University Holds Degree Buyback Program

Wes Sizemore,
Times Staff

As the job markets are getting more and more competitive with each wave of students graduating college year after year, the value of an undergraduate degree has decreased. The age old question of “What are you going to do with your degree?” has haunted undergrads for some time. The University of Massachusetts is giving them more options than ever with their experimental Degree Buy-Back event being held Wednesday October 32nd in the Cape Cod Lounge at the Campus Center. The University is inviting past graduates to the campus to sell their degrees back to the school in exchange for gift cards and other prizes of equal value to their degree.

These values vary between different degrees, for example a degree in Engineering will be bought back in the form of a $100 giftcard to the Umass Store in the Campus Center. A dual degree in Philosophy and Communications is valued by the exchange program at a $14.97 Antonio’s Pizza gift card or, if one would rather, a voucher for a free smoothie at the Courtside Cafe in the Recreation Center.

The mind behind the Degree Buy-Back Program is UMass Alum Xavier Donnelly, who was inspired by the gun buy-back event hosted in his neighborhood in Chicago, IL. Donnelly graduated from the University’s Isenberg School of Management with a degree in Accounting, and currently works full time as the owner of his own pet shop in Chicago. “I really wish there was something like this for my graduating class” says Donnelly, “It’s not easy to find a job in your field anymore, especially knowing that there are thousands of people studying the same major as you, and many of them are willing to do the same work for less money.”

This gives students that know they won’t be working in their field of study after college a a head start on paying back their unfathomable amounts of loan debt by keeping a little extra cash in their pockets through the tax deductible gifts they exchange their degrees for. This also provides an alternative to going to grad school, as recent surveys reveal 68% of recently college graduates “don’t got time for that wack stuff” (National Review of College Graduates Survey, 2017).

A full list of degree equivalents for trade is listed at the program’s web page www.umass.edu/whydidIgotocollege including gift cards to many local businesses like Amherst Books and Wildwood Smoke Shop, and a variety of fruit baskets donated by UMass Dining.

Come on down to the Cape Cod Lounge on the 32nd with any valid UMass degree (excluding degrees from The Stockbridge School of Agriculture) and see what your three and a half to five years of education is worth today!

For more articles by Wes Sizemore, click here. To get in touch with this writer, email sizemore.wes@surrealtimes.net.


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