The Great College Loan Swindle
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The Great College Loan Swindle
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Re: The Great College Loan Swindle
#2As the price of college he lists the sticker price, not the price after whatever deal is worked out (it is often quite significantly less).
But that is a nit. It is a very real, very big, problem. A country needs an educated work force. But the vultures have turned that need into pure profit, at a great cost to people just trying to have a good life.
Re: The Great College Loan Swindle
#3As the price of college he lists the sticker price, not the price after whatever deal is worked out (it is often quite significantly less). But that is a nit. It is a very real, very big, problem. A country needs an educated work force. But the vultures have turned that need into pure profit, at a great cost to people just trying to have a good life.
> As the price of college he lists the sticker price, not the price after whatever deal is worked out (it is often quite significantly less).
I’m not sure to which “deals” you are referring. When I went to college I paid the sticker price for tuition and then some (for housing, books, administrative fees, etc.). I feel like this is another harmful myth that scholarships and grants significantly lower the cost of college when, in reality, for most students they don’t.
Re: The Great College Loan Swindle
#4As the price of college he lists the sticker price, not the price after whatever deal is worked out (it is often quite significantly less). But that is a nit. It is a very real, very big, problem. A country needs an educated work force. But the vultures have turned that need into pure profit, at a great cost to people just trying to have a good life.
> As the price of college he lists the sticker price, not the price after whatever deal is worked out (it is often quite significantly less). I’m not sure to which “deals” you are referring. When I went to college I paid the sticker price for tuition and then some (for housing, books, administrative fees, etc.). I feel like this is another harmful myth that scholarships and grants significantly lower the cost of coll…
I think the OP’s point is that the money a college spends per student does not equal the tuition sticker price (it may be higher or lower), and the average price incurred (cash tuition + debt incurred) for the student is often less then the sticker price...
Re: The Great College Loan Swindle
#5The article doesn’t seem to address a few things:
First is that all colleges are not the same,with some colleges offering next to no marginal benefit vs. a high school diploma. Which means there are huge price discrepancies based on quality (DeVry ~$16k/year online vs Ucal @ ~14k/year on campus (instate)).
Also not addressed is mean salary of entry level jobs in your area of study - is it worth spending 100k to get a an accounting degree from a decent program where you can probably get an entry level job that pays $50k? Probably. Same $100k on a degree in social work where the entry level job is $30k? Maybe not?
Re: The Great College Loan Swindle
#6It’s interesting that the real perpetrators don’t get much of Taibbi’s scorn. The loan industry are just opportunists, and for the most part students loans have been taken over by the government anyway.
The real criminals here are teachers, parents, and employers, who have created a culture where people are compelled to get completely unnecessary higher education. Here, you need a college degree to be an administrative assistant in an office. In Germany, in contrast, young people can get many white collar jobs after age 16, plus three years of apprenticeships during which they get paid.
Re: The Great College Loan Swindle
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
> As the price of college he lists the sticker price, not the price after whatever deal is worked out (it is often quite significantly less). I’m not sure to which “deals” you are referring. When I went to college I paid the sticker price for tuition and then some (for housing, books, administrative fees, etc.). I feel like this is another harmful myth that scholarships and grants significantly lower the cost of coll…
I think the OP’s point is that the money a college spends per student does not equal the tuition sticker price (it may be higher or lower), and the average price incurred (cash tuition + debt incurred) for the student is often less then the sticker price...
Yes, thanks. I know that the pricing situation is nuts, everyone knows it is nuts (I'm a prof, but not at all involved in admissions or financial aid). The model is to list a large sticker price and give a lot of that back.
My college's web site is an example. https://www.smcvt.edu/admissions/financial-aid-and-tuition/t... (I understand that all schools in the US have to have such a page.) It lists the bottom-line summary of the sticker price and then gives you a link to a calculator that you use to figure what it will really cost you, which is typically much less. For example, overall we give back more than half and I assume that our peer institutions do also.
(And, yes, a loan is different than a grant, which is different than work study. My only point is that the end price is often much less than the sticker price.)
All this is not to say that the point of the article is wrong. It is not wrong. I said it was a nit, and I meant that.
Re: The Great College Loan Swindle
#8Why would it be in a university's interests to accumulate such a large amount of cash?
Re: The Great College Loan Swindle
#9It’s interesting that the real perpetrators don’t get much of Taibbi’s scorn. The loan industry are just opportunists, and for the most part students loans have been taken over by the government anyway. The real criminals here are teachers, parents, and employers, who have created a culture where people are compelled to get completely unnecessary higher education. Here, you need a college degree to be an administrati…
The employers are free to require whatever they'd like for a job. But the teachers and parents are often uneducated on the topic themselves and parrot the prevailing wisdom that a college degree is essential.
Neither of my parents have a college degree, but they were insistent that their children got one - any one. It's the prevailing blue collar logic and it's hard to shake it when you're surrounded by it.
Re: The Great College Loan Swindle
#10Why would it be in a university's interests to accumulate such a large amount of cash?
Because they are basically becoming hedge funds with an university attached.
'I was going to donate money to Yale. But maybe it makes more sense to mail a check directly to the hedge fund of my choice' - Malcolm Gladwell tweet
https://www.thenation.com/article/universities-are-becoming-...