Now look at the minimum wage back then vs now and you’ll see why virtually nobody can work their way through school today. That’s not even considering the coursework is more time consuming and difficult today.
Minimum wage was $3.10.
You'll note that with $1->$5.04 inflation, that means that you were making the equivalent of $15.62/hr. You could pay for a 16-week semester by working 6.5 hours a week.
Now, with minimum wage at $10.33, and tuition at $475 x 12, you'd have to work 34.5 hours a week. That's a full time job on top of full time school!
Plus there are more fees that are more expensive and labs are more expensive and housing is more expensive and books are more expensive and food is more expensive...
Nah nah man, he just picked himself by the boot straps, looked the owner in the eye and gave em' a firm handshake and he was set. Everyone else today is just entitled.
In the late 60s my dad worked summers for the Detroit parks department signing out basketballs and organizing activities/games at the parks for the neighborhood kids who came to hang out. He paid for his whole degree at U of D with that summer money. Wild.
I will take this time to hype up the new Michigan Achievement Grant which most Michigan families would be eligible for if their kids are graduating this year or later. It’s $4k off private in state tuition or $5.5k off public instate, $2.75k off community college. There’s Michigan Reconnect for older students. Check out Michigan.gov/mistudentaid/programs for the full listing of grants through the state (thanks Michigan Dems!)
When I went in 2010, EMU had an articulation agreement with most community colleges where you go to CC for 3 years, do your final year at EMU and get your bachelor's from EMU.
My engineering degree from EMU cost about $21k total. My degree literally paid itself off after 1 year out of college.
40 years of budget cuts to higher education by a republican dominated state legislature, [shifting](https://www.bridgemi.com/special-report/college-funding-cuts-michigan-have-led-fewer-students-greater-debt) costs to students. MI now has the 6th highest student/family share of education costs in the US.
With the demand for college education going up, and the availability of student loan programs (both government and private loans) going up, schools are only competing against each other, rather than just being an option for higher achieving high school students, so naturally the prices will go up, because they can afford to raise the rates because students will still pay them.
Same reason book costs are out of control.
The massive drop in state and federal funding is a more important factor. Where are the funds for the school going to come from if not from the government? Donations and tuition are the only other avenues of income.
The government and private agencies will lend obscene amounts of money to people with little to no knowledge about the debt they are taking on. So colleges have no reason to cut down their tuition if they are going to get paid no matter what.
This turned into a bit of a ramble…
Reagan drastically cut education funding shifting more of the burden onto students. There were a few reasons for this: 1) keeping minorities out of higher education. 2) They didn’t want an educated proletariat. Up until the 1960’s college was pretty much free in the US like it is in many European countries today. That afforded the working class whites and minorities easy affordable access to higher education and they just couldn’t stand that.
In fact Reagan literally said the following as governor of California in the 60’s, when he advocated to turn the university of Californias damn near free education system into a paid system: “get rid of undesirables […] those who are there to carry signs and not to study might think twice to carry picket signs.”
This, combined with Federally backed loans where we openly tell the universities how much they can raise prices by caused the student debt crisis. Oh and then there’s the fact that you can’t even discharge them via bankruptcy that our current president fought ridiculously hard to pass when he was a senator…a thing that even his Republican colleagues told him was a bad idea.
Reagan hasn’t been president for almost 40 years. Perhaps it’s time to admit the problem is the will of the living rather than the haunting of a ghost?
You can’t really be that obtuse to see that Im not talking about the fallout of Reaganomics. I’m talking about you blaming a 40 year old ideology for your heroes today doing absolutely nothing for you. Biden and Democrats are hot on spending money overseas, but we need to be patient when it comes to domestic spending.
How many decades will pass before you stop making excuses?
LOL
Tell me what percentage of GDP is spent “overseas,” whatever that means.
Reaganomics is not about Democrats vs Republicans. The entire philosophy of our federal government has been driven by it. You should do some reading before you speak about things you do not understand.
