Yeah, but this is like saying that your career plan is to play in a rock band and buy lottery tickets. It realistically only works if your family is rich enough to support you on the off chance you make it big. How many MFAs from NYU or Julliard grads actually become the next Robin Williams, Val Kilmer, or Adam Driver?
That's like saying how many business school grads become the next Steve Jobs, Doug McMillan, or Jeff Bezos. Those folks aren't the middle third vast majority of professionals who make up the industry- they're the top .001%.
There are plenty of MFAs from NYU and Juilliard making upper middle class money. I'd argue that most are, and it is the normal place for the graduates of those programs to fall.
https://bobbyblackhat.com/about
Here's an interesting case study about a guy with a liberal arts degree- retired O-5 Coast Guardsman, making more money as a blues musician than he was when he was on AD. He's just a local/regional musician who is good at his craft. One of the many professionals.
The guy who runs the various open mic nights and open jams in and around Kalamazoo has a degree in Music from Western Michigan University, and he make enough to support his family, live in a nice middle class neighborhood, etc... and he's not the only musician living that way here.
I have friends who make middle class money doing voiceovers and voice acting, working commercials, acting in regional theater and national tours. The starving artist is starving because they aren't out applying themselves, they're waiting for someone to come to them, or they're just bad at it.
If you're bad at engineering, you're not going to get/keep a job or make a lot of money. If you're a bad actor or musician the same is true.
More specifically, how many people who don't come from wealth can afford these degrees in the first place? It's easy to wait for your break after graduation if Mommy and Daddy can pay for the apartment in New York City.
I think that is a narrowminded view of who you think is in the humanities- that's pretty generalist and insulting as most folks in the field don't fit that description.
And that metric applies to anyone in any career field.
You're much more likely as a first-generation college grad to succeed by getting a state school degree in something like mechanical engineering or computer science, and trying to suck up every scholarship and grant you can get your hands on before going into debt.
Again, this metric applies to all programs. That degree in english, or creative writing, with a teaching certificate is definitely a way for upward mobility.
And you seem to be neglecting those folks who don't like or want or aren't good at CS or ME.
I would never tell someone who showed little to no talent in acting, or music, or art, or design, to go to a school to get a degree in those fields if they expected to get a job in them
if they could even complete the program.
