Comments on: An invitation I had to decline

By: Mazarine

Mazarine — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 06:04:25 +0000

That is so fascinating Sarah, i had no idea that the athletics programs were such a big drain!
I think if energy prices are increasing, the schools do need to get more money from the government to pay for the energy prices.

hi Melissa! I think it costs more here because 1. Greed 2. government money going away 3. Bloated overhead of university administration. but what do YOU think?
I totally agree we should encourage people to make better long term choices. I myself was totally entranced by the marketing of various schools, which they are allowed to do, to send predatory packages to 17 and 18 year olds who don’t know what the term experience marketing is, and have no defenses against it.
I think colleges and universities should have more regulations about how and who they can market to. I would never have picked a top tier school. It wasn’t worth the money.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 19:06:50 +0000

I’m with Mazarine *and* Melissa and I have this to add: energy price inflation has increased education costs quite a bit. And while many schools think that their athletics program is a big fundraiser, the Chronicle of Higher Ed published a study that showed that for all but one of the big public universities, athletics were a net drain.

By: Melissa

Melissa — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 14:42:10 +0000

I appreciate what you say here, but I think the issues are more complex. Let’s start with why has college costs risen so much in the last twenty years? I’m not comfortable with young people coming out of college with $80,000 or more in debt. But I’m also not comfortable with the govt (meaning taxpayers) having to pay upwards of $150,000 per student to complete an education. That isn’t the cost of getting a degree in any of the countries that you mention. Why does it cost so much more here?

I agree, let’s get the for profit entities out of education. But let’s also get back to efficient, quality education at the University level. Pay professors, build and equip state of the art labs, etc, but let’s put less focus on athletic centers, admin, fancy dorms, and such.

Let’s get the cost of college back down to a more reasonable level, cap the levels of family and student contributions, set a smaller maximum for loans, and provide more government support.

Let’s also encourage parents and students to make better long-term choices. Think more about what kind of career and lifestyle you might want and pursue a course of study in-line with that thinking.