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My college costs exactly the same today as it did when I started in 1977.
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My college costs exactly the same today as it did when I started in 1977..
I believe that in-state tuition & fees at UC Berkeley in the early-to-mid 70s was only $212.50/quarter, or $637.50/year. Out-of-state undergrad tuition & fees was the in-state amount plus $500 additional per quarter. So inflation-adjusted, today's cost would be far less than today's actual cost.Interesting. I attended the University of California Berkeley (Go Bears!) 1972-1976. My tuition was $625/quarter or $1875/year (this is tuition only -- not including other fees and dorms). Inflation adjusted this is $13,588 in 2023. The equivalent annual in-state tuition today at Cal is $15,444 so attending public university in California (and arguably one of the best in the country) . . . not so bad (if you can get in).
Not sure those attending Stanford ($61,700) are getting their money's worth
My college costs exactly the same today as it did when I started in 1977..
Yes, US Naval Academy.One of the service academies?
The government has distorted the college market by offering student loans on a vast scale. If they scaled that down, college costs would probably drop significantly.
What do you expect when the government offers to guarantee $200k to subsidize a C student for four years getting an underwater basket weaving degree (read, booze filled party)?
Without government, lending institutions would weigh the ability to pay back, so doctors, engineers, etc would be good.
Universities and colleges would have to compete for a smaller pool of applicants, so prices would tank, admin overhead would be cut, and all of the luxeries that don't contribute to education would go away.
We would also have more people going into trades rather than accumulating the equivalent a mortgage in debt for basically no skills.
When I went to high school, there was a vocational school in walking distance. Some kids went to college prep classes, others went to vocational school to learn cosmetology, accounting, auto repair, drafting, plumbing, electrical, carpentry, etc. I drove by that school last year and the vocational school is no more. I learned that most parents did not want their kids doing vocational school as it was for "losers", and preferred college instead.
It may change. Trained electricians, plumbers, operating engineers, and carpenters particularly in commercial real estate construction can make very good livings (especially trough the union apprenticeship programs) and often do it faster than the kid coming out of 4 year college with a non-STEM degree and a boat load of debt.
We somehow have to get away from "I will only work from home" to "I am working towards a great purpose by helping people live safe and comfortably."
I tend to agree with most of the thinking in this chain re cause and effect, though I would suggest there is another, very positive source of demand:
Women and minorities going to college. Even in 70s and 80s, there were not nearly as many women in college -- and certainly not in STEM fields -- as there are today.
A huge swath of the population used to think/be told/faced the reality that college was not for them. That is no longer the case.
My two girls will both exit college with advanced STEM degrees which is good for society and puts them on a much safer playing field in terms of winding up in a bad marriage, etc. My Mom probably should have told my Dad to shove off in the 1970s, but there was ZERO chance of her doing that with negligible skills and five kids.
Its at least an even money bet that my girls will be the primary bread winners when they get married. I sleep better at night.
My uneducated nephews all had good fortune in picking wives. In every case, my nieces-in-law are college graduates and the primary bread winners in the family. And they are all very nice young women.
Decided to look... attendance peaked in 2010... so not demand...
Looks like the last couple of years have gone up but unconfirmed...
https://educationdata.org/college-enrollment-statistics
Women earn 57.7% of bachelor’s degrees.
Among associate’s and master’s degree program completers, 61.4% are women.
55.2% of doctorate degrees conferred belong to women.
Decided to look... attendance peaked in 2010... so not demand...
Looks like the last couple of years have gone up but unconfirmed...
https://educationdata.org/college-enrollment-statistics
These statistics stood out to me:
<unbalanced degrees between genders>
I suspect the trend will continue in this direction.
When I went to high school, there was a vocational school in walking distance. Some kids went to college prep classes, others went to vocational school to learn cosmetology, accounting, auto repair, drafting, plumbing, electrical, carpentry, etc. I drove by that school last year and the vocational school is no more. I learned that most parents did not want their kids doing vocational school as it was for "losers", and preferred college instead.
Colleges Spend Like There’s No Tomorrow. ‘These Places Are Just Devouring Money.’
Students foot the bill for flagship state universities that pour money into new buildings and programs with little pushback.
The nation’s best-known public universities have been on an unfettered spending spree. Over the past two decades, they erected new skylines comprising snazzy academic buildings and dorms. They poured money into big-time sports programs and hired layers of administrators.
Then they passed the bill along to students.
...
WSJ chimes in.
Free link: https://www.wsj.com/articles/state-...g5d0d2niye8&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
When I went to high school, there was a vocational school in walking distance. Some kids went to college prep classes, others went to vocational school to learn cosmetology, accounting, auto repair, drafting, plumbing, electrical, carpentry, etc. I drove by that school last year and the vocational school is no more. I learned that most parents did not want their kids doing vocational school as it was for "losers", and preferred college instead.