5 ms·

It sounds like the real culprit's the university that charged a ton of money for a useless education.

by SamReidHughes 8y ago

qaq 8y ago
hmm did they force her to get one?
- VikingCoder 8y ago
  How is there not enough competition to provide a good education at a lower price? It shouldn't be this hard to find a good, affordable education.
  - qaq 8y ago
    It is easy there are many good online options in many cases with very reasonable cost.
    - VikingCoder 8y ago
      Just to throw this out there, The experience of living in a dorm, and socializing with people... That was the best time of my life. I wouldn't trade that away, if I could help it.
      - qaq 8y ago
        well I guess the question is what can people do if they can't afford to pay for that option.
        VikingCoder 8y ago
        The question I'm trying to ask is, Why isn't there enough competition to provide "live at a good, affordable college"?
  - puzzlingcaptcha 8y ago
    There doesn't need to be competition if anyone can 'afford' it through a government-subsidized loan. It's not exactly a shocking recent revelation either: https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/18/opinion/our-greedy-colleges.html https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/18/opinion/our-greedy-colleg... 'ACCOUNTING FOR THE RISE IN COLLEGE TUITION' [PDF] http://www.nber.org/papers/w21967.pdf http://www.nber.org/papers/w21967.pdf
- SamReidHughes 8y ago
  No -- it's her fault too. Lots of people think more practically when getting a degree. Not that I was one.
replicatorblog 8y ago
This is the most under-discussed issue in the loan debate. There are so many schools with dubious programs that fail to place graduates in careers that justify the outlay that have a nearly unlimited access to capital via these loans.
- lloyd-christmas 8y ago
  I went to a much better school than my older sister. It also cost roughly 4x as much. When I graduated college, my income was just shy of 3x compared to that of my sister. I paid off my student loans before I turned 30, she is still paying hers at 35. Was it the quality of our schooling that impacted our return on investment? No. It was our choice in profession. She went into teaching, I went into finance. The college I attended churned out graduates headed to both careers, both costing the same. Had my sister gone to the quality of school that I attended, she would never have been able to pay her loans. She probably would be more qualified to teach the next generation, but an education major at Ivy League College would still be a "dubious program". I realize that isn't what you're intending to say. However, college pricing is generally (thought to be) correlated with quality of education, not with return on investment of that education. The result of targeting the "dubious program" ends up simply devaluing low-pay jobs.
camgunz 8y ago
Administrators are remarkably upfront about some departments really only existing to subsidize the other departments. Source: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/06/04/colleges-arts-and-sciences-struggle-deficits-enrollment-declines https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/06/04/colleges-arts...
erik_seaberg 8y ago
If the idle rich want to keep fascinating but impractical fields of study on life support, that's a fine tradition to continue. We just shouldn't let working class students mistake these for sound career investments.

It sounds like the real culprit's the university that charged a ton of money for a useless education.

qaq 8y ago

hmm did they force her to get one?

VikingCoder 8y ago
How is there not enough competition to provide a good education at a lower price? It shouldn't be this hard to find a good, affordable education.
- qaq 8y ago
  It is easy there are many good online options in many cases with very reasonable cost.
  - VikingCoder 8y ago
    Just to throw this out there, The experience of living in a dorm, and socializing with people... That was the best time of my life. I wouldn't trade that away, if I could help it.
    - qaq 8y ago
      well I guess the question is what can people do if they can't afford to pay for that option.
      - VikingCoder 8y ago
        The question I'm trying to ask is, Why isn't there enough competition to provide "live at a good, affordable college"?
- puzzlingcaptcha 8y ago
  There doesn't need to be competition if anyone can 'afford' it through a government-subsidized loan. It's not exactly a shocking recent revelation either: https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/18/opinion/our-greedy-colleges.html https://www.nytimes.com/1987/02/18/opinion/our-greedy-colleg... 'ACCOUNTING FOR THE RISE IN COLLEGE TUITION' [PDF] http://www.nber.org/papers/w21967.pdf http://www.nber.org/papers/w21967.pdf
SamReidHughes 8y ago
No -- it's her fault too. Lots of people think more practically when getting a degree. Not that I was one.

replicatorblog 8y ago

This is the most under-discussed issue in the loan debate. There are so many schools with dubious programs that fail to place graduates in careers that justify the outlay that have a nearly unlimited access to capital via these loans.

lloyd-christmas 8y ago
I went to a much better school than my older sister. It also cost roughly 4x as much. When I graduated college, my income was just shy of 3x compared to that of my sister. I paid off my student loans before I turned 30, she is still paying hers at 35. Was it the quality of our schooling that impacted our return on investment? No. It was our choice in profession. She went into teaching, I went into finance. The college I attended churned out graduates headed to both careers, both costing the same. Had my sister gone to the quality of school that I attended, she would never have been able to pay her loans. She probably would be more qualified to teach the next generation, but an education major at Ivy League College would still be a "dubious program". I realize that isn't what you're intending to say. However, college pricing is generally (thought to be) correlated with quality of education, not with return on investment of that education. The result of targeting the "dubious program" ends up simply devaluing low-pay jobs.

camgunz 8y ago

Administrators are remarkably upfront about some departments really only existing to subsidize the other departments. Source: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/06/04/colleges-arts-and-sciences-struggle-deficits-enrollment-declines https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/06/04/colleges-arts...

erik_seaberg 8y ago

If the idle rich want to keep fascinating but impractical fields of study on life support, that's a fine tradition to continue. We just shouldn't let working class students mistake these for sound career investments.