The Only Official Thread of the Weekend! WDT 4/8/11

Maybe not hottest, but Best Royal

 

Fuck this paper, I need beer.

 

So, really dumb idea probably, but lately I've been considering going back to school and getting an MFA.

I think I can get into a good program, and the one I've been looking at closest (George Mason) would probably give me full tuition plus $10-13k a year as a graduate teaching assistant. It would also let me put my law school loans on hold at the time, so there's that.

The two main reasons I want to go are to improve my writing and career prospects. I did several creative writing classes in undergrad, and the seminars were really great. Nowhere else do you get that level of quality feedback. And as for career prospects, I'd really like to get a job teaching creative non-fiction.

As someone who routinely discourages others from going back for more school, I'd feel like an idiot not asking for feedback from anyone who has gone into an MFA program or has tried to get a full time or adjunct teaching position.

 

So you're continually frustrated that your post-graduate degree hasn't provided the career returns that you expected. Solution? Get another post-graduate degree that is well-known to have very low career returns.

Every person who has been through or taught an MFA program that I have heard of has suggested that it's a degree that is truly worthwhile for a very low percentage of entrants. And lord knows there's no competition for academic teaching jobs, right? I mean, it's not like the current supply greatly exceeds the demand there...right?


I respect writers as much as the next guy. Perhaps more. But saying that you're getting an MFA to improve your career prospects is like saying that you're masturbating to improve your sex life.

 

The world needs ditch diggers, too!
--Judge Elihu Smails

 

7 Fucking hours of working on the take home portion of my Macro Theory midterm. This is on top of about 8-9 hours yesterday, and I'm still not fucking done. One question is still blank because I have no clue what to do. Luckily it's not due until 4pm tomorrow, so hopefully I have a stroke of insight or find a way to bullshit around the problem before then.

In the meantime, it's time for a couple of glasses of Speyburn on the rocks. For those of you who like scotch and aren't into blowing a shitload of money, I highly recommend this stuff. About $20 for a 750ml bottle, which is pretty great as far as price goes, but I'll be damned if it isn't smoother than Johnny Red, which is comparable in terms of price.

 

The specific career prospect I had in mind was teaching creative non-fiction. If I was trying to improve my career in procurement, yeah, obviously stupid. But, a terminal degree in the area you want to teach in doesn't seem outrageously bad. I know it's a tough gig to get, but is there a better path to it?

 

I would only consider getting an MFA if I were able to get paid to get it, which is actually pretty likely.
But aside from that, if only I didn't care about what I was interested in, becoming a mechanic or electrician would be great.

 

I think you really ought to talk to some people in MFA programs. I think you don't fully grasp how bad the career prospects are, particularly if you are aiming for a real, somewhat comfortable career rather than spending the next five years after graduation destitute while writing the Next Great American Novel.


Do you want to write, or do you need to write? Do you like to write, or do you love to write? From my admittedly secondhand experience, the MFA path is a hell of a beating to take if you aren't truly, deeply passionate about writing. Sure, it's the 'right' path to the gig you want. But the competition for that gig is ridiculously hard.

If you're determined to head down that path, it might be the best route. But realize you're undertaking something that is almost like a multi-year lottery ticket.

 

If you'd get paid to do it, then do it.
You want to make your living writing/teaching? Either go do that and start making money now (odds are a bit low on you rolling in dough immediately), or take the MFA program, get paid to teach a bit, keep writing, get tips on how to write better, and build up some experience writing both for your graduate program and Constitutional Daily.

PM me, I know a person (MFA grad and college professor) who *might* be willing to give you some advice. Seriously, I'll have to email him and see if he'd be up for that, but I'm willing to do so.

 

I almost failed to graduate from law school because I didn't do my academic writing credit. I got a prof to sign off on it anyways though. Instead of doing that, I wrote a novel. It absolutely sucked, as every first novel ought to, but writing is the only thing I've ever really been passionate about. I was my high school class poet, managing editor of my college's literary magazine, wrote lit reviews for my law school paper, I don't think this is a passing interesting. The question is the actual value of an MFA.

 

What are your plans if you don't do it?

 

Try to sell advertising on my site and write a book or two and hope that brings in some money. Stuff I would continue doing in an MFA program. But, teaching looks like a more stable career path if I can get it, and my thought process is that an MFA would be really useful for that.

 

It sounds like you already know what you want to do. The MFA would allow you to continue doing what you love, while giving you skills to make doing that better, and giving you a decent backup if the writing doesn't pay off for a while.

 

I'm watching "River Monsters" for the first time. The content itself is fascinating, but what really gets me is the host. I'm drooling over a man older than my father, and I'm almost certain it's because of his British accent (and perhaps his super nerdiness). What is it about certain accents that make men so sexy, regardless of age?

 

Then I say do it. Your writing will probably improve, you can use the network their to make industry contacts, and you will have attractive 18 year olds asking: Is there anything....anything I can do to improve my grade?

If you can get paid to do so there isn't a good reason not to if those are your plans, in my opinion.

My basic thought is what have you got to lose?