"You'll see me as a whole person when you address me as 'doctor' and see me as the smartest person in the room."

And then everyone will clap.

Her event planning skills will come in hand when she is running a church.

I know a girl who racked up over $100k (maybe over $200k) in loans for a teaching certificate. That never gets paid off. She was really there to get her Mrs degree, but that also didn't work out.

She is white.

"You'll see me as a whole person when you address me as 'doctor' and see me as the smartest person in the room."

The Jill Biden disease. She probably should never have gone to college in the first place if that's how she thinks.

We've abandoned meritocracy for credentialism. And so many credentialed idiots don't know the difference.

It's no wonder TPTB are full of credentialed idiots who fail at just about everything they attempt. E.g., governing.

One way to be seen as the smartest person in the room is to not live your life like one of the dumbest. Sheesh.

"She also felt a deep need to be recognized as an intellectual."

If you call yourself intelligent, that means you think you're smart. If you call yourself an intellectual, that means you think you're smarter than everyone else. Nobody likes that person.

And by the way, getting an expensive degree will not guarantee that you will become an intellectual.

Among my male friends, if you are some sort of professional, you have the creds, but no one cares about a Ph.D. They don't applaud, or "recognize me as an intellectual". A BS engineer or computer science guy gets the same respect. I am more known in this group for telling stories and jokes than for my (very real) publications.
I know someone who borrowed $100k for a MBA and then went to work for google--so it can pay off. But not for everyone.
About 60% of college students are female. I think this is because more and more men don't see it paying off so they don't go.

$100K (probably more, since that was just the loan amount)...paid to the benefit of Vanderbilt, its officials, administrators, and professors. Did anyone at this university disclose the risks to her? Most unlikely.

People can get in serious trouble for selling *other* kinds of investments without proper disclose of risks. Some types of investments, you can't make at all unless you are an 'accredited investor,' with sufficient income/assets to be able to (supposedly) afford the loss of it doesn't work out.

It is time to pull in the reins on the systemically unethical marketing and sales tactics of America's universities.

$100K (probably more, since that was just the loan amount)...paid to the benefit of Vanderbilt, its officials, administrators, and professors. Did anyone at this university disclose the risks to her? Most unlikely. ~ David Foster at August 22, 2021 1:37 PM

She's studying for the ministry, not exactly a high-paying profession. Common sense says not to saddle yourself with $100,000 in debt for a degree that gives you a job with a low career payout.

She already holds a degree in hospitality management, a degree that should have taught her something about money management. If not the degree, then her event planning experience should have taught her something about budgeting.

Vanderbilt University, or any university, should not have to explain to a grown adult that incurring heavy debt on the way to a low-paying career is insanity. The idea that it is the school's responsibility to explain personal finance to her is an attempt to pass the buck.

If you call yourself an intellectual, that means you think you're smarter than everyone else.
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I don't think I've EVER heard anyone say "I am an intellectual."

Even in fiction.

It's gross, immature bragging, plain and simple.

Bottom line: You're only an intellectual when someone ELSE says you're an intellectual. The same goes (as I mentioned, maybe last year) for being well-read. Or for being a professional writer, as editor Jon Winokur wrote in The Portable Curmudgeon, decades ago.

Modesty typically pays off. There's more than one reason it's considered common courtesy - and common sense - to talk about what the OTHER person wants to talk about, not what you want to talk about. For one thing, you don't want to lecture, on and on, about your favorite obscure subject, only to find out, half an hour later, that the other person is a professional in that field.

"She's studying for the ministry, not exactly a high-paying profession." ~Conan

Depends on where you end up. Head priests at a church regularly make six figure incomes. Of course if you aren't the head priest you usually make $20k-$30k range. It is very much a win or lose kind of profession.

"The idea that it is the school's responsibility to explain personal finance to her is an attempt to pass the buck." ~Conan

There was already a lot of buck passing. It doesn't seem ethical for the government to loan that kind of money to her. At least not for that purpose.

Thinking about the debt is stressful. "It feels like a burden I will carry for the rest of my life," she said.

Because it is.

No one forced you to pick up that burden.

I get it though - as an African American, going to a lower status school is a class indicator she doesn't want to send. It's pretty clear she's status seeking, but can't afford it. I feel bad for her, but on the other hand, I do a lot of stupid stuff to in order to signal my upper middle class bougie status so I can't judge.

"Vanderbilt University, or any university, should not have to explain to a grown adult that incurring heavy debt on the way to a low-paying career is insanity."

No, they shouldn't have to. But people selling other kinds of investments are required to make statements of their risks, as can be seen in any 10-K for a publicly traded company, S-1 for an IPO, or Private Placement document for a nonpublic company. Why should universities, who are selling some of the largest investments that most people will ever make in their lives, be exempt? Especially since many/most of their customers are 18 & 19-year olds.

A big part of our entire society has acted in collusion to assert the message that a degree is the key to a good career, and the more prestigious the school, the more wonderful your career will be. There need to be some countervailing messages to add some realism to peoples understanding.

"College Was Supposed to Close the Wealth Gap for Black Americans. The Opposite Happened."

What?

College is an offering: you pay to go, you get what you can from it. In no way, even as political correctness blossoms, does it set aside competition, either inside or outside its walls.

But people selling other kinds of investments are required to make statements of their risks, as can be seen in any 10-K for a publicly traded company, S-1 for an IPO, or Private Placement document for a nonpublic company. ~ David Foster at August 22, 2021 7:54 PM

Apples and oranges there, Dave.

A college education is not an investment instrument with inherent and somewhat unpredictable market risks. It's a product you're buying from the university.

Kinda like joining a gym. Yes, you're expecting a payoff, but the payoff is largely dependent upon the effort you put into the process, not the investment instrument itself.