

Why Federal College Ratings Won’t Rein in Tuition - khc
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/21/upshot/why-federal-college-ratings-wont-rein-in-tuition.html

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iZen
So many millions being thrown around. Parking Garages, Sports teams, Greek
Life, Computers, Clubs, Architecture, Financial Aid, Housing, Food Plans,
Homecoming, Police, Power Plants, Wifi, Apparel, Advertisements, Stadiums,
Graphing Calculators, and Flora. Just to read books and socialize. It's
insane. And the best solution we have: Rating which circus is the best one.

I'm constantly in awe how bloated the Education System is. And this is the
machine that's designed to produce the minds that fuel innovation! I only wish
I had a solution but at least I have a starting point: books and
socialization. Both things can be done on the internet and instantly. All we
need is the tools to augment the experience, the discipline to take advantage
of it.

I've always preached the following: the first to take complete advantage of
the internet will become a God amongst Men. What, then, are we waiting for?

~~~
NotAtWork
> lists internet access as one of the boondoggles of the education system, to
> be slashed and feared, and veered away from as it detracts from our books!
> and our socialization!

> says that we should use more internet in our solution, because this is the
> future and clearly interconnectedness is the future in book! and
> socialization!

How am I supposed to take your opinion seriously, and what actually is your
opinion, when you say such contrary things in such little time?

~~~
gregory144
I think you're being a little harsh. S/he was listing things that are not
essential to a college education. The second point is referring to a different
type of college education - one that obviously needs the internet since it
would exist on the internet.

Also, Wifi != internet access. You can get to the internet without Wifi.

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PeterisP
Without some coercion, the only one thing can "rein in tuition" is demand - it
would happen if significant numbers of college age people would say "the
offered product is too expensive for what it gives me, I'm not going to buy".

That's not happening, college enrollment is not dropping like a rock, and the
students (or their parents) are willing to suffer the cost increase. So it's
their choice - with a dash of tragedy of commons, as it's probably really not
worth for a tiny minority to 'defect' from college as a social concept unless
a large critical mass does that.

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gizmo686
Colleges are not a monopoly. All that is needed is for students to say "The
marginal cost of switch from college A to college B is to expensive for what
it gives me, so I am going to stick with college A". At this point, we have
free market dynamics to offer the most attractive cost/benifit ratio. The
problem that the article identifies is that college is simply expensive, and
has been subsidized by the state. As the state reduces its subsidy, the
portion of tuition that the students see nessasarily increases.

There is also a slight market distortion in that the state only subsidizes a
portion of the market (public schools for in state students).

~~~
NotAtWork
I mean, there are other substantial factors that make this not an ideal free
market:

\- The time to set up certain kinds of facilities, eg, good physics labs or
mechanical engineering labs, can be on the order of several years to a decade.

\- There is a limited ability to scale up, as it relies on its own out put to
keep functional (eg, professors and TAs).

\- Non-responsive hiring managers whose cultural sense was normalized before
many of these changes impacted colleges (eg, >20 years ago) haven't adjusted
their hiring practices, and place an artificially high reward on college
degrees.

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nether
Hardly anyone pays the sticker price on college tuition. Net price, what
people actually pay, has fallen.

[http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/05/22/153316565/the-
pric...](http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/05/22/153316565/the-price-of-
college-tuition-in-1-graphic)

~~~
cheald
That assertion is at odds with the empirical fact that average student loan
debt is on the rise.

