4 ms·

Not sure I understand this sentiment. I went to a good university, majored in history, took out 100k in debt totally for said degree, and have been working as

by fridif 5y ago

Not sure I understand this sentiment. I went to a good university, majored in history, took out 100k in debt totally for said degree, and have been working as a programmer ever since. Why does my outcome feel so rare? I think 100k was a fair enough price. (25k per year including food and a room).

ashtonkem 5y ago
Because inflation adjusted it used to be a few grand a year. It’s not like college is 10x better than it was in the 1960s or 1970s.
lazide 5y ago
If you got the same degree for 10k (what it used to cost inflation adjusted), why would that not be better for everyone? Every professor or co-professor I know gets paid peanuts, gets poor support, and gets waaaay too many students. These folks are at Yale, Princeton, etc. It’s a scam and the money disappears into the machine with little accountability and a ton of hand waving.
- fridif 5y ago
  How would it be possible for 4 years of education to cost just $10,000? The cost of my food for 4 years is higher than that alone. My tuition was around $15,000 per year. You are more than welcome to investigate where that disappears to (presumably not all to staff salary), but requiring me to pay $100,000 upfront would have killed my career before it ever started-- unless of course you convince employers that a degree isn't needed.
  - lazide 5y ago
    It used to be possible (albeit required significant work, but it was not 20 hrs a day of work + school - more like 6-8) to literally work your way through a 4 year degree while working a minimum wage job - including using that job to rent a room or an apartment somewhere, or live in a dorm. $15k for tuition alone (not counting books/materials/food, room and board) obviously makes that impossible. It isn’t going into teaching staff. It goes into administrators salaries, bloated programs/overhead in sports, recruiting program costs, fees for housing, fees for food, and ever larger endowments that somehow never trickle down - among other things. For what is being taught 99% of the time, the economies of scale make $2500/yr for tuition perfectly doable in a typical undergrad environment - if anyone wanted to. And it is done all the time in Europe, for instance. If you’re taking out a loan to cover all your living costs + tuition than obviously that is going to be more expensive than tuition alone. In Europe where school tuition is covered, there are also separate programs to cover student living costs - which are also not super high generally. My ex-gf got her physics degree from a well known university in Spain, and they paid her $500 per month or week (forget) to cover living costs at the time I believe which was more than enough. She wasn’t eating imported caviar, but students in general have always been able to get by (and have fun/a social life) without big expenses.

by fridif 5y ago

ashtonkem 5y ago

Because inflation adjusted it used to be a few grand a year. It’s not like college is 10x better than it was in the 1960s or 1970s.

lazide 5y ago

If you got the same degree for 10k (what it used to cost inflation adjusted), why would that not be better for everyone? Every professor or co-professor I know gets paid peanuts, gets poor support, and gets waaaay too many students. These folks are at Yale, Princeton, etc. It’s a scam and the money disappears into the machine with little accountability and a ton of hand waving.

fridif 5y ago
How would it be possible for 4 years of education to cost just $10,000? The cost of my food for 4 years is higher than that alone. My tuition was around $15,000 per year. You are more than welcome to investigate where that disappears to (presumably not all to staff salary), but requiring me to pay $100,000 upfront would have killed my career before it ever started-- unless of course you convince employers that a degree isn't needed.
- lazide 5y ago
  It used to be possible (albeit required significant work, but it was not 20 hrs a day of work + school - more like 6-8) to literally work your way through a 4 year degree while working a minimum wage job - including using that job to rent a room or an apartment somewhere, or live in a dorm. $15k for tuition alone (not counting books/materials/food, room and board) obviously makes that impossible. It isn’t going into teaching staff. It goes into administrators salaries, bloated programs/overhead in sports, recruiting program costs, fees for housing, fees for food, and ever larger endowments that somehow never trickle down - among other things. For what is being taught 99% of the time, the economies of scale make $2500/yr for tuition perfectly doable in a typical undergrad environment - if anyone wanted to. And it is done all the time in Europe, for instance. If you’re taking out a loan to cover all your living costs + tuition than obviously that is going to be more expensive than tuition alone. In Europe where school tuition is covered, there are also separate programs to cover student living costs - which are also not super high generally. My ex-gf got her physics degree from a well known university in Spain, and they paid her $500 per month or week (forget) to cover living costs at the time I believe which was more than enough. She wasn’t eating imported caviar, but students in general have always been able to get by (and have fun/a social life) without big expenses.