Hey does college have to cost 60-80K a year?

[exitseven]

When I went to college 30 years ago I lived in a cinderblock cube with another kid on crappy furniture. The food was barely edible and there was just an old TV on wheels that was in the common area. Now the dorms look like 5 star hotels and the cafeteria has a menu to suit everybody. There are also administrators for diversity, equity , retention and they actually had comfort dogs that you could pet during final exam week. There are however fewer full time faculty members to do the actual teaching in favor of adjunct professors who show up to do the bare minimum.

[BeMuse]

It doesn't cost that much to go to college. As an example in Florida state universities run about $200 per credit hour for state residents for undergraduate courses. State colleges are about half that amount for people doing general education requirements. Students are taking 30 credits per year. That's roughly $6,000 a year at universities and $3,000 at state colleges. So you could do your first two years at a state college and your next two years at a university and you'd average out at $4,500 a year in tuition. If you did well in high school you will also get a Florida Bright Futures Scholarship that takes care of 75-100% of that cost. With digital books today anyone who is willing can download PDF versions of the majority of their text books for free. Most people just take out huge loans to pay for living expenses while going to school, not to pay for the actual college. If you take out a bunch of loans to take a four year vacation from work, to buy a new car, to put a down payment on a home, etc. it's not college debt it's financial irresponsibility in managing your everyday life.

[exitseven]

I agree with you. I just put 3 kids through college. One of them went to a state school but the other two went to private schools. They were not ivy league but still were top tier small colleges. Fortunately we live near many good colleges so they all commuted. I bought them all cars. Not brand new but two years old. I added a 4th bedroom onto my house so everyone had their own room. My kids got pretty good packages from their schools. They did not pay the retail price. I don't know if everyone gets that deal. We got 3 kids through in 7 years. They all graduated with no debt. My wife and I drove old beat up cars and deferred home repairs and I had a home equity line of credit so I could cover any bill I didn;t have the cash to pay. There was one year when they all went at the same time and that was pretty rough.

[JamesDiaz11]

No, but colleges are competing over where parents want to send their kids, and where kids actually want to go. Both of these forces will make campuses with more amenities more appealing- and more expensive.

College doesn't have to cost that much- for a 4 year degree you can attend community college for two years, at a cost of appx $1200/ semester- transfer to a public university, and each semester should cost appx. $5000- which doesn't include books, rent, etc. You can offset this by going to schools that offer you scholarships, which you can obtain ahead of time to guide your decision.

[midnightmoon05]

Because it works. See how many attend and get degrees then can’t get jobs. Or drop out because they are not happy. Even better… we now have a loan forgiveness program…wth?

consequences and responsibilities are meaningless…so colleges just charge whatever they want because us tax payers will pay for it - not by choice.

my oldest nephew is graduating from Carnegie Mellons $70K a year. Almost $300K? Wouldn’t it be cheaper to buy a degree?
while his brother attends a city school $7K.

I don’t get it.

[exitseven]

My wife and I put 3 kids through college in 7 years with no debt. we hve enough good colleges within commuting distance. I bought them cars. Not brand new but 2 years old. I added a 4th bedroom and bathroom onto the house. I thought it was a better investment than a drawer full of receipts for a crappy dorm room and lousy cafeteria food. It was hard and we drove beat up old cars and had to defer home repairs but they all graduated with degrees in math or science and all got good jobs,

[TrueConfection]

I have 3 in college. 1 has almost a full ride to one of the nation's top universities and it sets us back almost $40k per year. 1 is at an (out of) state university with no ride and it sets us back $40k per year. 1 is at community college at $1k per class.

[exitseven]

I had one year when they were all going at the same time. i had a home equity loan i used to cover any bill i didn't have the money for. Mostly we drove around in old cars and deferred a lot of home improvement projects.

[TrueConfection]

One more to go! 😵

[exitseven]

yippee.

[TrueConfection]

Thank you for the MHO ❤

[Aerissa_Jade]

Being that it is the free market, it is supply and demand. If it is too much money, and less people use that commodity then prices would drop.

The other option is to build more schools, increase choices and options.

