Not enough government subsidy.
There is far too much government subsidy, loans should be much harder to get.
Why Is College in America So Expensive?
11–20 of 348 posts
Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?
#12Supply and demand. Everyone in high school is expected to go to college; you're essentially considered a failure if you don't. Couple this with easy access to student loans and other forms of credit and it's easy to see why the price of college has just gone up and up.
The numbers do not (fully) support your argument. We have a similar situation in Canada in terms of expectations ... but the for the price paid by students which is signficantly lower. And, the participation rate is 54% for Canada compared with 44% with the U.S. - so, by your argument, university education should be much more costly in Canada than it is in the U.S.
Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?
#13Supply and demand. Everyone in high school is expected to go to college; you're essentially considered a failure if you don't. Couple this with easy access to student loans and other forms of credit and it's easy to see why the price of college has just gone up and up.
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Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?
#14> Americans spend about $30,000 per student a year—nearly twice as much as the average developed country. This narrative needs to die. Hear me out before judging... Yes, University is expensive! But - a large portion of the numbers you see thrown around include living expenses! The same living expenses a student would incur if they were not attending University. The predominant reason for this is students are still t…
TFA acknowledges this but points out that we still lead the world (other than Luxembourg)when taking out those expenses.
Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?
#15I didn't see this discussed in the article, but IMO the main driver is the availability of student loans. When the government guarantees loans, you can lend whatever you want! The price of a TRIPLE occupancy dorm + 7 day meal access is $14,813.29/YEAR at UC Davis. The "meals", if they haven't changed in the last decade, are Sodexo garbage. And don't forget a "year" doesn't count the summer, or winter break.
> I didn't see this discussed in the article, but IMO the main driver is the availability of student loans. When the government guarantees loans, you can lend whatever you want!
The other kicker is that they bake BIG subsidies for low-income students into tuition, which I found rather counter-intuitive. We're gonna raise tuition... to help students who can't afford tuition... pay for tuition that they can't afford... because we keep raising tuition to help students who can't afford tuition.
As bizarre as it sounds, I think if you stripped subsidies and the effect of near-universal availability of student loans out of the equation tuition (at least for state schools) would be downright reasonable. It certainly was when I was in school around the turn of the century. I was paying somewhere in the neighborhood of $2-3K per sememster (increasing over time, naturally) to go to a well-regarded state university. Now I see it's about 3x that. Yeesh.
Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?
#16> Americans spend about $30,000 per student a year—nearly twice as much as the average developed country. This narrative needs to die. Hear me out before judging... Yes, University is expensive! But - a large portion of the numbers you see thrown around include living expenses! The same living expenses a student would incur if they were not attending University. The predominant reason for this is students are still t…
It's a good point tbf - i'm in the UK and my partner is in academia, we disagree on politics massively.
One thing we agree on is that universities should be a place of constant learning - less pressure on doing it when you're 19-22, and more like your National Insurance payments as an adult should go towards being able to go to the local Uni and using these credits for learning.
Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?
#17I didn't see this discussed in the article, but IMO the main driver is the availability of student loans. When the government guarantees loans, you can lend whatever you want! The price of a TRIPLE occupancy dorm + 7 day meal access is $14,813.29/YEAR at UC Davis. The "meals", if they haven't changed in the last decade, are Sodexo garbage. And don't forget a "year" doesn't count the summer, or winter break.
Id' be careful in assuming meals haven't changed in the last decade. Mass-food options aren't great, but on other campuses I've visited I've been jealous enough to wish I was eating there semi-regularly.
Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?
#18I didn't see this discussed in the article, but IMO the main driver is the availability of student loans. When the government guarantees loans, you can lend whatever you want! The price of a TRIPLE occupancy dorm + 7 day meal access is $14,813.29/YEAR at UC Davis. The "meals", if they haven't changed in the last decade, are Sodexo garbage. And don't forget a "year" doesn't count the summer, or winter break.
That's just a bit over 1k / month -- similar to rent in SF :-P
Rent, utilities, meals?
Regardless of CA, it's a lot everywhere else. Especially when they're bunking three in a room at that rate. The markup (for all of it) is the real atrocity here.
Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?
#19Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?
#20I didn't see this discussed in the article, but IMO the main driver is the availability of student loans. When the government guarantees loans, you can lend whatever you want! The price of a TRIPLE occupancy dorm + 7 day meal access is $14,813.29/YEAR at UC Davis. The "meals", if they haven't changed in the last decade, are Sodexo garbage. And don't forget a "year" doesn't count the summer, or winter break.
Even if you apply 50% of that cost towards food, that's still around $830/mo rent for a shared room in Davis, California.
You could find better deals in nice parts of San Francisco or Manhattan.