31–40 of 87 posts
When you have students taking out Federal loans, the University getting paid with virtually no risk, and they don't if the student can get a job or pay off the loan, they have no incentive to curb spending. The federal government need to force these universities to take the risk and loan out money directly.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It would also help to require administrative salaries to be below a certain percentage in order to qualify to accept federal loan money. (I would think 8% or lower).
More regulation to micromanage things is never going to work. For example, what if you've got an opportunity to hire Feynman, but he expects 9%? Maybe you'll skirt the 8% requirement by giving him a company car to use. Nobody is smart enough to write a regulation that can't be gamed.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Until companies ditch the stupid degree requirement for jobs that obviously do not require a degree, everybody is going to suffer. Fewer colleges mean: 1) People out of jobs. Teachers will lose their main income and the remaining colleges will have no incentive to increase their payroll because where are they gonna go? 2) Getting into a college will be even more competitive. As companies will still look for people wi…
While many jobs do not in reality require more than a high-school level education, a college degree is a valuable filter for people who can commit to something that requires learning and applying what has been learned, and seeing it through over a period of 3-4 years. For jobs that require a college degree, but the major subject of study doesn't matter, that is what they are using it for. A High School diploma used t…
It’s worth understanding the trade offs countries like France make to offer near free university education: https://voices.uchicago.edu/euchicago/the-problem-with-frenc...
When you have students taking out Federal loans, the University getting paid with virtually no risk, and they don't if the student can get a job or pay off the loan, they have no incentive to curb spending. The federal government need to force these universities to take the risk and loan out money directly.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/is-free-college-a-good-id...
The college bubble is popping. Enrollment is down 15% from its 2010 peak. My intuition is that the bigger state schools will be well insulated financially, but smaller independent colleges will have a bloodbath.
Until companies ditch the stupid degree requirement for jobs that obviously do not require a degree, everybody is going to suffer. Fewer colleges mean: 1) People out of jobs. Teachers will lose their main income and the remaining colleges will have no incentive to increase their payroll because where are they gonna go? 2) Getting into a college will be even more competitive. As companies will still look for people wi…
It’ll never happen. They need low effort filters.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
While many jobs do not in reality require more than a high-school level education, a college degree is a valuable filter for people who can commit to something that requires learning and applying what has been learned, and seeing it through over a period of 3-4 years. For jobs that require a college degree, but the major subject of study doesn't matter, that is what they are using it for. A High School diploma used t…
Or, staying at a previous job for 3-4 years can signal the same level of commitment. Dare I say, staying at a job for the same amount of time as a degree signals more commitment, as staying in college could just indicate 4 years of partying.
When you have students taking out Federal loans, the University getting paid with virtually no risk, and they don't if the student can get a job or pay off the loan, they have no incentive to curb spending. The federal government need to force these universities to take the risk and loan out money directly.
Students pay a maximum of N% of their income over Y years and anything above this is forgiven. The university has any forgiven amounts deducted from their actual cash payments for future student loans.
When you have students taking out Federal loans, the University getting paid with virtually no risk, and they don't if the student can get a job or pay off the loan, they have no incentive to curb spending. The federal government need to force these universities to take the risk and loan out money directly.
I think the federal government just needs to have a 'fitness standard' for schools to be eligible to receive federal loan dollars. Like, >80% of tuition dollars must be spent on instruction staff, instruction-specific facilities that serve students, students must be able to opt-out of substantial non-instruction services (e.g. dorms, recreational facilities), etc. If you want to build a new building that doesn't have…
The federal government already has the bureaucracy for this in say the DCAA (https://www.dcaa.mil/).
I would very much like any universities accepting student loans to be audited and publish audited financial statements detailing where the money goes.
The catch is that universities must spend on impressive new facilities, buildings, housing, and sports if they want to remain attractive to their customers (students). Most universities are still competing for students. Many students survey a lot of universities and do campus tours to determine where they want to attend. The short campus tours don't really show them anything about the education they receive, but the…
I would argue that they're not competing for students, they're competing for Prestige. Most universities have a wait list a mile long, so they're not going to run out of students. However, very few colleges want to be the university that produces an adequate education with extremely low cost. They all want to be the most prestigious University, costs be damned. If you want to get a sense of the differences, community…
Have a look at the stats at https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d22/tables/dt22_305.40.a...
Add up the percentages and you'll see that only 7% of American undergrad institutions accept fewer than 50% of their applications. That means half of colleges and universities take at least half of everyone who applies. Not much of a waiting list, in other words.
Anyway, as someone who has attended a California community college and a UC and an elite private brand name school, I very much agree that California community colleges have some fabulous faculty and can be both extremely supportive and cost effective for their students!