Anyone nervous about graduating in today's horrible economy?

Yes. There's this statistic going around that when our generation reaches 60, we'll all need a million dollars in our retirement accounts to actually retire. My history teacher spat that out one day, but I don't know how credible it actually its. But I'm still scared.

i'm not an american citizen, so i will have to pay the international fees. my parents want me to just go to uni in australia but i'm a bit of a rebel and i want to perform in americaaa and get training there too!

my brothers have done the same by getting a scholarship (but not studying musical theater - more like engineering of some sort haha)

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Considering I have about $25 to my name right now. Yes. Wait tables. The tips are good.

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Updated On: 1/15/09 at 05:39 PM

Exactly, Jacob.

We're at the mercy of the economic status of the country just as everyone else is...so why whine? Just adapt as everyone else will have to. That goes along with what I was saying about relativity.

You can do it. Just be smart about it. =]

Hah, just live somewhere close to Canada and pop on up there when you need surgery or prescriptions or anything of the sort.

Obviously not being able to pay for school is a very heavy financial predicament, but for those who can, I think it's dangerous get too wrapped up in the state of the economy come graduation. Yes, it's scary, but what exactly can we do? All move out of the country? The best is to just persevere, use the skills learned in college. For us theater people, focus on making great theater so people will want to come out to see shows, pay money for tickets and stimulate the economy!

You have revealed your age, Cruel_Sandwich

Take part time work while in school and during the summers to have some money on hand when you leave school. Start applying for work during your senior year, and keep the applications current. (Update and re-apply when necessary.)

If you are a musician/singer/dancer and have an act, consider busking in Europe. I did this for two summers. Europe has a more positive attitude towards this than America. I'm not talking about ragged homeless people. I'm talking about people who can play music, sing and dance. I have a friend who made over € 35,000 in a summer (that is how much he took home at the end of the season) just playing a celtic harp and occasionally singing, but he had CDs to sell along with his act. (You have to deduct what he paid for the CDs, but he sometimes took in € 600 a day)

I was in a two-woman team and we would bring in € 200-300 a day when we hit the right places (touristy places). Once you meet people doing this, there is a network. They can tell you where the good places are. And it fluctuates from year to year. It helps to have friends you can stay with as you travel, but you can sometimes find these by networking.

And ..... it teaches you about capturing people's interest. They will walk away if they are not interested. To capture and keep up interest on the street, you have to be good.

I'm not worried about it at all ... unless things get so bad that the restaurant business as a whole takes a major hit. I started hostessing at 16 and waitressing at 17. So far, I have experience with truckstop/greasy spoon, fine dining and two national chains with great references from all my supervisors, so I'm not too worried about being able to support myself. I'm averaging around $650 a week doing fine dining this summer. Then, if all that goes belly up, there's always "the world's oldest profession." Judging from some of the propositions I've gotten from creepy middle aged married men while waitressing, I suppose I could make ends meet as a Ho if all else fails. There'll always be a market for that ... jk