Comments on: Some hard lessons about college costs
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- I don't understand how all of these stories are so far off of our reality. Our Daughter is looking to attend an out of state university. The annual cost, as we have come to find out, will be about $40,000.
For this first year, she will get $5,000 in university/government grants and she qualifies for $5,000 in subsidized and unsubsidized loans (these are the old fashioned "Student Loans". That leaves $30,000 left to be covered by our middle class income and maybe a few scholarships. In other words, Parent Plus loans. It is after all our obligation as parents to pay for our kids education.
Where is the $30,000 or $40,000 in graduating student loans in this equation? It will be more like 4x$35,000 or $140,000! This is based on the 4 year degree, which in most schools stretches into 6 years these days.
With the prices going up, 50% per year, there is no guarantee that this sum will be our reality. The cost of a College Education seems to be on the infinite slope of the curve!
At this rate the $1 Trillion in student loan debt will be tens of Trillions before we graduate. - Reply to this comment
- One of the reason for inflation is high administrative costs. The management serve themselves. For instance in an academic department I am familiar with, "manager of the secretary" position pay is same as that of a senior professor. The California state university systems was called to the state house to explain huge salaries and perks in administrative positions
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- The situation is even worse when you consider that a lot of these kids are pursuing WORTHLESS degrees, like liberal arts, social sciences, history, etc.
They're basically hanging a noose of 6-figure debt around their necks while "earning" degrees that can only get them jobs at one of those 65,000 new McBurger Flipper jobs that Obama was bragging about creating in May 2011.
Advice to the kiddies: go learn a trade like plumbing, electrician, auto mechanics, etc. You won't go into debt learning it, you can still make a 6-figure salary (especially if you own the business), and nobody can outsource your plumbing job to India. - Reply to this comment
- The college cost and student debt should be a weekly segment. The reporting did not consider the tax adjusted cost to families. The middle class family is being squeezed out, as they cannot qualify for grants. To pay for a $60,000 tuition (not as uncommon as reported)the wage earners should make $100,000. Is it worth it?
You did not look at the wage for a college graduate. Set the starting salary at a generous $60,000 per year, resulting in a after tax income of $42,000, and the break even point - after living expenses- is not a decade but twice that.
Also, say a college graduate makes $1Mil more-over a life time- than a high school graduate (source of this comment is not known)the present value is not positive if a return is applied to the before tax earning cost.
The hallowing of America is very real and the college tuition will just expedite it. - Reply to this comment
- No one is forcing children to go to college. With a 53% under/unemployment rate, it's clear your chances of getting value for the thousands spent is only 50/50.
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- "In other industries, we found ways to produce things using fewer labor hours, using more technology," said Sandy Baum, a senior economics fellow at George Washington University (which, at $55,000 a year, is pretty pricey). "We haven't really figured out how to do that in education."
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Should every field run at warp speed? Teachers are as human as everyone else. More more more. Now now now. Less less less. Now ask why we have so many issues with anxiety and depression. Take a CONSCIOUS look at our environment, folks. Stop sleepwalking and pretending symptoms are problems. Like that drug that treats "Work Shift Sleep Disorder" -- most humans sleep at night. Don't put in cutesie coy names for people who have trouble staying up at night doing work shifts. Not everybody is born with the ability to be night owls. And do the jobs requiring night shifts pay enough so the person can take the "medicine" to begin with... and such shifts should, since not everybody wants to do them, if the "law of supply and demand" is to be believed... - Reply to this comment
- Lower interest rates are awesome and for all my bickering, I do appreciate Obama and Romney wanting to keep them lower.
But the costs of education compared to prevailing wages for work requiring those degrees done is clearly at an imbalance. That root problem is not being addressed, and so far Obama has come closer to at least acknowledging it, as he recently made a speech about college costs. Romney has yet to do such a thing, but even then...
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57367648-503544/obama-curb-hikes-in-college-tuition/
(and we know colleges won't lower costs, offer refunds, admit they inflate grades or any other sort of unethical activity so they will look better than they deserve to be, properly address students coming in to put them in fields they are better at via placement tests, etc... even TV shows from 20 years ago (e.g. "Roseanne" where Darlene had to do entrance exams) tell of kids doing entrance exams... not too many colleges continue that practice, but if colleges have to deny people that means less income for the schools. Funny how that works, but if you play "connect the dots" you might start to see some patterns, if not a big strand of spaghetti...) - Reply to this comment
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