Anonymous
Post 01/16/2026 09:06     Subject: Feds end student loans and institutional support for some majors
Anonymous wrote:Trump accidentally did something decent.

Federal loans don't pay for college. They pay for the country club experience. Important core education for the nation comes at our community colleges and instate colleges. Cutting funding for private school and OOS country clubs frees up education money for education.


+1.

And helping students focus on degrees that have better than HS graduate salaries also is good, even if accidental.
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2026 08:54     Subject: Re:Feds end student loans and institutional support for some majors
Maybe the schools can change their pricing structure to reflect future career earnings??? If they can't be treated the same; they shouldn't cost the same.
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2026 08:50     Subject: Feds end student loans and institutional support for some majors
The article says:

"The Department of Education has finalized a new rule that requires college degree programs to show that their alumni earn more than the average high school graduate to continue receiving federal funds."

IMO the cheapest and best way to work around this is for colleges to help kids get real jobs, possibly add certifications into the curriculum, a teaching degree option, more internships. Not a bad thing.

I expected a worse proposal tbh.
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2026 08:37     Subject: Feds end student loans and institutional support for some majors
Anonymous wrote:Trump accidentally did something decent.

Federal loans don't pay for college. They pay for the country club experience. Important core education for the nation comes at our community colleges and instate colleges. Cutting funding for private school and OOS country clubs frees up education money for education.


I tend to agree.
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2026 08:23     Subject: Feds end student loans and institutional support for some majors
Trump accidentally did something decent.

Federal loans don't pay for college. They pay for the country club experience. Important core education for the nation comes at our community colleges and instate colleges. Cutting funding for private school and OOS country clubs frees up education money for education.
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2026 08:19     Subject: Feds end student loans and institutional support for some majors
Anonymous wrote:On face value, the idea of forcing students to consider the return on investment for a degree should be bipartisan. Tying the ability to get any federal loans to that seems like a hard line and I feel like there’s another policy solution. When neither side trusts the other and the assumption is that changes like this are part of a broader attack on colleges it really limits any real discussion.


Nonpartisan. The word is nonpartisan.
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2026 08:17     Subject: Feds end student loans and institutional support for some majors
Anonymous wrote:So these majors will be the new markers of the wealthy and elite? Because they'll be the only ones who can afford to take humanities, fine arts and social sciences?


It has been that way for a while now for most students.
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2026 07:55     Subject: Feds end student loans and institutional support for some majors
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:"Why should taxpayers pay for poor educational choices young adults are making? Why aren’t parents guiding their children to make financially responsible decisions?"

Because until now we lived in the United States of America where Americans had freedom to chose to go into debt.

If you want to live under a dictatorship then we are no longer the US.

Trump wants more Trump Universities that's his goal nothing more nothing less. It's all about the money flowing to him.


Students can still take on plenty of debt. It just won’t be federally provided. The private sector can fill that niche just fine.


This is kind of where I fall in the debate although I'd probably call it "provided, backed, or forgiven." And before anyone yells -- well we need folks like social workers -- I'd tell you "yes, that's true" but I'm also more a fan of a supply-demand market. If they/govt-agencies couldn't fill the slots, they'd have to raise the salaries, no different than for engineers or programmers or attorneys. BTDT on both sides of the hiring table.
Anonymous
Post 01/16/2026 07:39     Subject: Feds end student loans and institutional support for some majors
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We are idiots if we starve the liberal arts. The obsession with creating worker bees for companies instead of fostering a well-rounded education is bonkers.


This


That’s not what the proposal is about. It’s about terminating useless degrees at $100k a year schools that end up with salaries less than a high school graduate. Go back and read the actual proposal. My expensive “psych”undergrad degree at a $$ SLAC was worthless


How was it worthless? There is such high need for Psychologists, no?


Actually, psych degrees are the prime example of low ROI.
Psychologists actually need a doctoral degree to be a psychologist. Just majoring in psychology isn't enough.


A PP. I have experience in the market research field. That's a reasonably in-demand, reasonably-compensated liberal arts degree holder profession. It is common that entry-level staff have psychology degrees or minors.


At Starbucks, sure.

You must live in some alternate universe.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 23:38     Subject: Feds end student loans and institutional support for some majors
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We are idiots if we starve the liberal arts. The obsession with creating worker bees for companies instead of fostering a well-rounded education is bonkers.


This


That’s not what the proposal is about. It’s about terminating useless degrees at $100k a year schools that end up with salaries less than a high school graduate. Go back and read the actual proposal. My expensive “psych”undergrad degree at a $$ SLAC was worthless


How was it worthless? There is such high need for Psychologists, no?


Actually, psych degrees are the prime example of low ROI.
Psychologists actually need a doctoral degree to be a psychologist. Just majoring in psychology isn't enough.


A PP. I have experience in the market research field. That's a reasonably in-demand, reasonably-compensated liberal arts degree holder profession. It is common that entry-level staff have psychology degrees or minors.

It's so weird to me that people think various degrees are only channeling people to the literal same name profession.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 22:52     Subject: Feds end student loans and institutional support for some majors
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We are idiots if we starve the liberal arts. The obsession with creating worker bees for companies instead of fostering a well-rounded education is bonkers.


This


That’s not what the proposal is about. It’s about terminating useless degrees at $100k a year schools that end up with salaries less than a high school graduate. Go back and read the actual proposal. My expensive “psych”undergrad degree at a $$ SLAC was worthless


How was it worthless? There is such high need for Psychologists, no?


Actually, psych degrees are the prime example of low ROI.
Psychologists actually need a doctoral degree to be a psychologist. Just majoring in psychology isn't enough.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 22:49     Subject: Feds end student loans and institutional support for some majors
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Federal loans part of the reason why college tuitions are skyrocketing. So good move!


Will college tuition come down??


Unfortunately, they tend not to roll back.
But there is truth to federal subsidies and a corollary uptick in tuition costs. Colleges also play the game of pricing at what the market will bear.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 22:45     Subject: Feds end student loans and institutional support for some majors
Anonymous wrote:We are idiots if we starve the liberal arts. The obsession with creating worker bees for companies instead of fostering a well-rounded education is bonkers.

Here's the problem, the well-rounded education should have been happening in high school.
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 22:39     Subject: Feds end student loans and institutional support for some majors
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We are idiots if we starve the liberal arts. The obsession with creating worker bees for companies instead of fostering a well-rounded education is bonkers.


This


That’s not what the proposal is about. It’s about terminating useless degrees at $100k a year schools that end up with salaries less than a high school graduate. Go back and read the actual proposal. My expensive “psych”undergrad degree at a $$ SLAC was worthless


I considered a psychology degree but switched to economics. However, I viewed both as essentially just liberal arts degrees. I use the skills I developed in college but barely any of the facts or theories I studied. Most of the college educated women in my family became SAHMs after teaching a few years. But that doesn't make their degrees worthless. PP, why do you think your degree was worthless?
Anonymous
Post 01/15/2026 22:36     Subject: Feds end student loans and institutional support for some majors
I don't understand the mechanics of something like this. What if a low-income student is admitted to a school undeclared, and ends up choosing a sociology major with the goal of pursuing an LCSW or decides to become an English teacher? Are they going to claw back their Pell grants for however many years?