Most of the other points in comments here are valid (or potentially so), but one thing I've not seen mentioned is the decrease in govt funding of public colleges and university. When I attended college 20 years ago (Penn State)I remember seeing graphs showing how decreased state funding matched tuition hikes pretty well. A quick google search turned up https://budgetandpolicy.org/schmudget/cuts-to-higher-educati... which shows the same sort of graph, even if it doesn't go back as far and isn't quite the same axis.
Why Is College in America So Expensive?
21–30 of 348 posts
Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?
#22Many western states got together to provide a cheaper alternative to state schools. Western Governors University is about 6k a year and is online and accredited. Its also used for teachers to get their advanced degrees while working full-time jobs. You can also go as fast or slow as you can/want. You could, in theory, do it in 3 years, so 18k TOTAL, that's pretty affordable. No idea if there is an option for eastern…
WGU's great (so far as I know)... for the majors they offer. There's a bunch that they don't, though. No pure science, no humanities. They're even missing a bunch of kinds of engineering.
I like the idea, though. I wish they offered more.
Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?
#23Not enough government subsidy.
On the contrary, the problem is too much government subsidy. It’s same as any other price inflation when you inject 100s of millions of dollars into a sector.
If anything the government should stop giving people money and instead open more public schools. That’d increase competition (ie supply) rather than demand and thus lower prices.
Imagine if every private school would have to compete against a well funded and cheap (relatively) public option. That’d have an immediate impact on driving down prices across the board.
Demand side government involvement is always a bad idea. It universally leads to poor outcomes and profit capture by the wrong institutions. Either supply side or no side is my vote.
Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?
#24> 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…
'Living expenses' charged by schools are insanely inflated.
~3 months of food and shelter don't cost ~7k when you have roommates.
Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?
#25I 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.
Students need to decide if a college degree is worth taking on a massive amount of debt.
Either we have lots of young people making bad decisions, or a college degree is incredibly valuable.
It's not like the terms of student loans are exceptionally great for the students.
Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?
#26I think the actual answer is "because it can"...it's really that simple.
Supply and demand dicate how much colleges can charge students, nothing else. If schools can charge $30k/year, and fill up the classrooms, why wouldn't they?
It's similar to the question "what's my house worth?"...the answer is exactly how much someone is willing to pay for it, nothing more and nothing less. Any real estate agent will tell you the same.
Many factors go into why colleges can charge so much and get away with it. Certainly the price distortions caused by easy-to-get guaranteed student loans is a big driver, but others exist of course.
Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?
#27> 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…
'Living expenses' charged by schools are insanely inflated. ~3 months of food and shelter don't cost ~7k when you have roommates.
I certainly don't dispute that - it's borderline criminal what the University-sanctioned housing charges - particularly when they stack up to 5 people in a single unit!
However, in my experience, most students live off-campus these days. There's just not enough student housing, and it's a terrible deal anyhow.
Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?
#28I 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
I assume that only covers spring and fall semeseter and not the summer months and even maybe winter break. So it probably goes to 1600/mo
Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?
#29That's not a very useful article. They touch on some possibilities, but never peel the data enough to come to useful conclusions. They also jump between different kinds of costs - cost to the student, and cost to the country.
Which is a pity, because normally the Atlantic does better.
Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?
#30TLDR: > Ultimately, college is expensive in the U.S. for the same reason MRIs are expensive: There is no central mechanism to control price increases. “Universities extract money from students because they can,” says Schleicher at the OECD. “It’s the inevitable outcome of an unregulated fee structure.” In places like the United Kingdom, the government limits how much universities can extract by capping tuition. The s…
The same goes for medical care. The article tries to say that university and medical care are somehow competitive or part of a free market. There's no coincidence that both "industries" are the most heavily regulated and subsidized industries in the economy, and they're the most expensive.
Consumers of both products are completely divorced from the costs. People just don't think 20-30 years ahead. Student loans will weigh you down for a large part of your adult life, but when you're 18 you have no concept of that. Same with health care. Many many people don't care if their eating and health habits are detrimental... the consequences are years off and, frankly, someone else will pay for them.
So government steps in and breaks the market mechanisms. Student loans are non-dischargeable and subsidized to an unlimited amount. Your health habits cannot be taken into account with health insurance; government mandates the same coverage for everyone, whether or not you eat 10,000 calories of potato chips a day, or you run three miles a day.
The entirely predictable result is that prices go up unsustainably.