It's to filter out the poor.
A university degree has less value if poor people can get degrees.
Imagine if any old tom dick or harry could get a degree in medicine, or a degree in law, because universities suddenly had unlimited free places for students.
These things would lose their exclusivity value, and the associated salaries for a particular discipline would plummet.
So universities try to feed the necessary number of achieved degrees into the wider business system in a way that doesn't suddenly create a huge oversupply, or drought, of qualified individuals.
Balancing supply and demand in this way has been practiced by universities for hundreds of years.
A university degree has less value if poor people can get degrees.
Imagine if any old tom dick or harry could get a degree in medicine, or a degree in law, because universities suddenly had unlimited free places for students.
These things would lose their exclusivity value, and the associated salaries for a particular discipline would plummet.
So universities try to feed the necessary number of achieved degrees into the wider business system in a way that doesn't suddenly create a huge oversupply, or drought, of qualified individuals.
Balancing supply and demand in this way has been practiced by universities for hundreds of years.
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Actually, this thread came up more because of a discussion my family had with another friends family on Christmas.
She's 18, saying how excited she is to go to college. Few minutes later, we got into the crazy increases of tuition, and her mom mentioned it'd cost 85k for the 4 years, which the girl would be responsible for since they couldn't afford to pay tuition. I ask her what she's majoring in, she says art history.
I just shake my head. I realize that this girl's life is over and she'll be poor the rest of her life.
Basis of the story, kids are being pounded and pounded that you have to go to college to be somebody, and they are being taken advantage of. This 18 year old has no idea how much 85,000 is, that's not even adding the interest.
Just a shame that she'll have to spend the rest of her life paying that off working at Walmart because no place will hire a art history major.
She's 18, saying how excited she is to go to college. Few minutes later, we got into the crazy increases of tuition, and her mom mentioned it'd cost 85k for the 4 years, which the girl would be responsible for since they couldn't afford to pay tuition. I ask her what she's majoring in, she says art history.
I just shake my head. I realize that this girl's life is over and she'll be poor the rest of her life.
Basis of the story, kids are being pounded and pounded that you have to go to college to be somebody, and they are being taken advantage of. This 18 year old has no idea how much 85,000 is, that's not even adding the interest.
Just a shame that she'll have to spend the rest of her life paying that off working at Walmart because no place will hire a art history major.
Actually, I've recalculated it using the following assumptions:
Current Tuition, room, board: $40,000
Estimated Rate of Annual Tuition Increase: 12%
Years until Lil' Miss Artie starts college: 18 years
Cost Year 1: $267,598.63
Cost Year 2: $299,710.47
Cost Year 3: $335,675.72
Cost Year 4: $375,956.81
Total for 4 Years: $1,278,941.63
uppy:Actually, I've recalculated it using the following assumptions:
Current Tuition, room, board: $40,000
Estimated Rate of Annual Tuition Increase: 12%
Years until Lil' Miss Artie starts college: 18 years
Cost Year 1: $267,598.63
Cost Year 2: $299,710.47
Cost Year 3: $335,675.72
Cost Year 4: $375,956.81
Total for 4 Years: $1,278,941.63
Using a the current rate of tuition increase of 8%, the total for 4 years is ONLY $540,015.98.
Whew, that was close...I almost went to the garage to grab the boxcutter and do a little slice job on my wrists...
hno:
For some, this may be good advice. For most, it is not. Sorry RR
Open as many doors as you can. If you have a particular skill or trade, you don't need college, but it doesn't hurt.
The really big debt is only incurred by middle class Americans going to expensive private schools.
If you're poor or rich, or if you go to public schools, the debt is relatively small.
