting every single moment of every single day for the rest of my life. I can fight, but not that much. I know because I've tried, and eventually I weaken, crumble, and end up defeated. I only feel this way based on what I have been experiencing my entire life: Giving in and fighting yield the same result, but fighting makes it a lot more difficult for me.

Despite all of it, I honestly do find joy in little things, and my friends and significant other keep me going each day. I only hope they will continue to have that effect; I worry one day even my friends won't be enough to make me want to keep on living. I honestly kind of hope one day I go absolutely insane and get admitted to the psych ward. That way, maybe my mother can see just how much she has damaged me and maybe be able to talk to someone about it and they can see I'm not truly insane - just someone who is broken.

[How to cope with forced schooling]

Sadly, I cannot afford to leave home. Even if I did, I guarantee I would just end up right back here because I cannot afford to live, even if I do find a job (which there are none I would be qualified for where I live. Truck drivers, etc.) She doesn't give me money, but I do live with her. I guess that means she can decide where I go to school since I'm not contributing to the rent (I can't with no job anyway).

And I did undergrad at an Art Institute, which has a reputation as a bunch of diploma mills and for churning out ill-educated graduates. I have a LinkedIn account with my work posted...never once have I gotten anything from there. The school I went to is for-profit, meaning they just give good grades to everyone so they can get their money when, in reality, I am, at best, a mediocre artist. I can't even get freelance jobs for two dollars an hour.

If I had no debt and a job and a vehicle, I could probably pack up and leave. But having none of those things, I am stuck. There's not even any available income-based housing because it's all filled with broke people. At the very least, I believe some of my private loans will get forgiven when my mother dies since she's my co-signer. Maybe if she drives me to insanity, I can claim I am too disabled to work and get my loans forgiven like that too. I don't think that's too far out of a possibility.

I can't help but get used to going to school against my will because I have been informed if I don't make six figures with this master's degree, I will need to go back to college for yet another art degree. A higher one. The way I see it, though, if I ever really do feel trapped enough, suicide will always be an available option. I may not be able to make myself do it now, but one day I might just get that depressed.

[The DIRTY BUSINESS of college education]

I think one major thing that has to happen is with society in general, and that is to stop perpetuating the BS belief that everyone deserves a college education. Even people who are stupid or who have no interest in sticking their nose into books beyond high school graduation. Not only that, but the perpetuated belief that a college degree will be your golden ticket to a six-figure job that requires no effort whatsoever. And don't even get me started on the for-profit schools, which is what I went to. They will give even the most worthless, inept students an A to make everyone happy so they can get their money. I went to art school and I saw people who hated drawing graduate with animation degrees. People with no sense of design whatsoever graduate with graphic design degrees. People who got outsmarted by Jiffy corn muffin mix graduate with culinary degrees.

Lenders are just as stupid as students for giving dim-witted eighteen-year-olds private loans for $30K to major in philosophy and expecting to actually get their money repaid. Students can't afford their bills, so they stay unemployed or work under the table like deadbeat parents skirting around child support payments, nobody gets paid, tuition goes up, and everybody gets a little more broke.

Another thing is it seems every single bloody job - no matter how menial - requires a college degree or otherwise some kind of unreal amount of experience. Really, do you need a bachelor's degree to be a truck stop waitress? So basically, I agree that we are all getting screwed. You can't get a job without a college degree, so you go and get one and then you can't pay for it because a million other grads are trying to get the same door-greeter job at Wal-Mart. Massive amounts of defaulted student loan debt will soon become a way of life for many people, so I say let's get used to having wrecked credit, skyrocketing unemployment rates, and national debt we will never ever get out of.

[What to do with MFA in a small town]

The only problem is I haven't much of a way to make that first step. No job, no vehicle, not a cent of money in my checking or savings accounts, no available low-income housing, no one I can stay with whose home will either hold me and my pets or will not be detrimental to my health. Basically, I have nowhere else I could go besides where I am right now. Maybe someday I will have money to pack up and move or be able to afford an apartment (though not likely with my debts), but that day will not be a day in the near future.