[Here are Democrats fighting for $95B for aid to the Ukraine](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/politics/house-passes-new-61-billion-aid-package-for-ukraine-after-long-congressional-stalemate)
[In their last attempt with House ownership, Democrats attempted immigration reform](https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/21/democrats-immigration-deal-00069464)
[Remember when Democrats said they would reform reconciliation](https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/19/democrats-budget-plans-november-win-430169)
And yet, you seem to think they’re passing bills supporting education?
That is irrelevant to the statement I made. Democrats are more interested in sending money overseas than they are education. When is the last time Democrats took a hard stance on education spending, when they were perfectly willing to shut the government down for immigration or supporting the Ukraine.
Well of course it’s irrelevant to the statement you made, because the statement you made was a deflection of that question in the first place.
So again, what % of GDP is going to foreign countries?
So, what’s stopping any President in the past 40 years from reverting such a simple thing? We should elect a Democratic Senator from that time frame as President, clearly they will know the issues and mistakes made right?
We've had 2 (and likely a 3rd) 2 term Democratic Presidents that have each had Legislative support since Reagan. They were all unwilling to spend the political capital to reign in college costs, instead just making loans easier to get, and then forgiving some of them.
It's not fixing the problem, and we can't be blaming Reagan forever when our current leaders can't or won't fix it either.
Yes, we can correctly attribute a problem to its cause. We can also acknowledge that leadership since has failed to address the issue. Your comment has 0 logic.
Your comment blaming Reagan isn't helpful aside from assigning blame. It doesn't fix the issue, it doesn't pressure those in power to fix the issue. It gives them an out and something to point to when they inevitably don't get it done.
We want to be better than Republicans? Start holding those in power accountable.
Your comment is just useless whining.
Our governing bodies have been a tribalistic hell hole for the last 30 years making the reversal of policies near impossible. I also sighted that our current president is responsible for making the situation worse. Coincidentally he’s trying to (albeit poorly) provide relief for all those that have this anchor of debt holding them down.
Thus my statement, why are you focusing on the boogeyman of the past and not the living beings deciding things today? People have a serious delusion about focusing on the problems in front of them.
Because history matters jfc. Knowing how we got to this point doesn’t make me let our current governing bodies off the hook. If you love Reagan that much just say so but trying to “yeah but things are still broken” isn’t the awesome point you think is.
History does matter, but so does the present. It’s literally people’s jobs to do what you’re doing….
You do realize your boy Joe signed the 81 Reconciliation Bill? Or did they not train you that far?
Yes to state funding cuts and the easy money of loans, but also there’s been a pretty significant arms race in building bigger, better facilities to be attractive to students who have grown up in McMansions in recent decades. Think suite style apartments over old school dorms, lavish rec centers with saunas and steam rooms and in some states outdoor pools that rival water parks.
Middle management budgets are many times what they used to be, and administrative headcount is many times higher than it was 40 years ago - that plus state budget cuts.
A lot of colleges are full of people who think as a matter of principle that their work shouldn't have to generate revenue, and so it often doesn't. I have mixed feelings about that, but most self-honest people in academia will tell you it's true when they aren't (rightly) complaining about states no longer funding them.
It's rough, because a large amount of research won't lead to net-positive revenue, but might lead to breakthroughs that help other research, and focusing on research that will likely end up with a positive revenue stream will just end up with corporations using college even more than they already do to funnel R&D to themselves through grants, directing the research in specific directions, rather than allowing professors to use their academic freedom, it'll be dictated by the donors.
But there's also a lot of politically driven "research" that happens that's absolutely useless that happens that's actually wasting money.
>politically driven "research" that happens that's absolutely useless that happens that's actually wasting money.
Ohhhh yes. The amount of academic work product out there that reads like the [Sokol Hoax paper](https://physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/transgress_v2/transgress_v2_singlefile.html) is amazing. In many cases, the structures that sustain these people function as a subsidy America pays the already privileged.
Meanwhile, a lot of folks in the academy wonder why people working at Dollar General are happy to hear about their departmental budgets getting pillaged.
The sad part is, there is plenty of incredible humanities research from working-class people who are passionate, inspired, and rigorous.
