I'm 28, Have $100K In Student Loan Debt, & I Can't Find A Full-Time Job

Yahoo Finance News ^ | August 29, 2018 | Ludmila Leiva

[11th_VA]

For Alexandria Butler-McDow, 28, going to university didn’t provide the freedom and financial security she'd hoped for. After graduating with an associate’s degree from the California Culinary Academy (CCA) in San Francisco, CA, in 2008, Butler-McDow struggled to find a job that would allow her to support herself and her disabled mother while also paying off her enormous student loan bill.

Hopeful that a more advanced degree would help her make more money and better manage her debt, Butler-McDow went on to pursue a bachelor’s degree in culinary nutrition, concentrating on clinical dietetics at Johnson and Wales University (JWU) in Providence, RI. By the time she had finished her second degree, Butler-McDow was even deeper in debt.

Now, nearly four years after graduating with her second degree, Butler-McDow (better known as Chef Alexandria at Better Taste Productions) is a Los Angeles-based chef and culinary consultant focusing on nutrition and education — and she is still six figures in debt. Though she has defaulted on her loans and deferred some of her payments, the end of this ordeal is still out of her reach. “We are sold the notion that getting an education is what will improve our socioeconomic standing,” Butler-McDow told Refinery29. “My degrees were supposed to bring me out of poverty but they’ve just anchored me.” ...

[laweeks]

And I got nowhere either with my degree in Medieval Plumbing.

[Bayard]

100K is highly over priced for a cooking degree. She wasted money on stupid classes. Was she even prepared to go to college? We’re her parents brain dead?

[newfreep]

In the words of "Otter"......

"You fu*ked up. You trusted us"

[Reno89519]

Plenty of jobs for cooks, maybe didn’t realize the salary range when you picked your career?

[IronJack]

These days, a degree doesn’t even guarantee you much of an education.

[Gay State Conservative]

I was expecting her to say that she majored in Womyn’s Studies or Egyptology.

[Truth29]

"I honestly did not know the exact amount of debt I had each time I graduated, and I really didn't want to know. Now I know my total debt after CCA was about $20,000, and my mom had also taken out a $40,000 parent plus loan. The total after graduating JWU was about $75,000."

I think I detect a problem. Maybe she should just sell her organs as a tribute to the modern public education system.

[Hatteras]

[4Liberty]

[Buckeye McFrog]

I guar-an-damn-tee you that this slimy trail leads back to EDMC here in Pittsburgh and their CEO, who is married to everyone’s FAVORITE Republican (/sarc), Susan Collins.

[Blue Jays]

"...degree in clinical dietetics from Johnson & Wales University..."

---

I know a peer who graduated from there plus two fairly young kids who also got degrees at that school.
All of them are working in the medical field and are doing perfectly fine.
Perhaps it is just her and her interviewing skills? Is she asking to be paid $190,000 per year or something silly like that as a young kid?

[ScottfromNJ]

“Spending 100k to learn how to make cupcakes is a piss poor use of your educational dollars”

I’m sure her goal was to be a top chef, which is a very competitive field to venture into. Just sinking $100 grand into a culinary education doesn’t guarantee you’ll automatically become a skilled chef and from the sound of it, she was probably expecting that to happen, and happen instantly.

[caww]

Her difficulty ‘Isn’t’ finding a job.

[caww]

Her difficulty ‘Isn’t’ finding a job.

[dfwgator]

Education is only half of the equation.

It’s still all about networking, and you need to start networking your freshman year in college.

[sickoflibs]

Great poster explains it.

I have met these folks working at the front desk of gym (Fitness Center) .

I think some of these people were told to chase they job they would love the most, turns out many dont pay.

Its like the advise “Love will cure anything, follow your heart’ and marry a guy who doesnt work.

[certrtwngnut]

Northhampton Community College in Pa. is just across the Delaware River from us in N.J. They have a culinary school with a great restaurant. Good 5 course meals in a good atmosphere. I would bet that these kids are learning a lot and incurring very little debt.

[gubamyster]

But even high end restaurants do not pay line chefs a great deal of money. You have to work yourself up in a very difficult industry.

Exactly! As is the case with most jobs/industries. You start out at the bottom & work your way up, gaining knowledge, expertise, and (generally the most important) connections along the way.

Even with all this, you generally don't truly become a big time success or wealthy working for somebody else.

[treetopsandroofs]

I’m not buying any of this.

Look at this:

Alexandria Butler-McDow
Chef at Johnson & Wales University

Education

Johnson and Wales University
2014 Bachelor of Science (B.S.), Culinary nutrition

California Culinary Academy
2008 Associate of Occupational Studies, Culinary Arts

Experience

EXOS- Atheletes Performance
6/2013 - 8/2013 Culinary Nutrition Intern

Better Taste Productions
8/2011 - Present Founder/COO

Black Women for Wellness
8/2013 - 6/2014 Kitchen Diva Program Coordinator/ Kitchen Diva Chef

Nuturing Chefs Personal Chefs Service
1/2013 - 1/2014 Sous chef

Athletes’ Performance
6/2013 - 8/2013 Culinary Nutrition Intern

Source: https://chroniclevitae.com/people/251652-alexandria-butler-mcdow/profile

[Boomer]

Don’t most chefs make under $60,000 unless their the head chef?

It's really high stress with terrible hours too. One must have a calling to be a cook/chef to put up with the working conditions.

In places like cafeterias and hospital kitchens the work is terribly repetitive as well.