Student has 14 advanced degrees

[Myword]

New York Times reports that Benjamin Bolger has 14 advanced degrees including PhD and he is 48 years old. Mostly at top tier eastern US universities.  Also a bachelor's and associate degrees. He says he loves learning.

But how does he pay for this?  Scholarships or pure wealtj or loans?
I don't know. He has not had a tenured job report says. Strange

[AmLitHist]

And my mother thought I was never going to "get done going to school"!

[lightning]

He's an extreme example of a degree collector in the Humanities.

[apl68]

I've heard of "professional students," but my goodness!

He has a Wikipedia article:


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Bolger


Apparently he started out as a dyslexic kid who was shunted into special ed.  His schoolteacher mother pulled him out of school and home schooled him.  Then he started taking college courses as a teenager, and went on from there.  His mother reportedly supported him for some time.  He now does some kind of consulting work in admissions counseling, which he would presumably have a lot of experience in.  And he apparently now has children of his own.

His degrees include:

1992 – Muskegon Community College (Associate of Arts)[6][7]
    1994 – University of Michigan (Bachelor of Arts in sociology)[4]
    1997 – University of Oxford (Master of Science in sociology)[6]
    1998 – University of Cambridge (Master of Philosophy in sociology and politics of modern society)[6]
    2000 – Stanford University (Master of Arts in education)[6]
    2001 – Teachers College, Columbia University (Master of Arts in politics of education)[6]
    2002 – Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University (Master of Science in real estate development)[6]
    2002 – Harvard University (Master of Design in urban planning and real estate)[4]
    2004 – Brown University, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs (Master of Arts in developmental studies)[6]
    2004 – Dartmouth College (Master of Arts in liberal arts)[2][6]
    2007 – Brandeis University (Master of Arts in coexistence and conflict)[6]
    2007 – Skidmore College (Master of Arts in Humanities)[6]
    2008 – Harvard University (Doctor of Design in urban planning and real estate)[4]
    2014 – Ashland University (Master of Fine Arts in creative writing)[10][11]
    2016 - University of Tampa (Master of Fine Arts in creative writing)[12]
    2016 - West Virginia Wesleyan College (Master of Fine Arts in nonfiction)[13]
    2017 - University of Georgia (Master of Fine Arts in screenwriting)[14]

He has also completed some coursework at Yale Law School (in 1995, towards a JD) and at Boston College's Lynch School of Education (in 2004, towards an MA in higher education).

Looks like in recent years he's had a thing for collecting MFAs.

[apl68]

Incredibly enough, Benjamin Bolger does not hold the record for earning degrees.  There's a fellow named Michael Nicholson who has literally been at it since before Bolger was born:

Michael Nicholson (born 1941) is an American perpetual student from Kalamazoo, Michigan, who as of 2016 has received one bachelor's degree, two associate's degrees, three specialist degrees, and one doctoral degree, along with 23 master's degrees, including ones in health administration and special education administration.[1][2] He has been in school for 55 years. Nicholson has earned degrees from a range of institutions including in Michigan, Texas, Indiana and Canada.[3] His first degree was in religious education from William Tyndale College.[4] Nicholson has worked at several teaching positions.[1]

When asked in 2012 about his pursuit, Nicholson said "I just stayed in school and took menial jobs to pay for the education and just made a point of getting more degrees and eventually I retired so that I could go full time to school."[5] He took on a job as a parking attendant to attain a tuition discount.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Nicholson_(academic)



He had the good fortune to start back in the days when tuition at a state institution cost a little bit of nothing, and one could actually work one's way through school.

[Parasaurolophus]

Collecting Master's degrees is pretty straightforward. I'm sure anyone with a PhD could amass several with minimal effort. Collecting PhDs, now, that's where it's at! If I ever buy a lottery ticket and win big, I'll turn my energy to it.

[lightning]

Collecting Master's degrees is pretty straightforward. I'm sure anyone with a PhD could amass several with minimal effort. Collecting PhDs, now, that's where it's at! If I ever buy a lottery ticket and win big, I'll turn my energy to it.

^^^ This ^^^

I'm not attempting to diminish Bolger's accomplishment(s) when I say this because people should do what makes them happy, and any sincere academic motivations should be respected no matter what the end goals may be, but ultimately, it would be nice & useful if a masters degree collector puts all of their hard-earned domain knowledge together and publishes some innovative peer-reviewed interdisciplinary research.

I can't find any kind of publication record.

Also, 4 MFAs, but no single-authored published (or even self-published) creative work?!?

[Ruralguy]

He has a consulting business (admissions and education).

[ab_grp]

Collecting Master's degrees is pretty straightforward. I'm sure anyone with a PhD could amass several with minimal effort. Collecting PhDs, now, that's where it's at! If I ever buy a lottery ticket and win big, I'll turn my energy to it.