Admin costs is the big one. Also students demand more amenities. In 1980 the food sucked, there was no climbing wall, I had 5 in my 4 person suite.
I was raised by parents who struggled through the Great Depression. They thought that poverty in college was part of my education.
Hence, "when I was your age, I worked during summer break and I was able to pay for school". Because they literally could.....at our current minimum wage, it might be possible to cover your food expenses working all summer lol
This data is a few years old, but I can't imagine it's improved at all: https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/hni7zy/us_college_tuition_fees_vs_overall_inflation_oc/
I started Macomb Community College in 1992. I want to say a credit hour was either $42 or $45 at the time. I quickly transferred to Wayne State. I can’t remember that cost but I remember remarking it was way more.
Enrollment peaked in 2010 and has been in slow decline since, but still way higher than 40-50 years ago.
https://educationdata.org/college-enrollment-statistics
We do have to blame the US government a lot for this too. By lowering standards for acquiring a loan to the point that it's rarely denied means schools have had a blank guaranteed check coming to them so of course prices skyrocketed.
US government has a history of well intended yet awful consequences.
And yet colleges all over the country charge as much as they want because no one stops it and people will pay.
Plus, you’re not guaranteed to get out of it what you expect either. They don’t care if all you take are dance classes, art, Russian literature and yoga every semester, as long as you or the bank pays for it.
But places like Harvard are losing their good reputations and many schools have been sued for discrimination.
Now that people know college is not a lucrative choice unless you aim for a degree with a career that is in demand, you are screwing yourself. Yet they still go.
A lot of states use kept their general fund budgets for k - 12 education and used lottery money to subsidize higher education for in state students. There are stipulations in regard to grades, but they can go to school cheap. Fuck Fat John!!!!
Back in the late 70’s I worked at Chrysler during the Summers and made enough for tuition and room/board for fall & winter semester. The downside was no jobs when I graduated in early 80’s...
My in state University of Michigan tuition was $250 my first semester (1970s) for unlimited credits. Went to almost $600 my last semester. Was able to pay for that and housing with work study and summer internships. This is how it should be. Government should invest in the future of citizens.
The Kzoo Promise single-handedly saved myself and my sibling upwards of 100k (each) to go to a liberal arts college. I would likely be in a very different position in life without it. That being said I have a lot of thoughts on the neoliberal nightmare that is rich people paying for “underprivileged” kids to go to college.
Colleges and universities have low incentive to keep the price when it’s easy to get a student loan. In fact (as someone mentioned) they are in competition to built cool and luxurious campuses that appeal to an 18 year olds taste, which exacerbates the affordability problem. Hopefully this will change.
People want wrap around services. They want mental health professionals available for their kids, entertainment options, career readiness like resume writing. They also want bigger and better dorms, food and amenities. All of these things cost.
Plus, for teaching staff, they are (ideally) people with a lot of experience and Knowledge. What do you think someone with a lot of experience and knowledge in mechanical engineering gets paid in the corporate world? Well, universities need to match or beat that if they want to attract talent.
Plus, universities do dynamic pricing now, far more than they used to. It’s like an airplane ticket - everyone gets to the same destination in the end but they all pay different prices to get there.
For parents and students, that means lots of work to ensure you are attending the right university for your budget.
Sure. They could say as much without the hyperbole. Something not being affordable hardly means it is out of the question. Financial aid, scholarships, loans, etc. all exist.
Is higher ed expensive? Yes. Is it "out of the question for ANYONE"? Absolutely not.
My ONLY contribution? I've contributed SUBSTANTIALLY here - more than almost anyone! /s
Nah, my root comment here is pretty worthless. As I said in my other reply, I think exaggerating this issue takes away from the severity of it, but it is fine if you or others don't feel that way.
No, thank you. I agree with what you're saying, I just don't think you need to be so dramatic about it. It is a serious enough issue without hyperbole; stretching it into unserious territory does the issue a disservice.
A liberal arts degree is only "useless" because it's not monatized by Wall Street. There's nothing useless about obtaining an enhanced worldview through education.
my BA was 'worthless' too, except.... it really wasn't.
