4 ms·

http://www.finaid.org/savings/tuition-inflation.phtml http://www.finaid.org/savings/tuition-inflation.phtml (those graphs don't really do it justice, but if you

by AJ007 14y ago

http://www.finaid.org/savings/tuition-inflation.phtml http://www.finaid.org/savings/tuition-inflation.phtml (those graphs don't really do it justice, but if you know your math you know what a difference being several point ahead of inflation for decades does to the difference in price.) Its a shame that an entire generation of educated Americans are being enslaved by an unparallelled level of debt so early in their lives. The NYTimes has had many articles that give a good idea of how deep the problem is: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/business/shedding-student-loans-in-bankruptcy-is-an-uphill-battle.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/01/business/shedding-student-... http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/business/once-a-student-now-dogged-by-collection-agencies.html?pagewanted=all http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/09/business/once-a-student-no... I'm an optimist. The problem will fix itself thanks to technology. Education in the future is going to be nearly free. I think it is going to happen a lot sooner than people realize. Runaway education inflation will make even the "expensive" solutions look dirt cheap. There will be some ugly financial realities along the way. Private, public, not for profit, and for profit schools will go belly up along the way. Educators who teach things that can be taught online better will find themselves with no job market. Students whose defaulted $70k loan balloons to $200k because of non-payment will be at a tremendous financial disadvantage over the next generation of students with no debt. Kalamazoo makes for a warm feeling story. Reality is a lot more sinister. It is giving free weapons to one small group in an arms race. In this case, everyone else is getting killed with debt.

rayiner 14y ago
> I'm an optimist. The problem will fix itself thanks to technology. Education in the future is going to be nearly free. I think it is going to happen a lot sooner than people realize. Runaway education inflation will make even the "expensive" solutions look dirt cheap. You're presupposing that tuition has anything to do with the cost of providing education, and that tuition will go down if the costs go down. It doesn't. Skyrocketing tuition is the product of schools being non-fungible prestige goods. It's how the price of Prada handbags doesn't have anything to do with their manufacturing cost. College in the US isn't about education. It's about signaling. And the price of desirable signals, like Stanford or U Michigan, isn't going to go down based on competition from cheaper online educational institutions.
- natrius 14y ago
  College in the US is about education and signaling. Capable people want to learn more after high school, so most of them go to college. It makes sense that the college one attends has become a signal since its so closely coupled with what capable people want to do anyway. In the future, this will not be the case. So many capable people will eschew a traditional college education that alternative signaling methods will arise. For instance, Y Combinator is a more powerful signal than Stanford is. (Stanford graduates don't automatically receive $150k in convertible debt for their endeavors once they graduate.)
  - rayiner 14y ago
    > In the future, this will not be the case. So many capable people will eschew a traditional college education that alternative signaling methods will arise. As long as 99% of employers depend on the traditional signaling methods, very few capable people will eschew a traditional college education. Only in certain segments of software engineering does the idea even have any traction. > For instance, Y Combinator is a more powerful signal than Stanford is. (Stanford graduates don't automatically receive $150k in convertible debt for their endeavors once they graduate.) Not really, outside a very specific niche of people doing a very specific type of startup work. If you want to build a web app, yeah, Y Combinator is a valuable signal. If you want to work for Lockheed-Martin or Goldman Sachs, not so much. As for $150k in convertible debt... you can earn that much in bonuses working on Wall Street for a couple of years, with far less risk and far more predictability.
khuey 14y ago
Education may be free, but why would that affect the price of credentials?

by AJ007 14y ago

rayiner 14y ago

> I'm an optimist. The problem will fix itself thanks to technology. Education in the future is going to be nearly free. I think it is going to happen a lot sooner than people realize. Runaway education inflation will make even the "expensive" solutions look dirt cheap. You're presupposing that tuition has anything to do with the cost of providing education, and that tuition will go down if the costs go down. It doesn't. Skyrocketing tuition is the product of schools being non-fungible prestige goods. It's how the price of Prada handbags doesn't have anything to do with their manufacturing cost. College in the US isn't about education. It's about signaling. And the price of desirable signals, like Stanford or U Michigan, isn't going to go down based on competition from cheaper online educational institutions.

natrius 14y ago
College in the US is about education and signaling. Capable people want to learn more after high school, so most of them go to college. It makes sense that the college one attends has become a signal since its so closely coupled with what capable people want to do anyway. In the future, this will not be the case. So many capable people will eschew a traditional college education that alternative signaling methods will arise. For instance, Y Combinator is a more powerful signal than Stanford is. (Stanford graduates don't automatically receive $150k in convertible debt for their endeavors once they graduate.)
- rayiner 14y ago
  > In the future, this will not be the case. So many capable people will eschew a traditional college education that alternative signaling methods will arise. As long as 99% of employers depend on the traditional signaling methods, very few capable people will eschew a traditional college education. Only in certain segments of software engineering does the idea even have any traction. > For instance, Y Combinator is a more powerful signal than Stanford is. (Stanford graduates don't automatically receive $150k in convertible debt for their endeavors once they graduate.) Not really, outside a very specific niche of people doing a very specific type of startup work. If you want to build a web app, yeah, Y Combinator is a valuable signal. If you want to work for Lockheed-Martin or Goldman Sachs, not so much. As for $150k in convertible debt... you can earn that much in bonuses working on Wall Street for a couple of years, with far less risk and far more predictability.

khuey 14y ago

Education may be free, but why would that affect the price of credentials?