But honestly, I would like to reiterate...what can I do with an MFA in illustration when my artistic skill set is mediocre at best? If I was at all good, surely I'd have "made it" by now. I wouldn't get turned down left and right by possible clients. Will a master's degree make me look more impressive to an employer (as in, "You have two degrees, so you are good at seeing something through to the end") or more expensive? ("This person will want too much money, so let's hire a student for an unpaid internship instead.") I have gotten to listen to other folks who have master's degrees in art who are famous, but they also teach because their creative income sucks. How do I do that? What is it I am doing wrong that I can't achieve something similar?

Funny enough, some of the art idols I look up to are all people who were college dropouts who achieved success on their own. I wish that could have been me.

[Let's compare student debt! How much do you have?]

Sadly, I know a lot of college grads are in the same boat as I am...craploads of debt they will never ever be able to pay off paired with rising unemployment rates, so the only chance a person might have at living a semi-normal life is to abandon all debt and leave the country. I'm sure this is a decision that will not be taken lightly by the person making it. Maybe schools should reconsider their tuition costs, or how much students are allowed to borrow. Sometimes you dig yourself into an inescapable hole of debt and the only way out is to run rather than pay. Sorry to the folks who have to pick up the slack, but when it's a matter of "I can't pay my debts AND my bills AND my rent," you have to let something suffer. I've also heard that sometimes, lender will be willing to settle...like if you owe $80K and you can come up with a lump sum of $30K, they'll forgive the rest. I have also heard that if loans are not repaid in full by the time 30 years have passed, the remainder gets forgiven. If this is true, I may be debt-free by the time I am in my mid-fifties.

I'm only being a realist. Let's face it - a lot of people get useless degrees or educations from lousy schools because they were dumb teenagers who went to the first school that accepted them. Yes, we made mistakes. No, some mistakes cannot be fixed. So does that mean those of us who made such mistakes are obligated to live forever in poverty, with ruined credit and unable to rent an apartment, get a credit card, buy a vehicle, or do anything that requires stellar credit? Perhaps those diplomas with the five-figure price tags can be used to line one's clothing when they are homeless, living in a box and eating breadsticks out of an Olive Garden dumpster.

Okay, here's some better advice: Use income-based repayment options if you're broke. I think they take 15 percent of your yearly salary, so if you don't make much or are unemployed, you won't have to pay anything. If the income-based monthly payment is higher than the standard one, then go with the standard one. Or better yet, go to college overseas where foreign students can attend for free. The way I personally see it is if you cannot get debt forgiven and you cannot afford to repay what you owe on top of other living expenses, then trick the system as a last resort if it means being able to have a roof over your head and food in your stomach. Sometimes you have to take drastic measures to fix your mistakes.

[Let's compare student debt! How much do you have?]

Right now, I have over $75K from just my bachelor's degree (from a substandard diploma mill). If I get loans for my master's degree, I will be around the $120K range. In other words, I will never ever be able to pay it off. And Sallie Mae doesn't even care if you're employed or not - I told them I made $1200 in one year and they STILL wanted almost $600 a month. Now how was I supposed to do that? Jerk-offs want as much money as fast as possible and they do not care even a little bit how broke you are.

And you can bet your last nickel I'm trying to find ways to get out of paying for it because that undergrad degree was not worth it whatsoever. I'm waiting to see if the alleged class-action lawsuit against my last college ever happens because I will absolutely be part of it. Otherwise, I may have to move out of the country when I can't afford the collective monthly debts from two colleges. Or injure myself in such a way that I am too disabled to do the work I was taught to do.

A word of advice: If you need a loan co-signer, have it be someone who will die soon after you leave college. I'm totally serious - private loans often require a co-signer and if that co-signer dies in repayment, those loans will get forgiven. So if great aunt Gertrude has terminal cancer when you go to school, be really nice to her and get her to sign. Sadly, there is now a statement in any student loan contract saying that loans cannot be forgiven if you get a piss-poor education.