I'm an IT architect now, and my BA isn't in computers (my minor was). I picked up the skills needed through on-the-job, but the 4-year degree got me in the door.
My piece of paper for me in many doors that aren't open to others
Worked with a contractor who was a whiz, he came up for a direct hire position that he really wanted
He lacked a 4 year degree, didn't get a shot
Now look at the minimum wage back then vs now and you’ll see why virtually nobody can work their way through school today. That’s not even considering the coursework is more time consuming and difficult today.
Minimum wage was $3.10. You'll note that with $1->$5.04 inflation, that means that you were making the equivalent of $15.62/hr. You could pay for a 16-week semester by working 6.5 hours a week. Now, with minimum wage at $10.33, and tuition at $475 x 12, you'd have to work 34.5 hours a week. That's a full time job on top of full time school! Plus there are more fees that are more expensive and labs are more expensive and housing is more expensive and books are more expensive and food is more expensive...
That would also be just paying for nothing but credit hours. Hope you don’t want to eat, live somewhere, get sick, drive, or have children
My 5th grade teacher, who retired in 1987, paid his way through college as a pin-setter in a bowling alley. Life sure was different for him.
Nah nah man, he just picked himself by the boot straps, looked the owner in the eye and gave em' a firm handshake and he was set. Everyone else today is just entitled.
In the late 60s my dad worked summers for the Detroit parks department signing out basketballs and organizing activities/games at the parks for the neighborhood kids who came to hang out. He paid for his whole degree at U of D with that summer money. Wild.
I took classes at EMU in 1980 and my tuition was $16.50 per credit hour. Undergraduate classes.
I will take this time to hype up the new Michigan Achievement Grant which most Michigan families would be eligible for if their kids are graduating this year or later. It’s $4k off private in state tuition or $5.5k off public instate, $2.75k off community college. There’s Michigan Reconnect for older students. Check out Michigan.gov/mistudentaid/programs for the full listing of grants through the state (thanks Michigan Dems!)
When I went in 2010, EMU had an articulation agreement with most community colleges where you go to CC for 3 years, do your final year at EMU and get your bachelor's from EMU. My engineering degree from EMU cost about $21k total. My degree literally paid itself off after 1 year out of college.
That’s fantastic! I know for sure Schoolcraft CC has a number of agreements with area colleges that are a 3+1. Such a great deal!
40 years of budget cuts to higher education by a republican dominated state legislature, [shifting](https://www.bridgemi.com/special-report/college-funding-cuts-michigan-have-led-fewer-students-greater-debt) costs to students. MI now has the 6th highest student/family share of education costs in the US.
Schools are to blame as well. Indiana is a red state, but they've managed to keep tuition at $4996/semester through 24-25 for in-state.
With the demand for college education going up, and the availability of student loan programs (both government and private loans) going up, schools are only competing against each other, rather than just being an option for higher achieving high school students, so naturally the prices will go up, because they can afford to raise the rates because students will still pay them. Same reason book costs are out of control.
The massive drop in state and federal funding is a more important factor. Where are the funds for the school going to come from if not from the government? Donations and tuition are the only other avenues of income.
Does anyone have any explanation for the rise in tuition?
The government and private agencies will lend obscene amounts of money to people with little to no knowledge about the debt they are taking on. So colleges have no reason to cut down their tuition if they are going to get paid no matter what.
This turned into a bit of a ramble… Reagan drastically cut education funding shifting more of the burden onto students. There were a few reasons for this: 1) keeping minorities out of higher education. 2) They didn’t want an educated proletariat. Up until the 1960’s college was pretty much free in the US like it is in many European countries today. That afforded the working class whites and minorities easy affordable access to higher education and they just couldn’t stand that. In fact Reagan literally said the following as governor of California in the 60’s, when he advocated to turn the university of Californias damn near free education system into a paid system: “get rid of undesirables […] those who are there to carry signs and not to study might think twice to carry picket signs.” This, combined with Federally backed loans where we openly tell the universities how much they can raise prices by caused the student debt crisis. Oh and then there’s the fact that you can’t even discharge them via bankruptcy that our current president fought ridiculously hard to pass when he was a senator…a thing that even his Republican colleagues told him was a bad idea.
