Ok, I get it as it applies to people who aspire to an academic career. But people go to grad school, learn stuff, and work in or out of their field beyond the campus.

My Masters brings me no appreciable income, and I still think earning it was one of the most valuable things I did for the life of my mind.

Some professors tell students to go to graduate school "only if you can't imagine doing anything else".

That's exactly what an English professor told me when I asked him about it. I could imagine doing plenty else, so that was that.

My sister-in-law has two doctorates and, at age 50, still lives with her parents.

Their daughter goes to graduate school, earns a doctorate in comparative literature from an Ivy League university, everyone is proud of her, and then they are shocked when she struggles for years to earn more than the minimum wage. (Meanwhile, her brother—who was never very good at school—makes a decent living fixing HVAC systems with a six-month certificate from a for-profit school near the Interstate.)

Not to mention, her brother is ultimately more useful.

Why not earn the doctorate then go to HVAC school when the academic career doesn't pan out? Nobody is going to take away your degrees for earning a decent living however you go about it.

I would have really liked to pursue a master's in folklore, and could have made real use of it in a career in public arts, museum work (which I do right now anyway), or other cultural institutions. Since I'm self-supporting,I could never find a formula that would allow me to go to one of the programs I really coveted, once I figured out that was what I truly wanted to do. I don't think there's a damn thing wrong with the 'life of the mind' - I'd love to be able to do it. I wouldn't be doing it because I think it's a fabulous career path - but hell, neither is the one I chose. Jobs at the leadership level in my field are thin on the ground anyway. A master's would only help.

I will end up getting a master's, because I can't continue to advance without it- but it will be in a field that's related to, but not exactly, the one I really wanted to study.

For a lot of that, I just blame myself. It took me forever to figure out what I wanted to be when I grew up - and by the time I did, I had so many bills and obligations, and so little income, that I couldn't go off to school on a shoestring as I might have when I was 22.

I don't think there's a "big lie" or that the life of the miind isn't worthwhile. It is. I DO think there are a lot of students out there with unrealistic expectations. And I also think that the academy really is delivering education on a lower budget - it mirrors what's happened in the workplace, where no employer is going to commit to keeping someone on the payroll til retirement, and then give them a pension and a gold watch. Adjunct and non-tenure positions are the academic equivalent of the at-will workplace.

My Masters brings me no appreciable income, and I still think earning it was one of the most valuable things I did for the life of my mind.

This says it for me. I am resigned to the likelihood (okay, the certainty) that I will never earn even as much in academics as I did in retail, but I balance the financial reward against other factors. I was going to spend my life struggling financially, one way or another; this way, at least I'm doing something I love and something I'm good at!

That's exactly what [a German Lit] professor told me when I asked [her] about it. I could imagine doing plenty else, so...

I enlisted in the US Marine Corps.

The Life of the Mind would be very attractive to me, were it not for that pest in Florida who keeps demanding $950 every month for the studio apartment where I hang my hat.

It reminds of what my novelist friend told me were the requirements for being a writer:
1) Talent
2) No other options

I'm very happy that I got my master's degree and it's been good for my career but a Phd would have taken up another five years of my life and gotten me the same job that I get now. Many of the people that I know with Phd's in computer science are doing the exact same work that I am.

It reminds of what my novelist friend told me were the requirements for being a writer:
1) Talent
2) No other options

Hey, I have one of those! Now, where do I get the talent?

Thomas H. Benton is the pen name of William Pannapacker

I would've expected it to be the other way around. But then, I used Wendell Wittler as a Pen/Stage/Radio/Blog name for more than half my adult life.