The story appeared to resonate, and was one of the most popular stories on the WSJ website for days after its publication, while sparking discussion on social media, as many chimed in with similar personal experiences.

Schools like Columbia (one of the worst offenders, according to WSJ) have been churning out MFAs and Masters in Fine Arts degrees at a surprisingly rapid pace given the paucity of well-paying jobs in those fields. Ultimately, the story showed the government was partly culpable, as no-limit loans for masters' degrees helped create the incentives for schools to make useless masters' degrees part of the higher education boom.

One student, who earned a Masters in Fine Arts from Columbia in 2018, described having "2 a.m. panic attacks where you're thinking, 'How the hell am I going to pay this off?'" While we sympathize with the student, we can't help but wonder what was going through his mind when he signed up for the program. In many cases, the classes are stocked with the children of wealthy parents, who happily foot their rent and tuition (while letting them carrying around daddy's credit card).

Of course, it's one think to go broke after taking out a quarter of a million dollars in loans for your MFA. It's quite another when the 'worthless degree' you shelled out for is a law degree, or an MBA. At least the students who enrolled in those programs had a reasonable expectation that they might find work in their chosen field after graduation.

But as the old saying goes, "lawyers are a dime a dozen", and for students of non-target law schools, the time has come to ask: was this degree really worth it?

As WSJ begins, "law school was once considered a surefire ticket to a comfortable life. Years of tuition increases have made it a fast way to get buried in debt." One professor quoted in the story said law schools "foster this kind of cruel optimism" in students, letting them think six figure salaries are attainable when in reality, those high-paying jobs are largely reserved for students at only the top-ranked law schools. Law schools encourage a kind of 'magical thinking' to keep the lights on."