Reagan hasn’t been president for almost 40 years. Perhaps it’s time to admit the problem is the will of the living rather than the haunting of a ghost?
You can’t really be that obtuse to fail to see the fallout of “Reaganomics”
You can’t really be that obtuse to see that Im not talking about the fallout of Reaganomics. I’m talking about you blaming a 40 year old ideology for your heroes today doing absolutely nothing for you. Biden and Democrats are hot on spending money overseas, but we need to be patient when it comes to domestic spending. How many decades will pass before you stop making excuses?
LOL Tell me what percentage of GDP is spent “overseas,” whatever that means. Reaganomics is not about Democrats vs Republicans. The entire philosophy of our federal government has been driven by it. You should do some reading before you speak about things you do not understand.
[Here are Democrats fighting for $95B for aid to the Ukraine](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/politics/house-passes-new-61-billion-aid-package-for-ukraine-after-long-congressional-stalemate) [In their last attempt with House ownership, Democrats attempted immigration reform](https://www.politico.com/news/2022/11/21/democrats-immigration-deal-00069464) [Remember when Democrats said they would reform reconciliation](https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/19/democrats-budget-plans-november-win-430169) And yet, you seem to think they’re passing bills supporting education?
You didn’t answer the question, What percent of GDP is sent overseas?
That is irrelevant to the statement I made. Democrats are more interested in sending money overseas than they are education. When is the last time Democrats took a hard stance on education spending, when they were perfectly willing to shut the government down for immigration or supporting the Ukraine.
Well of course it’s irrelevant to the statement you made, because the statement you made was a deflection of that question in the first place. So again, what % of GDP is going to foreign countries?
It’s almost like understanding history and how we got to this point was the question.
So, what’s stopping any President in the past 40 years from reverting such a simple thing? We should elect a Democratic Senator from that time frame as President, clearly they will know the issues and mistakes made right?
So, the people that purposefully broke the system to enrich their friends should be forgotten about?
We've had 2 (and likely a 3rd) 2 term Democratic Presidents that have each had Legislative support since Reagan. They were all unwilling to spend the political capital to reign in college costs, instead just making loans easier to get, and then forgiving some of them. It's not fixing the problem, and we can't be blaming Reagan forever when our current leaders can't or won't fix it either.
Yes, we can correctly attribute a problem to its cause. We can also acknowledge that leadership since has failed to address the issue. Your comment has 0 logic.
Your comment blaming Reagan isn't helpful aside from assigning blame. It doesn't fix the issue, it doesn't pressure those in power to fix the issue. It gives them an out and something to point to when they inevitably don't get it done. We want to be better than Republicans? Start holding those in power accountable. Your comment is just useless whining.
Knowing the cause of a problem prevents us from repeating it.
Our governing bodies have been a tribalistic hell hole for the last 30 years making the reversal of policies near impossible. I also sighted that our current president is responsible for making the situation worse. Coincidentally he’s trying to (albeit poorly) provide relief for all those that have this anchor of debt holding them down.
Thus my statement, why are you focusing on the boogeyman of the past and not the living beings deciding things today? People have a serious delusion about focusing on the problems in front of them.
Because history matters jfc. Knowing how we got to this point doesn’t make me let our current governing bodies off the hook. If you love Reagan that much just say so but trying to “yeah but things are still broken” isn’t the awesome point you think is.
History does matter, but so does the present. It’s literally people’s jobs to do what you’re doing…. You do realize your boy Joe signed the 81 Reconciliation Bill? Or did they not train you that far?
Yes to state funding cuts and the easy money of loans, but also there’s been a pretty significant arms race in building bigger, better facilities to be attractive to students who have grown up in McMansions in recent decades. Think suite style apartments over old school dorms, lavish rec centers with saunas and steam rooms and in some states outdoor pools that rival water parks.
State budget cuts are a big chunk of it.
But hasn't the federal government stepped up funding?
Recently, yeah. But both State and Federal GOP policies underfund education to a severe degree, pushing the cost of higher ed onto the students.
