You hear that?

It’s the sounds of millions of college girls everywhere clamoring to get their transfer papers in. Because James Franco is going to be teaching a course at Columbia College in the fall. And that’s not the best part. The best part is the course he’ll be teaching…

“Master Class: Editing James Franco… with James Franco.”

According to the PopEater Columbia College Hollywood will give 12 of its best editing students the chance to create a 30 minute documentary from footage of Franco’s career. Franco won’t actually be there every day, the course will be run by Franco’s collaborator and editor, Tyler Danna, but he will speak to the class weekly, via Skype.

Let’s just take a moment to digest that.

The man is teaching a college class. About himself. On Skype.

Sure you could say that no one else will know the material quite as well as Franco, but really man? Who actually says, I want to teach a class….about me? This is taking celebrity egos to an entirely different level. This is ridiculous. This is ludicrous. This is unacceptable. This is…fabulous. Read More »

Last week, I wrote about choosing a school. This week, I get a little more specific: choosing a program. This might seem like a no-brainer; I mean, you’re probably not going to attempt an MFA in Puppetry if you just spent four years studying Atmospheric Science, right? Well… you never know. Afterall, Elle Woods went to Law School after majoring in Fashion Merchandising or something. Besides, I can tell you from experience that even if you think you know what you’re applying for, you better double-check.

Case in point: In college, I majored in English, and I was one class shy of earning a film minor. My final semester of college, no film classes that would fulfill my final requirement were offered, and even though I had taken film classes that weren’t part of the minor’s plan of study, they wouldn’t give me the “Film Studies Minor” title unless I took a class that wasn’t freakin’ available. I still get riled up about that, as you can see.

Anyway, I was seeking a Masters degree in English, though I really enjoyed Film Studies as well. Now, when you apply for a grad school program, you might have to choose a field within the realm of your chosen subject. For example, many English programs divide their grad students into Rhet/Comp or Lit majors; my friend is currently getting a PhD in Psychology, but her specialization is Early Childhood Development. So while you may earn a degree in a broad major like Politics, Journalism, or Philosophy, you may have to narrow it down to a specific topic when you apply to grad schools. Read More »

It’s difficult enough entering into the real world without having to worry about paying back thousands upon thousands of dollars in student loans in the years after we graduate. It’s best to think of that money as an investment more than an evil, insurmountable debt that is going to be attached to our backs for years. But there are some options to lessen that weight in the forms of loan forgiveness.

If you aren’t familiar with the process, loan forgiveness is the cancellation of all or part of your student loans if you decide to go into certain charitable fields for a certain amount of time. Below is a list of some areas that offer loan forgiveness, but it’s not comprehensive. In fact, if you go into some sort of public service upon graduation, it wouldn’t hurt to consult the Human Resources department to see if your job qualifies for the program. Also, the military offers numerous loan repayment programs.

Volunteering

Americorps A year of service gets you up to a $7400 stipend and around $4500 to use against a loan.

Peace Corps Volunteers can get a loan deferment and up to 70% loan cancellation. Read More »

Right now I’m inclined to try to persuade you to avoid going to graduate school in the liberal arts if you can. I want to implore you to avoid spending all that money to write papers upon papers about 16th century printing techniques and the subaltern in post colonial Jamaica. What are you going to do with all of this knowledge? Teach? You could do that with your bachelor’s. Yeah, you’ll get more money with a Masters or Doctorate, but what is money, really? Can it buy back your sanity?

Also, apparently, going to grad school is the first step on the road to divorce.

That being said, you really shouldn’t listen to me, because my beseeching you to invoke the Rosie the Riveter within and strike out into the real world comes from my own frustration as a master’s student in the liberal arts. As I write this, I’ve been waiting two weeks for my adviser to email me back about the teaching assistantship that would pay my tuition. Everyday that she doesn’t write me back is another day that I am closer to having to take out another exorbitant loan. This is one of the many such hassles a grad student has to deal with in addition to the mountainous pile of intensely boring papers. Read More »