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Why Is College in America So Expensive?

theatlantic.com

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Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?

#61

Post by amreact »

Alupis wrote: post #27
Retric wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'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.

At UAH (University of Alabama in Huntsville) they have started requiring first-year students to live in the dorms. Not sure if they require second-year students to.

Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?

#62

Post by devoply »

armenarmen wrote: post #55
Domenic_S wrote: post #3

I 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.

Exactly. Access to cheap debt will always drive up prices. Lower the interest rates for anything (houses pre recession) and prices skyrocket.

It's not just access to debt. It's access to debt that can't be discharged via bankruptcy. Do that and watch all excess debt disappear.

Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?

#63

Post by jimhefferon »

grandinj wrote: post #29

That'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.

Yes, for example, I'd like to know how other countries can be cheaper. What percentage of their budget is professors? What percentage of ours is professors? What about administrators? Student services people?

I've been in higher ed for decades and I don't feel I understand where the money goes.

Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?

#64

Post by jaxtellerSoA »

xienze wrote: post #15
Domenic_S wrote: post #3

I 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.

> I 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 other kicker is that they bake BIG subsidies for low-income students into tuition, which I found rather counter-intuitive. We're gonna raise tuition... to help students who can't afford tuition... pay for tuition that they can't afford...…

> As bizarre as it sounds, I think if you stripped subsidies and the effect of near-universal availability of student loans out of the equation

But the lefties will cry "You're discriminating and making it harder for poor people to get an education". So it will never happen.

Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?

#66

Post by jonknee »

prolikewh0a wrote: post #50
bla2 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's just a bit over 1k / month -- similar to rent in SF :-P

How many roommates for $1k? $1k within 20 miles of Seattle isn't enough to live alone, and I'm guessing it's much worse in SF.

It's a triple occupancy dorm. You could definitely do that in Seattle/SF/NYC considering it's a single room with no kitchen or bathroom shared by 3 people (other than the fact that I think it would be illegal to rent out).

Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?

#67

Post by pwned1 »

seibelj wrote: post #51
pwned1 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I will link to this book over and over: "Overcharged" explains the American medical system and its problems in great detail. Cannot recommend it more. Price obfuscation, third-party payments, and government interference have warped the medical system in ways that will make you laugh (then cry). https://www.amazon.com/Overcharged-Americans-Much-Health-Car...

Thank you, I'll check it out.

Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?

#68

Post by pwthornton »

xienze wrote: post #37
ergothus wrote: post #21

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... w…

I think a lot of university staff cry wolf over funding and always have, even in the good times. Yeah, they're really feeling the effects of it, what with admin staff sizes increasingly exponentially, constantly building new buildings and renovating existing ones, etc. My humble state school is like a luxury resort these days. There's puh-lenty of fat for colleges to trim if they're really feeling the pinch, but they…

You're conflating a bunch of stuff. New buildings almost always come out of restricted funding from donors, not from tuition.

While schools are hiring more admin staff -- much of it mandated by the federal government -- the amount of faculty is dropping.

Funding for state schools has dropped a lot. This is an undisputed fact. You have places that may have once been 60% funded by the state that are now down to around 10% or so. Of course tuition went up.

Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?

#69

Post by Alupis »

xvector wrote: post #38
Alupis wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> However, in my experience, most students live off-campus these days. Can you source this statement? I know at UCB there were some students that lived off-campus but the vast majority lived in campus dorms IIRC.

My experience is with UC Davis and CSUS, both of which have dramatic shortages of student housing for their over 35,000 student population at each school.

Re: Why Is College in America So Expensive?

#70

Post by uhtred »

Because the game is rigged. Citizens without debt are a danger to the established order. Why else are young people encouraged to get into tens/hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt, for a degree in something vague like "business", just to become recruitment consultants. After that they are encouraged to buy a big house (in other words take on a huge mortgage), and 3 cars. Debt keeps citizens chained down and the rich rich.
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