It amazes me as I teach to see the classroom continue to dwindle. It makes me think the writing business must be the same. A lot of writers must call it quits before the query process, and I'm sure the query process really makes others drop out.
I think back on posts by Nathan Bransford and Rachelle Gardner about why we write. I think the same can (and should) be applied to why we go to school. This is something that people should figure out (both writing and schooling) before wasting the investment of time and money.
And yet every semester, no matter my exhortations to students, there seem to be more empty chairs than filled ones by the end of the semester.