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Colleges at the breaking point, forcing ‘hard choices’ about education

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Re: Colleges at the breaking point, forcing ‘hard choices’ about education

#21
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m still waiting for someone to explain to me how 15K+ in tuition a year is acceptable. No sympathy here for the college industry.

Gotta pay for those basketball and football programs somehow. (Yes, SOME athletics programs are net positive - most are not)

[deleted]

Re: Colleges at the breaking point, forcing ‘hard choices’ about education

#23

College isn't as appealing as it once was. In order to participate in the economy, we need a well-paying job. We're told to get a well-paying job, we need a good degree. To get a good degree, many of us have to go into debt. We finish college with a good degree but are saddled with thousands of dollars of debt (sometimes tens of thousands). And this college debt doesn't go away if we go bankrupt. It will always follo…

You are still way better off with college than without. It’s not as good a deal as it used to be but it’s still the best deal available.

I'm not so sure. I would probably choose a vocational apprenticeship over a B.A. in Sociology from State U.

Re: Colleges at the breaking point, forcing ‘hard choices’ about education

#24

College isn't as appealing as it once was. In order to participate in the economy, we need a well-paying job. We're told to get a well-paying job, we need a good degree. To get a good degree, many of us have to go into debt. We finish college with a good degree but are saddled with thousands of dollars of debt (sometimes tens of thousands). And this college debt doesn't go away if we go bankrupt. It will always follo…

I think the level of economic anxiety (precariousness) people have is one of the biggest mental health risks in the US. It lowers people's ability to perform cognitive tasks and results in more bad decisions.

Re: Colleges at the breaking point, forcing ‘hard choices’ about education

#25
I think it's time to decouple education from all of the other things tied to colleges. When I studied abroad in Australia, things like the gym or meal plans were available, but not "bundled in" to your tuition. The idea of tying competitive sports teams to a university would be laughable.

We need to remove all of the "excess" stuff from higher education and get back to the core of education and research. Sure, things like football might be net profitable (for some schools), but lacrosse, baseball, swimming, gymnastics and all of that are not and students shouldn't be paying for that.

Re: Colleges at the breaking point, forcing ‘hard choices’ about education

#26
post #10

My kid will be making his college choice in the coming year. As such, he's getting mail from colleges pretty much every day. The mailer from Vanderbilt really struck me as to the wrongheaded thinking of university leaders. On one side was this amazing blurb: "Vanderbilt financial aid packages DO NOT INCLUDE LOANS. IT'S FREE MONEY....65% of Vanderbilt students received some type of FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE" Tell me why co…

Revenue maximization by way of price discrimination. Charging $x as the list price but giving 65% of students a big need-based financial aid package is a lot more palatable than saying the price is $x unless you're rich or foreign, in which case it's $x * 3, even if they're functionally equivalent.

Re: Colleges at the breaking point, forcing ‘hard choices’ about education

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are still way better off with college than without. It’s not as good a deal as it used to be but it’s still the best deal available.

I'm not so sure. I would probably choose a vocational apprenticeship over a B.A. in Sociology from State U.

A B.A. in Sociology isn't a good comparison to vocational apprenticeships. A better one would be a B.E in some kind of engineering.

Re: Colleges at the breaking point, forcing ‘hard choices’ about education

#28
post #2

I wish I could be more sympathetic to the college industrial complex, but they've been treat us poorly for years. Yes, I know it's our fault for demanding gold plated educational experiences and then going into crazy debt to finance it. But who wants to blame himself/herself? The job can be done better for much less. Indeed, it used to be much cheaper in the past when the dorms weren't so fancy and there were a bazil…

maybe the dept of education should stipulate that 80% of college operating budgets be direct teaching/research costs, lest their fed loan largess be taken away. and progressively tax endowments, particularly targeting above a threshold of $100K/student or something like that. currently, the incentives are such that greedy people can just milk all the unrestrained cash flow coming into what should be a non-profit-orie…

Honestly, those endowments are part of why some schools like my alma mater are able to offer a no-loan commitment for need-based aid. Now, those calculations are still awfully rough on many middle class families, they tend to overestimate family contributions, but they're still really helpful for a lot of students.

Re: Colleges at the breaking point, forcing ‘hard choices’ about education

#29

College isn't as appealing as it once was. In order to participate in the economy, we need a well-paying job. We're told to get a well-paying job, we need a good degree. To get a good degree, many of us have to go into debt. We finish college with a good degree but are saddled with thousands of dollars of debt (sometimes tens of thousands). And this college debt doesn't go away if we go bankrupt. It will always follo…

> What's the point of a college degree if we're going to be in debt while working after getting the degree? Might as well skip the whole college part.

A bachelor's degree serves as a barrier of entry for many roles outside of IT. Historically the pay gap between the jobs you can get without, and what you make after clearing this barrier, made up for the initial investment rather quick. Now that there are diminishing returns on that investment, you need to optimize on a case by case basis. Does your chosen profession allow other paths to high paying jobs? Can you get the degree with less investment using less costly credit hours (community college first, then state university)? Is the peer group and the resulting network formed after attending college valuable enough to boost your career 5 years later? There are not that many well paying jobs accessible without a degree, I think cost optimization is worth it in the long run instead of not going to college at all.

Re: Colleges at the breaking point, forcing ‘hard choices’ about education

#30

College isn't as appealing as it once was. In order to participate in the economy, we need a well-paying job. We're told to get a well-paying job, we need a good degree. To get a good degree, many of us have to go into debt. We finish college with a good degree but are saddled with thousands of dollars of debt (sometimes tens of thousands). And this college debt doesn't go away if we go bankrupt. It will always follo…

It’s too bad college has become so transactional. Not judging — there’s a lot of wealth inequality in the world, and the vast majority of people don’t have the luxury.

But there’s another aspect to college — the friendships, the discovery, finding interests, finding yourself.

These aspects have gone to the wayside, because for the majority of people there’s just not enough money to justify this. It feels similar to the cuts to art and music in lower schools - “what good are those programs for getting a job?”

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