^^^ This ^^^

I'm not attempting to diminish Bolger's accomplishment(s) when I say this because people should do what makes them happy, and any sincere academic motivations should be respected no matter what the end goals may be, but ultimately, it would be nice & useful if a masters degree collector puts all of their hard-earned domain knowledge together and publishes some innovative peer-reviewed interdisciplinary research.

I can't find any kind of publication record.

Also, 4 MFAs, but no single-authored published (or even self-published) creative work?!?

I think this is an important point.  Is he contributing to any of these fields in some way?

Putting aside the other overlap, can someone explain the point of two MFAs in Creative Writing? This is not my area at all, and I am curious about whether these programs are so totally different or the expected outcomes are so totally different that one would reasonably embark on one after (?) finishing the other.

[apl68]

He has a consulting business (admissions and education).

One would assume that he knows a great deal about how to get admitted.

Some of the MFAs are in different kinds of writing.  Maybe he just really enjoys taking MFA classes. 

I've only ever taken a single undergrad elective course on creative writing.  It was pretty fun, and I learned a lot.  Everything else I know about writing has come from years and years of practice.  And reading, of course.  Dr. Bolger presumably has a lot of experience at both.

[aprof]

To me, the most shocking thing about the article was that he has a successful consulting business.  Wealthy people apparently pay him (by some indications, rather well) to help get their kids into these elite schools.

[Wahoo Redux]

This guy was a thread on the old CHE Forum with just this sort of commentary.   I think LarryC called him "a maroon." 

I'm assuming the NYT article is what spurred the interest.

[Puget]

To me, the most shocking thing about the article was that he has a successful consulting business.  Wealthy people apparently pay him (by some indications, rather well) to help get their kids into these elite schools.

From the article:

"After he got his doctorate in 2007, Bolger became a full-time private college-admissions consultant.. .  Four years with Bolger runs at least $100,000. . . Bolger carries about 25 clients at a time". That would be $625k per year. So it seems to be a very lucrative grift.

[Parasaurolophus]

To me, the most shocking thing about the article was that he has a successful consulting business.  Wealthy people apparently pay him (by some indications, rather well) to help get their kids into these elite schools.

From the article:

"After he got his doctorate in 2007, Bolger became a full-time private college-admissions consultant.. .  Four years with Bolger runs at least $100,000. . . Bolger carries about 25 clients at a time". That would be $625k per year. So it seems to be a very lucrative grift.

At least he has a pile of degrees.

Behold, I give you Christopher Rim:

For the past nine years, Rim, 28, has been working as an "independent education consultant," helping the one percent navigate the increasingly competitive college-admissions process — the current round of which ends in February. He started by editing college essays from his Yale dorm room for $50 an hour but now charges the parents of his company's 190 clients — mostly private-school kids, many of them in New York — $120,000 a year to help them create a narrative he believes will appeal to college-admissions officers. That company, Command Education, currently has 41 full-time staffers, most of whom are recent graduates of top-tier colleges and universities. The pitch is crafted to appeal to the wealthy clients Rim courts: a "personalized, white glove" service, through which Command employees do everything from curating students' extracurriculars to helping them land summer internships, craft essays, and manage their course loads with the single goal of getting them in.

"We are texting students, I think it's like 15 minutes before their math class, to make sure they are turning in their homework," says Rim, who in interviews is soft-spoken, polite, and confident, occasionally dropping into the demeanor of a start-up bro. Most clients start with Command in the ninth or tenth grade, but a small percentage begin in middle school.

Business is good. The Independent Educational Consultants Association estimates that up to 25,000 full- and part-time IECs will be working in the U.S. this year, and the market-research firm IBISWorld estimates it to be a $2.9 billion industry — up from $400 million just a decade ago. Most consultants charge in the ballpark of $4,000 to $7,500 for helping students with typical application prep, including making their college list and looking over their essays, but Rim operates in the uppermost echelon. In certain circles in Manhattan and Brooklyn, "everyone is charging six figures," says a parent who hired Command for her teen. In a recent survey, one-third of Horace Mann high-schoolers copped to working with a private consultant, but multiple parents with kids in city private schools estimate that number to be much higher. Rim says he has a waiting list.

Rim's promise — that he will give kids a road map to getting into one of their top-choice colleges — is particularly appealing in this moment as the conventional wisdom about who gets into selective colleges and why is changing, setting off confusion and anxiety for those who are used to their privilege giving them a VIP pass. Legacy admissions, which have always favored the rich, are under increased scrutiny; some universities have done away with them altogether. The threshold for a donation that might move the needle has reportedly reached $10 million. Pricey SAT and ACT courses and tutors are also less effective since many schools — even competitive ones — no longer require test scores.

[Sun_Worshiper]

Imagine all the titles he puts next to his name on emails and linkedin page... My eyes are rolling into the back of my head just thinking about it.