Should I drop out of grad school?

cheever
Mon, 26 Sep 2011 19:56:59 +0000

I’m early in my second year of a three-year graduate acting program. The good: It’s an excellent program (as MFAs in acting go), I’ve got a full ride plus assistantship (no debt whatsoever), and at the end of the three years I’ll have a terminal degree and union eligibility. The bad: I don’t really want to be an actor. Not anymore. I also don’t want to teach (just in case anyone decides to throw out that idea). The degree, then, will be pretty much worthless. I spent five years in New York living the lowly life of the off-off-broadway actor, and I really just used grad school as a means of escaping the world. I’m bored to tears and it’s a chore to go to class every day.

The thing is, I’m 28, and I’ll be nearly 30 when I graduate. I have no real work experience aside from crummy temp jobs when I was living in NYC. I have a B.A. in history from a no-name state school with a gpa a shade over 3.0.

Do I just stick it out for two more years and then start completely over with something else at 30? I have no idea what I’d like to do, but I’m wondering if I really want to put off the process of finding out for another year and a half or so. An MFA doesn’t really give me any marketable skills outside of acting, but would it look bad to drop out?

I recognize that I’ve got a pretty sweet deal here; but if it isn’t what I want to do, is it worth it to see it through just for the sake of getting a piece of paper?