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As I and other have pointed out (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3197437 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3197437), it's the liberal arts majors that sub

As I and other have pointed out (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3197437 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3197437), it's the liberal arts majors that subsidize the STEM programs at the undergraduate level because the per-credit tuition is roughly the same but it's cheaper to educate historians than molecular geneticists. On another note, it's pretty distressing to see all these calls to drastically overhaul the university system when we're not even five years away from what was essentially an economic singularity (no pun intended).

anamax 15y ago
> it's the liberal arts majors that subsidize the STEM programs at the undergraduate level because the per-credit tuition is roughly the same but it's cheaper to educate historians than molecular geneticists. Umm, no, that doesn't prove your point because neither one pays their way during college (including loans). At best, that proves that LA majors are less subsidized than STEM majors. If we look at where that money comes from, I doubt that we'll find that LA graduates are paying what it cost to educate them. I suspect that we'll find that STEM folk are.
yummyfajitas 15y ago
You completely ignore the fact that STEM brings in research grants, which the university loots in the name of "overhead". I pointed this out also in a similar discussion. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2799626 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2799626 At every university I've attended, STEM grants are used to subsidize university operations.
- noblethrasher 15y ago
  Addressed here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3197531 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3197531 (btw, it's an honor to cross swords. You're one of the people I most frequently CTRL-F on any threads even vaguely related to economics or finance)
  - yummyfajitas 15y ago
    Delirium makes interesting points, but he neglects the fact that universities wildly overcharge for overhead. The university basically provides two services in return for overhead: commercial real estate and outsourced HR. They vastly overcharge for both, and the excess beyond market rates for these services goes directly into the university budget. Some real numbers (I was the grad student): a professor gets a $50k grant which he spends on a graduate student to be a research fellow for 1 year. The grad student gets $20k + benefits (roughly another $10k). The university pockets the remaining $20k for incidentals and overhead. You seriously think loading the grad student into the HR system and making 24 direct deposits costs $20k?

anamax 15y ago

> it's the liberal arts majors that subsidize the STEM programs at the undergraduate level because the per-credit tuition is roughly the same but it's cheaper to educate historians than molecular geneticists. Umm, no, that doesn't prove your point because neither one pays their way during college (including loans). At best, that proves that LA majors are less subsidized than STEM majors. If we look at where that money comes from, I doubt that we'll find that LA graduates are paying what it cost to educate them. I suspect that we'll find that STEM folk are.

yummyfajitas 15y ago

You completely ignore the fact that STEM brings in research grants, which the university loots in the name of "overhead". I pointed this out also in a similar discussion. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2799626 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2799626 At every university I've attended, STEM grants are used to subsidize university operations.

noblethrasher 15y ago
Addressed here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3197531 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3197531 (btw, it's an honor to cross swords. You're one of the people I most frequently CTRL-F on any threads even vaguely related to economics or finance)
- yummyfajitas 15y ago
  Delirium makes interesting points, but he neglects the fact that universities wildly overcharge for overhead. The university basically provides two services in return for overhead: commercial real estate and outsourced HR. They vastly overcharge for both, and the excess beyond market rates for these services goes directly into the university budget. Some real numbers (I was the grad student): a professor gets a $50k grant which he spends on a graduate student to be a research fellow for 1 year. The grad student gets $20k + benefits (roughly another $10k). The university pockets the remaining $20k for incidentals and overhead. You seriously think loading the grad student into the HR system and making 24 direct deposits costs $20k?