Reply to 200% increase in tuition

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]So it about matches inflation.[/quote]

No.  The college inflation rate was almost 2x the overall inflation rate.  The overall was 115%. Compared to the 200% in the OP.  You cannot seriously think the cost of American colleges is defensible?   US policy created a knowledge economy where most jobs require a degree.  Then gave govt subsidized loans to help people pay for it.  Okay, fine.  THEN states cut education spending especially for college during the Great Recession and most never returned those levels.  So we have inelastic demand because 3 generations have been told you’ll be left behind without a degree and the colleges know public and private loans are available, so jack up tuition accordingly.  Then there’s also perception.  No college wants to cut tuition below its peers because people conflate cost with quality.  [b]A college doesn’t want to be perceived as the low rent version.[/b]  But something will have to be done. As these inflation rates are not sustainable [/quote]

The bolded is definitely true of most colleges, and it's also true that a lot of consumers of college education (and yes I chose the word consumer intentionally here) think that price and value are correlated.

But there is also a growing population of people who look for good value in schools, and there are schools seeking to serve those families. Some of it is hidden because some of these schools will still have high sticker prices, but are well known for giving considerable aid to students with great grades and scores, because they use the discount to lure higher quality students, which also helps them attract higher quality faculty. I suspect we'll see more of these schools, and more families looking for them, moving forward, because as you say, we cannot sustain the current trajectory.

I actually think one of the best things that could happen to colleges would be for us to do a collective reframe on non-college career paths. There is still so much resistance to this in American culture and it's bad for everyone because (1) not all kids belong in or are happy in college, (2) a huge number of jobs really do not benefit from a college degree and in some cases I think it's a detriment, and [b](3) there are plenty of careers with decent earning potential that don't require specialized academic knowledge, so the link between college and earnings does not have to be nearly as close as it currently is.[/b]

Not only does this situation hurt students and families who are wasting money on college when it's not a good fit and might be superfluous to their future, but it's also bad for all the kids who really belong in college and are pursuing fields where college is a true necessity, because it means they are at universities with a lot of kids who don't want or need to be there, undercutting one of the best things about college for truly academic people -- being surrounded by like minded students and professors for four or more years.[/quote]

This is so true.  In my line of work they love to see a bunch of letters behind your name, yet some of the wisest and most productive employees around me have never taken a college course and one I love to work with has a GED.  Where our MBAs can't string a few sentences together in an email and are flummoxed by the simplest things.[/quote]

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