So, what do we think about college

You folks are way out of line comparing the paltry amounts we paid, even for Ivy League schools. In 1998 my son had only a $25,000 tuition, which included his private room at MIT. Try to find a crummy college at that rate today.

NYCity & State Universities, when I was a college student, were either free or close enough. Most state & city schools were free or cheap.

It's not the same people! It's fifty years later and our money no longer suffices for most anything. And just because we may have missed out on something, why does that mean no one should have it?
 

Being a little sarcastic in this one.

Just because our government made loans easy to access doesn't mean the easy access to loans meant more students would be able to enroll. Could that be incentive for higher cost for college fees to attend?

The real mystery is who knew interest would have to be paid on a loan? Or That A loan for continued education would have to be paid back. Public schools were free higher education just means an extension of learning doesn't it?

Haven't checked but I'm guessing most "spring break" trips weren't/aren't funded by parents wanting their child to enjoy a break from the pressure of learning.

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I can understand reducing loans of those that went to college but were never able to actually work in whatever career field. Instead of taxpayers, universities and private or federal agencies pushing such loans on unqualified students ought eat most of that cost for not adequately screening and training such students and students ought pay at least part because it was they that failed. For those working in their career fields with large assets like homes and vehicles they have gone into debt over, I have little sympathy.
 
Remy said:
A co-worker was helping her sister get her daughter to UC Berkely this last weekend. I said "I'm pretty damn liberal but you couldn't have paid me to go to that school." I'm not real ambitious or a title chaser either I guess.
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My alma mater, but a very long time ago. Back then it was academically respected, but I have to admit that the subtle fragrance of tear gas did occasionally find its way to my nose.
Anyhow, I am curious about the reason for your dislike?
 
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Alligatorob said:
Mixed feelings.

I think the government should subsidize college educations, particularly in fields that produce needed technical expertise. I think it is good for our economy, and would help pay our SS. And let people like you get a college education, if you wanted to. At present I do not think this is the case without student loans.

On the other hand just forgiving loans doesn't seem right to me. People entered into these voluntarily and a lot of people, me included, payed them back.

Much of the problem comes from people who took out the loans and did not get an education resulting in higher paying jobs. That was mostly irresponsible.
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Just can’t agree on this one.
 
Didn't Mr. J.B. pass that college loan forgiveness law or something like that? If so I feel that was a positive move to clean the slate of debt and the students should move forward towards careers while mentoring budding scholars. I've known some people who follow trends for future employment in new tech fields like robotics and microprocessor controlled components.
 
ElCastor said:
My alma mater, but a very long time ago. Back then it was academically respected, but I have to admit that the subtle fragrance of tear gas did occasionally find its way to my nose.
Anyhow, I am curious about the reason for your dislike?
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I'm from Santa Cruz originally. Certainly don't live there anymore. I'm liberal but not into woke or the SJW stuff. Just seems like a place I would never have fit in. Just like Santa Cruz
 
Just out of curiosity I decided to look up how much it would cost to attend the school I graduated from, Arizona State. The details are below. At the time I went tuition was around $650 per semester. This was almost 45 years ago so obviously things are going to be much more expensive now but the tuition still seems rather high to me There are close to 75,000 who attend Arizona State (not all full time though) and 65% of the students are instate students. The tuition for out of state students is close to $30,000 per year. That is a lot of money coming in. And Arizona State is considered one of the cheaper state schools to attend. I am sure it is all documented and somewhere I can find a detailed expenditure but it would not fully explain the justification for all the costs.

I do have mixed feelings about student loan forgiveness. People have expressed good cases for pro and con. I guess my larger question is why do universities cost so much to attend these days? Has anyone looked into that ? In a year when college athletes are going to be paid over the table for the first time, I do wonder about the whole financial structure of public universities. The University of Alabama makes millions off their football program. Where exactly does that money go to ?

First-year-resident-tuition-Admission-ASU.jpg
 
Nipper said:
I question why colleges and universities are so expensive in the first place. Many universities have sports programs raking in millions yearly! Especially UT
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And they will be raking in even more money when they make the move to the SEC. I understand that the money is funneled back into the school (and now I guess the players) but where is it funneled to ?

I just looked at this site from the National Center for Education Statistics. The numbers are staggering. https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=900 . I knew that med students and law students often graduated with high debts but they are not alone !
 
SeniorBen said:
We have private, for-profit "universities" that accept anyone and dispense useless degrees with less value than toilet paper getting government money in the form of student loans. They use that money to pay their CEOs multi-million dollar a year salaries. That's our tax dollars being flushed down the toilet when students can't repay the loans, which is more often than not.

I was just reading a story about a woman who borrowed over $100k to study slavery. Yeah, there's a big demand for people with degrees in slavery.

Something needs to be done about the college accreditation process, but there's too much money to be made with our current screwed up system. It's the power of the college industrial complex.
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I agree this is a problem, and one that the government should look into, and probably do something about. There are a number of possible cures, this one included: https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/201...t marked a stunning,or powerful they may be.”

