
Why does a college degree cost so much? - SQL2219
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/16/why-college-costs-are-so-high-and-rising.html
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zomg
school's will continue to raise tuition and fees because students have access
to an unlimited line of credit from the US government. with the increased
tuition monies, schools become businesses, building out infrastructure and
overhead, which must be sustained. if they know the loan money is always
coming, why not raise prices? it makes perfect sense.

it would be interesting to see how institutions reacted if the 59% of students
who receive loans dropped down to, say, 20%, or even better, 0%.

in my opinion, this would force schools to lower prices, down to "market
value" (whatever that is, but certainly a lot lower than prices are now), and
force market competition, which is ALWAYS a good thing.

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arximboldi
That is such a backwards mindset. What should be the market value for
education?

You should be able to get a degree if you are willing to put through the
effort of getting it, not whether you can afford its "market price".

I agree that that subsidizing tuition fees might not be the best way to solve
the problem. That is why I think that education should be provided mostly by
public institutions, like here in Europe. That way, access is not a matter of
how much money you have and offer is controlled by a democratic agreement on
what kind of society we want to invest in.

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rahimnathwani
I read the whole article looking for something about causality (the 'why'),
but found little that addresses directly the _price_ of a college education.
Sure, there were mentions of reduction in state funding, but those are
subsidies for schools, and do not necessarily affect the price paid per
student.

If the government were to give Starbucks a $2 subsidy for each coffee sold,
would you expect Starbucks to charge $2 less per cup? So it goes with state
funding.

It makes no sense to talk about why a price is X without considering both
buyers and sellers. The cost base of sellers would undoubtedly affect how
attractive an industry college education is to enter, but in the short term
the price is determined by the supply/demand characteristics of the market. If
a school spends more on a sports centre, it doesn't automatically get to
charge students more. Perhaps they can attract more students (shifting the
demand curve up) or perhaps they just have lots of money (due to high margins)
and so can afford to spend on a new sports centre without specific rationale.

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johan_larson
The price is going to depend on a lot of factors. For example, an education in
civil engineering or medicine, with extensive equipment-heavy labs, is going
to be more expensive than an education in history, which really only needs a
library and maybe some field-trips if you want to get fancy.

I did try to come up with a BOTE number for the cost of a bare-bones college
education, and the number I arrived at was $30,000.

[http://short-sharp.blogspot.ca/2016/07/how-much-does-it-
cost...](http://short-sharp.blogspot.ca/2016/07/how-much-does-it-cost-to-
provide.html)

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pkaye
But engineering colleges also tend to get more outside funding through private
donors. The engineering colleges I attended had their respective building
fully remodeled through the donation of wealthy graduates of the college. Most
of the computer labs were put together through industry donations. Also even
in civil engineering you would be surprised how little lab courses are
provided in undergrad... most of it is pen and paper work or maybe computer
simulations which cost little extra.

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mbrodersen
Demand and supply. It's that simple. The education you get from a "top"
college isn't better than the education you get from an "average" college.
They are using the same text books and teaching the same material. However
having a "top" college name on your CV gives you an edge in the job market.
Whether that edge actually is worth the money you pay is questionable though.

~~~
mbrodersen
By the way the reason why we know that the education you get at a "top"
college isn't better, has been shown by looking at students who were accepted
to "top" colleges but instead chose to go to a local college instead; and
comparing the long term earnings etc. outcome. There were no differences. In
other words, people do well based on their abilities. Not whether they go to
college A or B.

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leovonl
> Why does a college degree cost so much in USA?

FTFY

Not excluding the fact that some private institutions (and even some public
ones) in other contries charge a considerable tuition as well, but that
usually is handled differently (fee reduction, scholarships, etc) than in the
USA (long-term loans).

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Dowwie
Good post. I was surprised at the depth of this study given who it was
published by.

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chmaynard
Agreed, this is the best summary article I have ever read on the economic
trends in US higher ed. One conclusion seems to be that at the non-elite
schools like URI, my local state university, traditional liberal arts
education will get starved into obscurity because it doesn't train students
for a career. Learning how to think and write clearly and do scholarly
research will no longer be an important part of a college education.

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WhiteSource1
Which is sad. In part, society has rewarded those who don't have training,
particularly in non-technical subjects. How many political advisors and policy
folk have political science degrees?

