Emerson College

Date: Dec 31 1969
Major: Video/Media (This Major's Salary over time)
I attended Emerson College as a graduate student from 2005-2007, where I completed a two year Masters degree program in 'Visual Media Arts'. I was fairly hopeful going into the program that it would somehow be a positive experience and I would gain skills, direction, etc which would help me as I would start to try and get a career going in the media field. However, it proved to be a serious letdown, and seven years later I still highly regret wasting my time and money on this so-called program, which is now defunct, and has been modified in the form of an MFA program - apparently the faculty/professors finally realized that the program was basically not legit in that it did not provide any actual skills or applicable knowledge, direction, etc, leaving the students empty handed, lost, and hopeless upon graduating. I can tell you that prior to Emerson, I completed a two-month filmmaking program at the NY Film Academy in NYC, and in this basic filmmaking program, which itself wasn't even anything special, I learned literally about nine times as much as I learned during my two years at Emerson - where I literally learned nothing, which I know sounds hard to believe that a masters program could provide absolutely no skills and practical knowledge, let alone career guidance, etc, but I am honestly telling the truth. The courses were so basic, watered-down, unhelpful, and essentially provided no concrete or practical education or skill, that's the only way I can explain it. Ultimately, I have no one to blame but myself for not dropping out of the program early on, but I have to live with my decision to stay, and my ongoing difficulty in explaining to people, particularly in job interviews, what exactly this master's degree is, or was. If I was some sort of raging jerk, excuse my language, I would have actually attempted to pursue some sort of lawsuit against the school, or department, for failing to provide an adequate education or something, but that's just not me. I only hope that someone from the Emerson VMA department reads this commentary and actually takes note of the harm they have caused to myself and probably many other students, and I still believe we are owed at least some sort of apology for the horrible disservice we have been given.