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I graduated in 1975 and my tuition was so low (state university) I could pay for both semesters with a summer job paying near minimum wage. I lived at home since the school was only 20 minutes away; I wouldn't have been able to pay to live on campus. But the tuition, no problem.
Three months full-time summer work at minimum wage today pays just under $3500 ($7.25 x 40 hours x 12 weeks). The state university I attended now costs $18K a semester for in-state students. You do the math.
I agree with you.
In 1976 when I started college at a what is now a PAC-12 university, tuition was $65 per quarter, the minimum wage was $2.30 per hour, so I could make enough during the summer to pay for a full year (3 quarters) of tuition, plus most of my living expenses and books. The starting salary for a new civil engineer was around $10,000, while the salary for the head football coach was $26,000.
Currently, tuition at the same university is between $4,000 to $4,500 per quarter, the minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. A summer job, if you could even find one that offers 40 hours per week, would barely cover 1 quarter of tuition. I admit most jobs now pay $15 per hour, but you only get say 35 hours, so a summer job would still not cover 2 quarters of tuition. The starting salary for a new civil engineer is around $60,000, while the salary for the head football coach is $3,250,000 (one of the lower salaries for the PAC-12).
What part of "when you buy something you need to pay for it" isn't understood? Buyer's remorse?
Maybe some complaints are legit. But my rule of thumb is if you can afford a brand name clothing, coffee
at Starbucks and meals in a restaurant, nights at the bar lifestyle you should start budgeting and quite complaining.
It reminds me of all those young people who signed up for military reserves and when they were called into service were upset that they actually were expected to serve. With all our educational conditioning that everyone has a "right" to whatever commodity I think we've raised a couple of generations of delusional people with unrealistic expectations of what real life is about.
Edited to add: I want to emphasize that wages are not keeping pace with C.O.L. for any of us and this should be taken into consideration when deciding how much debt a person wants to take on at once. Sometimes an education has to be achieved over a period of time.
I also note that it took me fifteen years to pay off my student loans. Many times I was working two jobs with a house, husband and two children to tend to. Today anyone in town who can flip a burger can make twenty dollars an hour which is nearly twenty times what I was making during those days.
What part of "when you buy something you need to pay for it" isn't understood? Buyer's remorse?
Maybe some complaints are legit. But my rule of thumb is if you can afford a brand name clothing, coffee
at Starbucks and meals in a restaurant, nights at the bar lifestyle you should start budgeting and quite complaining.
Student loans are another topic. The cost of college and the big business of student loans absolutely feed off of one another however.
I think students have legitimate grievances. It varies widely by state, however. I am from Florida where college is very accessible through the Bright Futures scholarships and low tuition.
I now live in Illinois and tuition+fees in state is about $15-20K without including stuff like books, transportation, etc. Even working part-time, it is not going to be reasonable for a person to be able to work through school and pay that off on the typical jobs you get as a college student paying $15-20 an hour.
As a student I worked 12 hours a week during the school year and full time in the summer. 12 weeks x $15 X 40 hrs. a week = $7200 summer wages. Take 4 weeks off for finals and holidays. 36 weeks x $15 x 12 hrs. a week = $6480 school year wages. Total income from working = $13,680 per year. If a student lives at home and it costs $22K a year to attend a public university, he should have a balance due of $33,280 after 4 years of college. That would be a 10 year repayment student loan of $369 a month at 6%. Starting salaries for liberal arts majors average $40K per year, or take home of $2800 a month. So a $369 loan repayment seems doable on their own.
For those who rack up two hundred thousand in student debt, attending private or out of state schools, not working and living on campus, it would be much more difficult unless they were a two income family, married to someone without student debt, or living at their parent's house.
I graduated in 1975 and my tuition was so low (state university) I could pay for both semesters with a summer job paying near minimum wage. I lived at home since the school was only 20 minutes away; I wouldn't have been able to pay to live on campus. But the tuition, no problem.
Three months full-time summer work at minimum wage today pays just under $3500 ($7.25 x 40 hours x 12 weeks). The state university I attended now costs $18K a semester for in-state students. You do the math.
Are you sure that tuition is not $18K per academic year rather than per semester? I went to UCLA and their tuition in currently $13K per year for residents. When I went in the 1960's it was $300 a year. I don't believe the instruction is any better, though.
What part of "when you buy something you need to pay for it" isn't understood? Buyer's remorse?
Maybe some complaints are legit. But my rule of thumb is if you can afford a brand name clothing, coffee
at Starbucks and meals in a restaurant, nights at the bar lifestyle you should start budgeting and quite complaining.
It reminds me of all those young people who signed up for military reserves and when they were called into service were upset that they actually were expected to serve. With all our educational conditioning that everyone has a "right" to whatever commodity I think we've raised a couple of generations of delusional people with unrealistic expectations of what real life is about.
Edited to add: I want to emphasize that wages are not keeping pace with C.O.L. for any of us and this should be taken into consideration when deciding how much debt a person wants to take on at once. Sometimes an education has to be achieved over a period of time.
I also note that it took me fifteen years to pay off my student loans. Many times I was working two jobs with a house, husband and two children to tend to. Today anyone in town who can flip a burger can make twenty dollars an hour which is nearly twenty times what I was making during those days.
Did you really make $1 per hour.
You must be very very old.
Eta: I just looked it up- in 1956 the minimum wage was a buck.
College is ridiculously expensive, ever since the federal government started giving away student loans like candy by the tonnage. It is a complete sham how obsenely expensive college is. It should not cost half of what it costs. It only costs as much as it does "because it can".
Gouging, pure and simple.
If you look at the inflation in college costs, it far outpaces anything else in society, even medical costs. College is a complete and total rip-off. The product is still useful, but the cost make it a terrible value.
Somebody needs to fix this problem, and fast. It is disgusting what they are charging for college today.
I am in my 60s and graduated college in 1980, so I have no dog in this hunt but I can tell a horrific rip-off when I see one.
Be interesting to see if there’s a correlation between tuition increase and faculty (dean, president, professors) wages and increased government student loan programs? Also wonder about all these additional courses some universities require.
It is not just that college staff are getting good raises from the flood of student loans, but that the number of administration staff are exploding. They are not even putting that money into more professors. It used to be that college administrators and staff were a fraction of the faculty. Today, there are more administrators than faculty.
Last edited by Rachel NewYork; 01-29-2022 at 03:36 PM..
Reason: Posts merged.
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