Some schools are not that expensive though, someone could find somewhere way cheaper than that. Yet many want to go to the best school and spend the most, then complain about the debt.

I know some will say the government should just take over all the higher education facilities, make them all equal and same quality and then same cost and control prices.

Sure if we were communists.

[exitseven]

Yes but is it right to have the government subsidize the loans and then when things get out of control they just forgive part of the unpaid balance. It is starting with ten grand but who knows where it will end up? And the colleges can keep raising their tuition and hire more feelgood administrators.

[joeldalton]

Only caveat - it’s not a free market. The government guarantees colleges will receive payment.

[Aerissa_Jade]

Nope, I'm extremely against the forgiveness... with the 20 year program, now 10 year program as a good option.

I am however open to the idea of allowing bankruptcy on them, and they have to give back their degree and thus no longer a college graduate.

I'm also 100% against tax payer backed student loans.

I think this 10k this is extremely dividing of American's, so much for trying to unite people.

[exitseven]

yes, it will lose more votes than it will gain. I bet a lot more people have paid off their loans or never went to college in the first place. They will all vote Republican,

[Aerissa_Jade]

@exitseven I had to laugh at the polling, if they supported this or not... and of course those who get the 10-20k love it.

The government has never just given someone 10 or 20k that I have ever known of... so like DUH of course they are going to approve of it.

Those polls should 'exclude' people that will be getting it to see how popular it is.

[Anonymous]

I think there should be massive college reform, their are too many fluff classes and fluff degree that get college graduates no where in life. They need to focus on useful degrees and useful skills, but so far there is no legislation on that, students can federal loans for pretty much any kind of degree.

[joeldalton]

It doesn’t have to cost that, but since the federal government guarantees loans there’s no incentive to watch costs.

[exitseven]

BINGO>

[Literalbillionaire17]

No it rlly doesn’t.
I understand that now things cost more just bc they do but I mean cmon like rlly? I can honestly say I turned down a lot of college on the bases of now wanting to be in debt till I’m 45 for a career that I know I prob won’t want to stay in

[888theGreat]

They can charge anything they want and get it. This is probably to keep black people from being educated , so the white liberal socialists can control them and tell them how to think and guarantee that can count on them for a riot when Republicans are in control.

[exitseven]

There are so many programs for minorities to get money for college there is no excuse for amy minority not to go to college. It doesn't even make a difference if the failing liberal inner city grade school they attended never got around to teaching them how to read.

[Meatunnel69]

It does when govt guarantees student loans, if the burden of getting a loan was left to private sector banks that had to take real risk of default or direct from the savings of students costs would have to dramatically fall or there would be a much smaller student body and income for the school would disappear. This would cut the enormous amount of useless administrative fat that exists today.

[Bratsondanielle]

I heard that in some states it's free now. As per your description I'd say it should be

[lightbulb27]

it doesn't "have to", but the govt wants it to be that way to manage inflation... to go up! so they screw it all up under the guise of helping and wallah...

lawyers don't help... they make bigger expensive messes.

[NathanDavis]

that's capitalism...

and college is a business, not a social service, unfortunately

and it can cost you even more than that, if you're willing to pay more for it, of course... lol

[RealMarek]

It could be way cheaper. The collegiate system is one of the key nodes of power for the current elites, however, so they will flood the system with money regardless of the inflationary consequences.

[AviatorTom]

NO, it doesn't. Most colleges have huge endowments, some of them in the billions of dollars, and some of that money could (and should) be used to keep tuition costs down.

[Andres77]

No professor in the history of the world should be paid more than $100K/year.

text books should not cost more than $30

[FunkyMonkee]

It doesn't matter anymore. Joe's picking up the tab (on our dime!).

[Jamie05rhs]

I wouldn't necessarily knock on adjunct professors. I had a few that were fantastic!

[exitseven]

I am not knocking. I am an adjunct professor. I am knocking on the colleges. they let the full time profs retire and don't replace them to save money. Then the hre more administrators for made up positions.

[Jamie05rhs]

@exitseven Ah. Cool. So we're on the same page, then.

[TroyDT]

Massive government intervention