However that does not relieve individuals, we are all responsible for our actions. The woman you mentioned should have been able to figure out that she was not likely to get a high paying job with a degree in slavery. I have no problem with degrees like that, so long as I don't have to help pay for them.
 
Alligatorob said:
I agree this is a problem, and one that the government should look into, and probably do something about. There are a number of possible cures, this one included: https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2018/ag-schneiderman-statement-final-trump-university-settlement#:~:text=This settlement marked a stunning,or powerful they may be.”

However that does not relieve individuals, we are all responsible for our actions. The woman you mentioned should have been able to figure out that she was not likely to get a high paying job with a degree in slavery. I have no problem with degrees like that, so long as I don't have to help pay for them.
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I’m not for the government “looking” into this or much else for that matter.

If it is “too expensive” don’t go. Period.

Find a place to get your basic education for the field you choose (with manageable debt), then, get the specifics while working in said field. There are courses online that you get accredited for and your employer the whole reason you are in college will possibly help pay for. Besides isn’t this all about being employable and earn a living wage? OJT is still valid for many jobs (we are not all going to be brain surgeons).

Additionally, education in lower grades (junior high and high school) need to up and prepare the youth to be capable of their employable skills before, if they even need be at a university.

Also, if you believe you are leaving a college and going to receive a livable wage (with large collage $$$ debt) after immediate graduation you delusional. The people before you with or without college paperwork (degree) will and should be above your pay grade.
I will site a few people that a college degree did not make much of a difference in their success, Bill Gate, Steve Jobs, Ted Turner, Anthony Robbins, Mark Zuckerberg, Soichiro Honda to name a few. But I’m sure they continued being educated while working.
 
College is still doable for students who live with their parents. There are Pell grants and scholarships that can help pay tuition. The thing that gets a lot of students is living expenses for those who have to support themselves. A lot of people working full time can't afford a place to live. If you can only work part time, you need to borrow money to have a place to sleep at night. Some students are living in their vehicles.
 
I graduated from the Naval Academy, so my tuition, books, medical, dental and board were all paid for by the government. The amount of money that they are talking about is another burden on the taxpayer, which means the little guy will foot most of the bill.

I had to pay back my "free" education with 5 years of active duty, but decided to stay in 30 years and retiring as a Lt. Col. It sounds like a big deal, but not really.
 
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Statistics on student loans. Average debt is similar to cost of vehicles. Most cases are not impossible numbers. If people can buy vehicles, they can pay off such debts. The whole loan and credit system in our society pushed by financial and retail institutions, pushes people into constant debt all their lives such that they have difficultly dealing with any bumps in their finances while at the same time many still won't cut back on items like their telecom bills. Note though never wealthy, I've never been in debt.

https://www.forbes.com/advisor/student-loans/average-student-loan-statistics/
 
Remy said:
I'm from Santa Cruz originally. Certainly don't live there anymore. I'm liberal but not into woke or the SJW stuff. Just seems like a place I would never have fit in. Just like Santa Cruz
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At the time I was living at home in the Oakland hills, a few miles from Berkeley, and commuted to UC on a motor scooter. My parents paid the tuition, which was very low. No student loans needed or wanted. I worked in my parent’s store and one summer in a sheet metal factory. As for fitting in I was there to get an education and graduate with a major in economics, which I did. (-8
 
Personally, the government has no business to be able to forgive student loans. They have their noses in too many things that are not government related. You want to go to college? Fine be responsible to pay back the loans. I'll be in favor of it when the government decides to pay off my mortgage, which is probably less than most student loans! I'm 72 and still paying a mortgage and I live in a very modest 3 bedroom home.
 
I think the government should take that money and use it to make every k-12 school in America up to good standards. There are schools in inner cities and rural poor areas where teachers only show up a few days a week, kids bring their music and dance for the hour, the toilets don't work and the ceilings leak. Ivy league schools fill impressive diversity quotas by giving scholarships to some of these kids but they are so woefully unprepared they can't make it through their freshman year.

If any money is left over after bringing schools up to standard, every town in America should have at least one community college where kids commute from home and tuition is either free or very affordable.

Instead were giving money to the middleclass kids whose parents can afford to send them to college.

We're telling them that their signature on a promissory note means nothing. Live first, get bailed out later.

Six out of ten adults do not have a degree and are living on wages far below what these graduates with student loans will make over their lifetime.

I know college is expensive. When my son was in college my husband was a tech sergeant and I was a bank teller. My annual earnings were almost exactly what my son's college cost. So for four years we lived on his pay in an apartment, riding buses to work and spending my whole pay on his schooling. There are still lots of parents doing things like that to put their children through school so they can come out the other side debt free. They get nothing from this.

It's intrinsically unfair and benefits the people who need it the least.

Google quote "Men with bachelor's degrees earn approximately $900,000 more in median lifetime earnings than high school graduates. Women with bachelor's degrees earn $630,000 more. Men with graduate degrees earn $1.5 million more in median lifetime earnings than high school graduates."
 
How I wish I had gone to college. I went one year and Mom just couldn't afford it. I tried getting a loan and that didn't work either.
 

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