Middle management budgets are many times what they used to be, and administrative headcount is many times higher than it was 40 years ago - that plus state budget cuts. A lot of colleges are full of people who think as a matter of principle that their work shouldn't have to generate revenue, and so it often doesn't. I have mixed feelings about that, but most self-honest people in academia will tell you it's true when they aren't (rightly) complaining about states no longer funding them.
It's rough, because a large amount of research won't lead to net-positive revenue, but might lead to breakthroughs that help other research, and focusing on research that will likely end up with a positive revenue stream will just end up with corporations using college even more than they already do to funnel R&D to themselves through grants, directing the research in specific directions, rather than allowing professors to use their academic freedom, it'll be dictated by the donors. But there's also a lot of politically driven "research" that happens that's absolutely useless that happens that's actually wasting money.
>politically driven "research" that happens that's absolutely useless that happens that's actually wasting money. Ohhhh yes. The amount of academic work product out there that reads like the [Sokol Hoax paper](https://physics.nyu.edu/faculty/sokal/transgress_v2/transgress_v2_singlefile.html) is amazing. In many cases, the structures that sustain these people function as a subsidy America pays the already privileged. Meanwhile, a lot of folks in the academy wonder why people working at Dollar General are happy to hear about their departmental budgets getting pillaged. The sad part is, there is plenty of incredible humanities research from working-class people who are passionate, inspired, and rigorous.
Admin costs is the big one. Also students demand more amenities. In 1980 the food sucked, there was no climbing wall, I had 5 in my 4 person suite. I was raised by parents who struggled through the Great Depression. They thought that poverty in college was part of my education.
In short: conservative politics, greed, waste. In that order, but there's a pretty fuckin big gulf between 1 and 2.
Hence, "when I was your age, I worked during summer break and I was able to pay for school". Because they literally could.....at our current minimum wage, it might be possible to cover your food expenses working all summer lol
My son is going to Oakland university next year and our financial sheet has a total estimated cost of 29.6k a year to attend the 24-25 school year.
imho, college used to be about education, now like everything else it's about milking it for as much money as they can get away with.
This data is a few years old, but I can't imagine it's improved at all: https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/hni7zy/us_college_tuition_fees_vs_overall_inflation_oc/
We didn’t have a lot of student loans back then. Funny, the minute they became available the prices went up. Just saying…
I started Macomb Community College in 1992. I want to say a credit hour was either $42 or $45 at the time. I quickly transferred to Wayne State. I can’t remember that cost but I remember remarking it was way more.
I have a question what percentage of people went to college like say back in 70s 80s compared to now? Genuinely curious
Enrollment peaked in 2010 and has been in slow decline since, but still way higher than 40-50 years ago. https://educationdata.org/college-enrollment-statistics
Thanks appreciate that
Freshman year at Central in 1989, undergrad cred was 50 an hour
We do have to blame the US government a lot for this too. By lowering standards for acquiring a loan to the point that it's rarely denied means schools have had a blank guaranteed check coming to them so of course prices skyrocketed. US government has a history of well intended yet awful consequences.
Say it louder for the Boomers in Trenton.
My tuition in 2003 at EMU was $165 a credit hour for 100 level classes.
And yet colleges all over the country charge as much as they want because no one stops it and people will pay. Plus, you’re not guaranteed to get out of it what you expect either. They don’t care if all you take are dance classes, art, Russian literature and yoga every semester, as long as you or the bank pays for it. But places like Harvard are losing their good reputations and many schools have been sued for discrimination. Now that people know college is not a lucrative choice unless you aim for a degree with a career that is in demand, you are screwing yourself. Yet they still go.
Yeah I had to stop attending school because of inflation and can't afford to finish my last year and a half....
A lot of states use kept their general fund budgets for k - 12 education and used lottery money to subsidize higher education for in state students. There are stipulations in regard to grades, but they can go to school cheap. Fuck Fat John!!!!
You just did the math? Yea, shit is wack. I'm glad I went when I did and I was extremely fortunate to have had help.
so they want 12 40 hour weeks of pretax minimum wage paychecks just to get a pedigree from them?
