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Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees

nytimes.com

111–120 of 170 posts

Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees

#111
post #87
post #25

This is what happens when there's 0 pressure on universities to price their programs competitively. If the government is backing every loan, the schools get paid up front, and the risk is then transferred to the gov to collect, why WOULDN'T a university charge as high a tuition as possible and hop on the gravy train? Their non-profit status hasn't even done much to keep costs low, as they can just keep hiring tons of…

"Lessons from Chile’s transition to free college": https://www.brookings.edu/research/lessons-from-chiles-trans... HN discussion when it was introduced four years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9514404 An essay by By Andreas Schleicher, Deputy Director for Education and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary- General, OECD from 2013 that looks at free higher education and concludes that a com…

> Countries that rely solely on the market to determine the cost of higher education, such as the United States

is this a joke? it's true only in the extremely narrow sense that the US does not directly legislate the price of private college tuition.

Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees

#112
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Lessons from Chile’s transition to free college": https://www.brookings.edu/research/lessons-from-chiles-trans... HN discussion when it was introduced four years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9514404 An essay by By Andreas Schleicher, Deputy Director for Education and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary- General, OECD from 2013 that looks at free higher education and concludes that a com…

> Countries that rely solely on the market to determine the cost of higher education, such as the United States is this a joke? it's true only in the extremely narrow sense that the US does not directly legislate the price of private college tuition.

> it's true only in the extremely narrow sense that the US does not directly legislate the price of college tuition.

Given the significance of public universities in US higher ed, it's not even really true in that sense, either, unless by “US” you mean just the federal government.

Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Countries that rely solely on the market to determine the cost of higher education, such as the United States is this a joke? it's true only in the extremely narrow sense that the US does not directly legislate the price of private college tuition.

> it's true only in the extremely narrow sense that the US does not directly legislate the price of college tuition. Given the significance of public universities in US higher ed, it's not even really true in that sense, either, unless by “US” you mean just the federal government.

good point, I edited my comment.

Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees

#114
post #25

This is what happens when there's 0 pressure on universities to price their programs competitively. If the government is backing every loan, the schools get paid up front, and the risk is then transferred to the gov to collect, why WOULDN'T a university charge as high a tuition as possible and hop on the gravy train? Their non-profit status hasn't even done much to keep costs low, as they can just keep hiring tons of…

This is why I'm so skeptical of the "free college" rhetoric from Elizabeth Warren and the like... The underlying problem is the giant wealth transfer to colleges, and the progressive fixes seem to be to transfer even more wealth to them.

Most public colleges had significant funding guarantees in the State budget. A consequence of the 2008 financial crisis was that most State legislatures cut these obligations significantly. Accordingly, colleges had to raise tuition prices to compensate for the lost funding. I see student loans as basically a tax on the middle class. Get an education and a better job and pay an additional 6.5% tax on what you borrowed for 10 years. It would be better to have higher taxes on everyone but this is basically what we have now.

Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees

#115
post #25

This is what happens when there's 0 pressure on universities to price their programs competitively. If the government is backing every loan, the schools get paid up front, and the risk is then transferred to the gov to collect, why WOULDN'T a university charge as high a tuition as possible and hop on the gravy train? Their non-profit status hasn't even done much to keep costs low, as they can just keep hiring tons of…

That chart illustrates federal student loans, not (federal + private) student loans. The total has been only been increasing linearly, as shown by this chart (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_debt#/media/File:Stude...), while the percentage owned by the federal government has drastically increased.

Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees

#116

In engineering the quip was always "if you're paying for graduate school you're doing it wrong" ... to even get in the door for most hardware jobs fresh out of school you need a MS. A PhD may be preferred, and will start with a higher salary -- but put in ~5yrs instead of 2. As long as the tuition is covered and you make money as a TA or RA in a low-cost of living area you should come out ahead in the engineering fie…

HW is a bit like this but with some good internship experience and a bachelors at a (>=good public state tier) school companies are interested. Of 4 HW friends I know just getting their bachelors 2 are going to do verif in industry and 2 are planning on PHds.

Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees

#117
post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

State universities in other countries either supply control through very high entrance standards or keeping everything cheap (think the interior of the typical USPS post office).

What's wrong with the post office interior? You're there to mail stuff, not to vacation.

I don’t think OP was criticizing it.

Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees

#118
post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is why I'm so skeptical of the "free college" rhetoric from Elizabeth Warren and the like... The underlying problem is the giant wealth transfer to colleges, and the progressive fixes seem to be to transfer even more wealth to them.

Most public colleges had significant funding guarantees in the State budget. A consequence of the 2008 financial crisis was that most State legislatures cut these obligations significantly. Accordingly, colleges had to raise tuition prices to compensate for the lost funding. I see student loans as basically a tax on the middle class. Get an education and a better job and pay an additional 6.5% tax on what you borrowe…

From what I've seen, State Universities seem to be awash in cash, and use it for enormous amounts of expensive construction.

Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if they want government to pay for college then government should decide what is worthy of being paid for and how much. after all that is the attitude with regards to medical care. However I feel a better solution is for the government to still do it as loans but set the rates and required classes for each degree type. simply put there are valueless degree programs out there which only enrich the schools. Colleges wo…

I don't like the idea that only career-focused degrees are important. I studied math not to get a job with those skills, but because I enjoyed math and wanted to add to the world's knowledge. Money is a means to quality of life, sure. But you can't ignore the things that are part of the "quality" because they're not profitable.

Math isn't a non-career-focused degree. It's not as immediately applicable as engineering, sure, but it does lead pretty directly to good-paying jobs.

What the OP is referring to is probably degrees such as theater, women's studies, philosophy, etc. Women's studies and philosophy have no real job potential, and while theater might, there's only a very small market for actors compared to the number of starlets who dream of that job, which is why LA is so full of "actors" working as restaurant waiters.

Re: Biggest Offender in Outsize Debt: Master’s Degrees

#120
post #25

This is what happens when there's 0 pressure on universities to price their programs competitively. If the government is backing every loan, the schools get paid up front, and the risk is then transferred to the gov to collect, why WOULDN'T a university charge as high a tuition as possible and hop on the gravy train? Their non-profit status hasn't even done much to keep costs low, as they can just keep hiring tons of…

This is why I'm so skeptical of the "free college" rhetoric from Elizabeth Warren and the like... The underlying problem is the giant wealth transfer to colleges, and the progressive fixes seem to be to transfer even more wealth to them.

> This is why I'm so skeptical of the "free college" rhetoric from Elizabeth Warren and the like...

ITT! American discovers something else almost all of the rich world is doing, claims it can't be done.

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