Anxious over mounting student loan debt during my graduate studies at Yale University, I created a Google AdSense account, “hacked” Yale’s School of Art website to host these incoming-generating digital billboards, and collected all the proceeds for myself. I was going to make Yale pay for Yale.
I knew that the more user views and clicks my Google ads received, the more Google would pay me for hosting them on “my” website. I placed the ads in tactical locations, such as the School of Art homepage, Financial Aid page, my own student page, and more—always captioned with the battle cry “Yale’s website will pay for my student loans.” The reaction from fellow students, the faculty, and administration, was as swift as it was polarized; from rebellious glee to indignant rage. I received angry emails. I heard rumors that I might be asked to leave Yale. When an unrelated media firestorm engulfed our school community, I was cautioned that my antics might endanger the existence of Yale’s School of Art website itself. Was it worth it? (And was it art?)
Yale Graphic Design
Most folks have heard of Yale University, but few are aware of its prestigious Master of Fine Arts (MFA) graduate program. Each year applicants from around the world compete for the handful of coveted seats across four program concentrations: Photography, Painting/Printmaking, Sculpture, and Graphic Design. For the past few decades Yale’s Graphic Design concentration has been consistently rated as one of the best design programs in the US. Only 16 students are admitted each year: 10 into its two-year program, and 6 into its “preliminary” program. (Prelims are often entering design from other fields and take a one-year design bootcamp before joining the regular two-year track.) Considering the school’s acceptance rate of 6%, an invitation to study art at Yale is an honor. And when you don’t come from an Ivy League family—when you’ve been sold on the silly idea of education as a means to claw yourself a rung or two higher on the invisible class ladder of America—an invitation to attend Yale is not something you decline, tuition costs be damned.
Sticker shock
I’d been warned, but I hadn’t listened. I was in denial. Sure, I had hoped to gain admittance into Yale’s graduate design program—I’d applied, after all—but I hadn’t truly believed I’d make the cut. Or perhaps I figured that if I somehow possessed enough “magic” to trick my way in, a similar divine force would somehow wave away the financial barriers.
(Check back in December 2024 for an updated and expanded case study.)