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NYU Makes Tuition Free for All Medical Students

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Re: NYU Makes Tuition Free for All Medical Students

#361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IDK. The same thought process led me to not being able to complete college due to financial reasons. Despite being emancipated, FAFSA still considers you a dependent until you're 24. I was told that only with documentation of leaving an abusive household would a dependency exception grant be applied. So according to FAFSA I was supposed to use all this money that I didn't have to pay for college. By 24 I had dropped…

I think not being able to default on your student loans is the main factor in rising costs. There is no reason not to give out a student loan of any amount if it is guaranteed money. And there are many people who struggled to graduate highschool, or people who have no idea what they want to do in life in any way, that are getting crazy large loans to go to very expensive and demanding schools and and are very likely…

I think you're right, at the same time if allowed to walk from student loans... wouldn't we see a similar incentive on the student side?

I would find it pretty tempting when graduating to ... default. You've got plenty of time to fish your way out of bankruptcy as you're young, you don't have much for assets or anything...

Re: NYU Makes Tuition Free for All Medical Students

#362
Is anyone not going to med school because of debt? Not sure what problems this solves.

For the long commitment that doctors make and the debt they take on, they receive basically guaranteed highly paying employment for as long as they wish.

There's also a shortage of medical school spots, we can't create enough doctors.

I think this is probably an attempt to compete with other medical schools for top students. NYU is pretty well respected bit probably loses a lot of candidates to Harvard, Yale, etc.

Re: NYU Makes Tuition Free for All Medical Students

#363
post #362

Is anyone not going to med school because of debt? Not sure what problems this solves. For the long commitment that doctors make and the debt they take on, they receive basically guaranteed highly paying employment for as long as they wish. There's also a shortage of medical school spots, we can't create enough doctors. I think this is probably an attempt to compete with other medical schools for top students. NYU is…

Perhaps as a back of a line thing - not those about to enter it. It is already infamously grueling. Graduating and being six figures in debt could try the patience of many. "Staying in school in a high stress environment till near my thirties is bad enough without being in debt practically big enough for a house for years afterwards. I'll just go into banking after four years so I can actually enjoy the money while I am young." Whether you want doctors with such am attitude is another question.

Re: NYU Makes Tuition Free for All Medical Students

#364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While this is in the broader scope but after five years of graduation, the college you attended is irrelevant. The prestigious name is meaningless.

Personally from experience, the prestige comes with network and the network is where it's at. The connections you have definitely grease the upward escalator.

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Re: NYU Makes Tuition Free for All Medical Students

#365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The parent posts detail the ways the government has distorted the free market, and your takeaway was that this is the free market's fault...? So was the '06 housing bubble was the free market's fault as well?

Quite so. It was the "free market" that gave out those loans, it was the "free market" that repackaged the CDOs knowing full well the repercussions in case of defaults, it was the "free market" that stacked rating agencies, regulators, courts, even academia, to prevent their cash cow from going away, or from suffering any kind of personal responsibility for their crimes.

I think you missed your opportunity to learn something because the parent post was being too subtle.

Both student loans and the housing loans leading to the crisis are blinding examples of the government interfering with the risk assessment process of large loans resulting in a failure.

Students get loans they can't realistically payback because the issuers know they are (mostly) safe from bankruptcy.

In the early 2000s the 'gift' of the affordable housing bill was to issue a bunch of mortgages to people who realistically couldn't pay them back either. Leverage against loans by the banks made it systemic, but the root cause of the housing crash was trash loans that would never have been issued if it weren't for the government offering guarantees.

Re: NYU Makes Tuition Free for All Medical Students

#367
post #319
post #14

This is awesome! So many medical students are kinda forced into more profitable healthcare practices than ones which people need more desperately (e.g. plastic surgery vs rheumatology). I especially love that this was done with private fundraising over government funding. Philanthropy can be effective, often far more so than governments!

I would hardly say it shows the effectiveness of philanthropy - this is just one college and has very limited effects on the healthcare system as a whole. In Germany for instance higher education is free everywhere, I don't see how this could work with private fundraising. As an European I always find the dichotomy "government vs people" strange. If the state pays for something, it's solidarity, not communism.

>In Germany for instance higher education is free everywhere, I don't see how this could work with private fundraising.

Germany isn't a good example. Germany stands because it can exploit its weaker neighbors, the east block out of their resources and force the companies to book profit and get taxed in Germany.

Germans see each others as bothers. Show me a few German companies where a foreigner is in the executive role?

The whole point of Germany is Germans first. Ofcourse, they can make education free in this setting.

Re: NYU Makes Tuition Free for All Medical Students

#369
post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In short, the free market has found a very lucrative cash cow for all involved. A select group of people are getting fabulously rich off this broken system, and since they control it there is no incentive to stop. Of course, someone is getting shafted. The students, in this case.

Definitely not a free market. If the government didn't guarantee student loans, the banks would have been a lot more conservative in giving out loans. In fact, this is easily the biggest factor in the rapid rise in tuition.

The biggest factor in the rise in tuition is easily austerity policies lowering in-state school budgets.

Re: NYU Makes Tuition Free for All Medical Students

#370
post #362

Is anyone not going to med school because of debt? Not sure what problems this solves. For the long commitment that doctors make and the debt they take on, they receive basically guaranteed highly paying employment for as long as they wish. There's also a shortage of medical school spots, we can't create enough doctors. I think this is probably an attempt to compete with other medical schools for top students. NYU is…

Perhaps as a back of a line thing - not those about to enter it. It is already infamously grueling. Graduating and being six figures in debt could try the patience of many. "Staying in school in a high stress environment till near my thirties is bad enough without being in debt practically big enough for a house for years afterwards. I'll just go into banking after four years so I can actually enjoy the money while I…

Banking and tech aren't guaranteed the way medicine is. Other fields are result based, and it's often easy to get fired and be replaced.

A risk averse person would rather stick to what they know (student life, exams) for a guaranteed reward.

The debt isn't really that much. Probably the average is 200k. You can pay that off within about 1-2 years of residency, and interest rates tend to be low since they're low risk loans for banks to give out.

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