I graduated UMass in 2001, the next year is when they discovered they could jack the price by 5% per year.
I had $35000 in debt when I graduated which I paid off in 5 years. It wasn’t a big deal. If my kid started today he’ll pay $120,000 for 4 years on campus. It’s ridiculous. And his job will be automated anyway.
My son is a high school senior. Last night at dinner he was talking about how in his Economics class, filled with mostly seniors, the teacher asked each kid to relate what they thought their biggest economic challenge would be. Unsurprisingly, every single kid said “college”. What shocked my son the most though was the numbers the other kids were throwing out. Most have already received their acceptance letters to their college of choice, or at least have researched said college very thoroughly, and he said a lot of the kids were saying things like “I’m looking at borrowing $80,000” or “My costs will be over $100,000, even with scholarships”.
My son loves finance, accounting, entrepreneurship, and anything to do with business and the money behind business. He’s already been accepted into both his backup schools in their Accounting/Finance programs, and been offered partial scholarships at both. However, both are away from home, and his #1 choice is right here in Cincinnati, at the University of Cincinnati Lindner College of Business. It’s a good business school, and also very selective. They cap the incoming freshmen class at between 500-600 people depending on various factors. We are on pins and needles waiting for the letter from them right now.
He wants to graduate with as little debt as possible. If he gets accepted to UC, that means living at home for at least the first year and commuting. My wife and I have a college fund for him that will offset at least two full years of school at UC assuming full costs and no other income/scholarships/etc… The program he wants to get into is 5 years, but starting sophomore year it offers co-op job placement that averages $8K per semester (you co-op one semester, attend full-time school the next, alternating until you’re finished). If he can save even half that to put back toward tuition, his goal of graduating (undergrad degree) nearly debt free is not unrealistic (when combined with our savings, possible scholarships, etc.).
I share all this to relate how complicated college planning and finance is these days. My son’s future is literally dependent on getting into this school in this program. If he does not, it would cost us literally tens of thousands of dollars more to send him to his backup schools, all of which we would have to borrow. We’ve even talked about, should he not get accepted this time, having him attend the branch campus of UC (which costs about 33% of what the main campus costs) for his freshman year, then attempting to apply for a transfer into the business program for sophomore year. It’s a hard lesson for an 18-year-old to learn, that MONEY dictates everything when it comes to making life decisions, but at least he’s wise enough right now to recognize that it’s better to have to work a little harder and defer some gratification NOW than to be saddled with huge debts later when he’ll want to put his new degree to work.
At least he has a major that offers paid employment. :)
When I was an RA, half the students completed Community College before transferring to my school. They got the exact same degree.
One of the few students in my graduate program that went on to complete his Ph D did two years at a community college.
I think Community College is probably the best bet on keeping your debt to a minimun these days.
To me the big problem is less so the top end of tuition cost per se but the fact that so many schools charge top dollar for a crap education with no brand value.
I really feel like the US can probably shed the bottom 20-30% of all 4-year universities, funnel the students there to trade schools / community colleges and the students will not only have better career outcomes but also a much smaller debt load.
Whenever I see people taking on $100k debt for some T3 school it really makes me wonder if they’ll ever be able to dig out of the hole they’re putting themselves into.
I thank the gods every day that his interests lie in a field with at least a decent chance of good employment on the other side of college (assuming he does well). I know so many people whose kids graduated with 4-year degrees and tens of thousands in student loans and who are not working in anything even close to their degree fields. It’s depressing as hell.
Room and Board is out of control. The colleges keep on adding more and more lavish dorms to lure students (and those easy loan dollars). Some have even constructed lazy rivers!!!
Shit man BU had a lazy river in like 2006. I wouldn’t even bother to finish reading the name of a university that didn’t have at least one lazy river per student in 2018.
What is a “lazy river”?
Does the US recognize diplomas from other countries? Because if it does, I’m sure it’s cheaper to go live and study abroad for a few years, and some of those diplomas will be valuable in the States…
Money-wise, that’s very true. It doesn’t matter one whit to your resume or potential employers where you went to school your Freshman and Sophomore years; it only matters where you graduated from.
My only caveat to this is that the level of education and the quality of instructors at Community/Junior Colleges can be found wanting. I don’t want to blanket-denigrate the professors at those schools – there are some spectacular instructors to be found there, no doubt. But on average the professors that you run into there (and especially in the cattle-car Freshman classes) are simply not going to be as knowledgeable, exciting or effective as the average professor in a 4-your institution.
You can shrug that off an say, “well, the only ones that really matter are the major-specific professors in the later years anyway,” but the quality of the classes and the instructors can have a big impact on whether the kids stay in school or not. The dropout rate for community colleges is abysmal – only 48% of people who start at a CC will graduate (that number assumes that 60% of the 25% who transfer actually graduate elsewhere), compared to 60%+ for kids who start at a traditional college.
I dunno man back in the 90s at UMass my math and comp sci classes my first 2 semesters were taught by TAs from east asia who you could not understand and were not at all engaged. I didn’t get an actual professor until the 250 level courses. For those classes we basically got books, labs/homework, and exams and zero instruction.
So it really is a lazy river. :)
Geez, I thought it was a nickname for something else. So when are they planning on putting in the roller coasters?
I don’t know about everywhere but here in California the JC’s are often huge campuses that handle many people who really have no real desire to end up with 4 year degrees. As part of California’s welfare programs (I can’t think of the real name for it) kids get paid to attend the JC’s and the JC’s are basically free for them. The problem is that they aren’t really motivated to attend for any reason other than the money. There was a story by the local paper several years ago that the drop out rate was huge among that group as they just hung around long enough to get the funds.
Meanwhile, JC’s have gone from $50 a semester in the 70’s to $80 a unit today. My local JC has 4 campuses.
And yes, based on my daughters experience I would say the quality of the teachers varies. Another negative is that many 4 year schools may not accept some of the classes that are “advertised” as transferable and students often end up having to take some classes again at the 4 year school.
This, and for many students, staying at home while trying to go to college is poison to their future. I would not recommend it for anyone who doesn’t have a close to ideal home arrangement. In addition, not everyone can be an RA.
Our community college here has become very expensive, and the state schools too. It’s not cheap no matter how you go. Even with tuition reduction scholarship, you pay a ton in fees and room and board.
This is a bit misleading. I read plasma TV and thought how could is this article, 2014… but not all of the schools do this. University of Oregon has asbestos in the walls. Southern Oregon University wound up losing 3-4 degree programs because the profession retired who had those skill sets and they couldn’t’ afford to hire anyone else with those skills.
Yes, there are schools with luxury items, but the schools that don’t have them still have increasing tuition, and they’re increasing at high rates. And behind some of those extras are deep donor pockets… with the money designed for those things and nothing else.
Any old building has asbestos. Until it is disturbed it is not a danger, but every old building has it in the flooring, piping, ceilings, roofing etc.
I understand that, but installing a lazy river instead of replacing a building full of poison and with an earthquake rating of zero seems ridiculous.
If they did that, replaced old crumbling buildings, and spent the same… would you feel different about the money they’re spending and the cost of tuition? And of course replacing a dorm with a dorm doesn’t seem that sexy for incoming students.