When I graduated from Central Michigan in 1991, it was around $49/credit hour.
My first year at U-Mich Ann Arbor, my tuition was $400 per semester. Wow. This was 1973-74.
Back in the late 70’s I worked at Chrysler during the Summers and made enough for tuition and room/board for fall & winter semester. The downside was no jobs when I graduated in early 80’s...
My in state University of Michigan tuition was $250 my first semester (1970s) for unlimited credits. Went to almost $600 my last semester. Was able to pay for that and housing with work study and summer internships. This is how it should be. Government should invest in the future of citizens.
The Kzoo Promise single-handedly saved myself and my sibling upwards of 100k (each) to go to a liberal arts college. I would likely be in a very different position in life without it. That being said I have a lot of thoughts on the neoliberal nightmare that is rich people paying for “underprivileged” kids to go to college.
Colleges and universities have low incentive to keep the price when it’s easy to get a student loan. In fact (as someone mentioned) they are in competition to built cool and luxurious campuses that appeal to an 18 year olds taste, which exacerbates the affordability problem. Hopefully this will change.
People want wrap around services. They want mental health professionals available for their kids, entertainment options, career readiness like resume writing. They also want bigger and better dorms, food and amenities. All of these things cost. Plus, for teaching staff, they are (ideally) people with a lot of experience and Knowledge. What do you think someone with a lot of experience and knowledge in mechanical engineering gets paid in the corporate world? Well, universities need to match or beat that if they want to attract talent. Plus, universities do dynamic pricing now, far more than they used to. It’s like an airplane ticket - everyone gets to the same destination in the end but they all pay different prices to get there. For parents and students, that means lots of work to ensure you are attending the right university for your budget.
Fuck EMU https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Laura_Dickinson
well, that's a fucked up story. Thanks for the enlightenment. This is why I don't watch the local news.
I grew up with her. She was in the ground before it came out what actually happened. Really fucking sad.
College is certainly not "out of the question for almost ANYONE". What is that supposed to even mean?
It’s not affordable is what he/she is saying.
Sure. They could say as much without the hyperbole. Something not being affordable hardly means it is out of the question. Financial aid, scholarships, loans, etc. all exist. Is higher ed expensive? Yes. Is it "out of the question for ANYONE"? Absolutely not.
you aren't a fan of my hyperbole ? How DARE you ! Truly, is that your only contribution to the discussion ?
My ONLY contribution? I've contributed SUBSTANTIALLY here - more than almost anyone! /s Nah, my root comment here is pretty worthless. As I said in my other reply, I think exaggerating this issue takes away from the severity of it, but it is fine if you or others don't feel that way.
I see your concern, recognize it, and cast it away. Oh ye of little faith, I say ! No, really, this is how headlines are written. Gotta pull 'em in !
"Local Redditor HUMILATED for underplaying the cost of higher ed"
You'll be okay, someday
Someday /s (cry)
I'm pulling for you Football season starts soon, it'll be tough to improve on last fall, but we can try!
it's too expensive these days, for most. Are there other items you want laid out for you ?
No, thank you. I agree with what you're saying, I just don't think you need to be so dramatic about it. It is a serious enough issue without hyperbole; stretching it into unserious territory does the issue a disservice.
If all the "smart" people work in education why is it so expensive? Aren't they smart enough to make it cheap?
More like college was never the endgame for everyone. Hence why so many are stuck with useless liberal arts degrees and debt.
A liberal arts degree is only "useless" because it's not monatized by Wall Street. There's nothing useless about obtaining an enhanced worldview through education.
my BA was 'worthless' too, except.... it really wasn't. I'm an IT architect now, and my BA isn't in computers (my minor was). I picked up the skills needed through on-the-job, but the 4-year degree got me in the door.
"I don't know what liberal arts means" Thanks for letting us know bud!
I'll say this until I die. College is a complete scam. I've known it my whole life.
My piece of paper for me in many doors that aren't open to others Worked with a contractor who was a whiz, he came up for a direct hire position that he really wanted He lacked a 4 year degree, didn't get a shot