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Exactly. Sports programs generate VALUE. It doesn’t matter if the cost is $100,000,000 if the activity creates
$125,000,000 of value...those with the simplistic view that cutting the cost is a good idea will soon end up with less money overall for the university.
Spoken like a true diehard fan of the old alma mater. Go _________s!
You have to back up and consider who the value is being generated by, and for, and at what cost. That a sports program brings in a net million, or three or ten, is a bad case of a questionable means leading to a suspicious end.
When I went to college, 1956, college was quite affordable in some states. In Louisiana, at state schools including LSU, the tuition was $70 a year, which a student could earn in two weeks of a summer job in a canning factory. Everyone who graduated from high school in the top 75% of their class (3 kids out of four) was admitted, but freshman year was tough and 80% flunked out. Those that made it through the first year with decent grades got a nice college education at public expense. Those that didn't had no business being there and did not get ripped of for a lifetime of student loan debt.
The real criminal theft is the labor-employment structure, which closes to door to so much of what used to be train-on-the-job, forcing way too many people to get (and pay dearly for) the college piece of paper in order to get a middle-class job .
I wonder if on-the-job training even exists anymore?? A balance of OJT and the current ways would at least give many more options.
College costs have exploded because of the availability of cheap money.
That's very true. Students can get unlimited student loans, no questions asked. So the colleges can charge whatever they want in costs and fees. And then squander as much as they want to justify the high cost and bloated budget.
I agree it is a dumb idea, but I don't think it would put elite colleges out of business. Elite colleges and universities, for the most part, are actually hedge funds that just happen to own a university as part of their portfolio and to get tax exempt status. The hedge fund operations would continue just fine.
You do know, don't you, that most hedge fund operators go to the trouble of operating a hedge fund so they can keep the profits? And that the managers of university endowments can't keep the profits, but have to give them to the university? So why would an endowment with no university continue to exist?
That's very true. Students can get unlimited student loans, no questions asked. So the colleges can charge whatever they want in costs and fees. And then squander as much as they want to justify the high cost and bloated budget.
And just think of the absurdity of it. An 18 year old can get tens of thousands of loans with ease. The student can have no assets, no income, what school they go to is irrelevant, what major they pick andthe potential income in that feild is irrelevant, and there’s nothing to suggest this young person has the track record to finish the degree at all.
Why does the money get lended? Because the government distorted risk by making student loans unable to be discharged in bankruptcy. Uncle Sam has a lock on your future earnings, for life.
Picture an 18 year old walking into a regular bank trying to get a business loan under the same conditions for the same amount of money.
And shocker, a flood of cheap money lended out with very little consideration of risk leads to suffering of millions.
They even doubled down on the insanity by bringing in the parent plus program, which allows the costs to push even higher.
Why can't there be a law that prevent potential employers from figuring out which university you attend??They can still check whether or not you have w.e. degree or license you claim, what state and year you finished... but not the name of the school. There shouldn't even be an option where the employee can give the employer permission to find out.
This would make expensive private universities less desirable thus reducing their price. What do you think?
I don't believe a law of this sort would reduce the price of attending elite private universities.
The university name by itself probably does not correlate very strongly with positive long-term outcomes for graduates anyway. The more crucial influence on professional outcomes is someone's network. And while theoretically a person can network from anywhere, the more potentially-lucrative networking opportunities would still more-likely be found within fairly elite university settings.
So let's say employer A is not allowed to know that job applicant A went to an Ivy League university. But because applicant A did go to Ivy, applicant A has a fraternity/sorority brother/sister whose mom/dad is a personal friend and steady business partner of the hiring manager at employer A. Applicant A still winds up being a shoo-in for a job where their university background theoretically should not have mattered.
This is why applicant A might still go to the Ivy League university and consider the outrageous tuition worth it.
I think a better method of driving down the cost of expensive private universities is to simply boycott them. If I'm not mistaken, I believe just about every state has at least one reasonably elite public university that is also reasonably affordable for in-state residents. If you're an ambitious achiever, the honors programs at Generic State U probably give you a reasonably similar education to the one you'd get at Ivy League U, with similarly gifted classmates, and networking opportunities that are at least adequate in terms of number/volume, even if those networking opportunities are not as qualitatively exceptional as the ones you might have encountered at Ivy League U.
Resolution? Go to a college in a foreign country like Germany where college is free for all who reside there! Otherwise, scholarships and loans! If you’re applying to be a physician, the employer is going to want to know where you went to school!
Nope, not really. It's free for those who have been designated to be allowed to be on the college track, which not everyone is. Plus they still have to pay for housing and food.
You sound like an elitist. You must come from a rich family with a mindset like that. College has gotten very expensive. A lot of people have to work while going to school and that's only if they can live with family. A lot of the students who go to school full time and don't have to worry about expenses have parents who can pay their car note, insurance, etc.
Why would a college student have a car loan? If they need a car (and if they live on/around campus, they shouldn't), they can drive an old beater like generations of college students before them have.
The worst state for college education is Pennsylvania. Penn State and Pitt are the most expensive state schools in the entire country. Geez!
Your idea won't work. Once the dumb government got involved and guaranteed college loans colleges were all excited to raise tuition because the government had all these loans available to all. Government, banks and colleges created this. If the government didn't get involved college would still be reasonable.
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