Reply to Steps to fix the race to 3% admission rate

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]UCAS system is a better way IMO. And yes, they have elite schools too and a lot of kids with hopes pinned to them.

I'm not sure why private colleges that take federal money (ie 95%) don't have a US rate and a non-USA rate.[/quote]

The US would have to fund higher education a lot more to have the kind of say you want.  Yes, professors are funded by federal grants, but the benefits of those grants for society and private business in terms of both R&D, improved policy, and workforce training are estimated to be an easy 10fold return in the relative short-term and far more in the long-term.  Yes, some students are funded by loans, but it would be easier and cheaper for colleges to say you can't pay, you can't come and just teach the UMC/wealthy.  The benefits you are pointing to benefit society more than they do the colleges/universities so the government doesn't have a lot of bargaining power with colleges/universities.[/quote]

Not really. If federal funds were tied to tuition, schools would find a way to cut fat to bring down tuition and keep federal money [/quote]

A little bit maybe, but I think they would just accept fewer poor students.  Especially selective private schools which are the ones relevant to this thread (3% admission race).[/quote]

No R1 university is giving up federal research grants [/quote]

The point of this thread isn't tuition costs, it's low admission rates.  If the feds were to tie receiving federal research grants to tuition, sure the schools would cut tuition--but they could also cut institutional aid to anyone who can't afford the lower tuition rates.  They could decide that the teaching side of their schools is less worth it and cap admissions making the admission rates even tougher. (And if feds made it too draconian, private universities could just switch to venture capital/private donors/use of endowments and skip the feds altogether and have a lot laxer policies around profiting from research, not sharing data openly, more patenting--they could switch the model quite a bit if the US continued to make a lot of demands on universities without concomitant support).[/quote]

BINGO!!!

You cannot make the T25 schools open up more spaces in the freshman class.  Nor do you really want that without the infrastructure in place.  Just look at schools that have grown too rapidly---follow the parent's FB pages and see the issues they kids have.  Housing is a pain, cannot get classes they need, coops that used to be easy to get (put out 100+ resumes and most kids had a job secured 1-2 months before but now kids are putting 150-200 and only 20% of certain majors have jobs because of the overcrowding and the economy so they all register for fall classes in case they don't get a coop, which means there are not enough classes for kids to take, etc the cycle continues), etc.  Harvard can't just go from 2K freshman to 3K.  There is no housing, there is not classroom space, advisors, food services, library/study space, gym space, etc.  The school is designed for 7-8K undergrads---they cannot go to 12K without significant investments in all infrastructure.  Not to mention the differences between a 7K and 12 K school is huge in terms of environment---they wouldn't  "be Harvard" anymore.

The better solution is for people to realize it's a lottery and real treat to get selected to attend an elite school, but realize for someone that smart, there are hundreds of excellent universities and your kid can find the right one and love their 4 years and excel in life.  You just need the right attitude.  Recognize that it is NOBODY's Right to attend an elite university--no matter how hard you worked for the last 4 years.  Set your target schools right and you should easily have 2-4 great schools you can attend that might even offer you great merit and/or honors admissions.  [/quote]

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