Here’s an interesting first-person account in The Chronicle of Higher Education from a writer who makes his living writing papers for college and university students. Not just undergraduate essays but graduate school theses and semester-long projects; he’s even completed online courses for students and participated in class discussions.
I live well on the desperation, misery, and incompetence that your educational system has created. Granted, as a writer, I could earn more; certainly there are ways to earn less. But I never struggle to find work.
This essay really brings home how much of a game it all is. Stack up the extracurriculars and pump up the SATs in high school to get into a good college. Fake your way through the coursework to win the appropriate degree. Get a job in which that degree will have absolutely no bearing but for which it is required. Work until you die.
The writer almost makes a case for becoming a freelance cheater instead. Except it sounds like so much work.
Those certainly are not writers, and students–. It’s not hard to tell those who receive such an “education,” and my colleagues in academia are aware of the lowlifes who are unable to teach. I just hope my surgeon is not among them.