I think this is a simplification. Many non-profit groups do manage to differ from businesses by not focusing entirely on the bottom line.
There are definitely non-profits with really high administrator and executive compensation that don't spend money optimally to meet their stated goals. I'm interested in discussing the degree to which colleges resemble this type of non-profit.
What are all the high tuitions being used for, and how efficiently are they being used? To start to answer that question, I think I need to understand more about the goals of non-profit colleges and who sets most of the policy (high-paid administration? professors?).
My guess would be the high-paid administration, which definitely seems to be a problem.
This is a very thoughtful answer. I don't think I ever thought of a college as made up of so many different groups, though it seems more obvious now.
It's interesting that you see one of the primary motivations as competition. Is this competitiveness mostly from the administration and researchers? Who benefits from a college being better than others? Do the administrators get paid more or do the researchers get published more easily? I'm interested in how all the motives and structures break down.
With regard to your last paragraph - adult life certainly does mean very different things to different people. However, I think almost everyone agrees that financial independence and stability is important. I'm going to quote another paragraph from patio11:
"No college will actually do this (quantify the value of a degree by major) because transparency goes directly against their interests: if all degrees from a particular institution are valued at “An uncertain, but certainly large and roughly constant number”, then the standard practice of pricing them all identically makes sense."
That lack of transparency seems careless on the part of the colleges. To me, it actually seems malicious, though that might be going too far. It seems obvious that undergraduate students should be more aware of their financial prospects after graduation, but it seems like no one in the system cares.
> Who benefits from a college being better than others?
Everyone. Basically, everyone wants to be surrounded by smarter, harder-working, and more talented people.
> do the researchers get published more easily?
No, this doesn't matter. Publishing is mostly fair, and to the extent it's not, people are biased in favor of people they know more than universities.
>It seems obvious that undergraduate students should be more aware of their financial prospects after graduation, but it seems like no one in the system cares.
Perhaps so. But this depends on individual choices. Frankly, given the bleak job market here, I think that the first step motivated graduating seniors at USC should take is to leave South Carolina permanently --- but individual choices may vary. Needless to say the university administration will not recommend this to its students, and neither should I except on an individual basis.
That said, this reflects my extreme biases. Just as I was a straight-A student and don't have a very good understanding of how to do the minimal amount of work to pass, I don't really understand what is required to get and succeed in an "okay" job.
Realistically, I do think that this is pretty normal.
That kind of depresses me though. I guess it seems odd how so many adults don't have close friendships. I'm not sure whether it's just a common part of adulthood, or whether it's because of cultural or other factors in the US.
Yeah, it's definitely gotten harder to meet people. What has your experience been with friends who have moved for jobs or other reasons?
I'm impressed that you talk to your close friends once a week. Are all these friends in the local area, or do you talk to them online? I think only seeing friends a couple of times a year in real life has led to us not talking much anymore.
My experience with friends who moved away really resulted in us attempting to communicate a lot online. For friends that I had very strong bonds with, we would try to stay in touch any way we could and attempt to visit each other. Friends who were just ok, eventually, we just slowly stopped talking as often. You just have to accept it and move on.
Yes, most of my friends are in my area. I communicate with them online/text and we try to set up things to do (even if it's just grabbing some lunch).
For my group of friends, I was the person who moved away after college. The rest are still together, and some of them are still roommates.
I keep in touch occasionally. A few of my friends I try to call (no one ever seems to call me). Mostly we IM on Steam, or sometimes I hop on Ventrilo. They're usually gaming, and while I've tried to buy the same games so we could kind of hang out, they keep different schedules, and anything with a leveling component they get really far ahead because they play all the time.
When I head back for whatever reason we generally try to meet up, even if it's just grabbing food.
Thanks for the reply. How often do you talk to these friends? (whether online or in real life)
I only talk to my close friends once every couple of months now, and that makes the friendships feel much less close. I don't know much about what's happening in their lives anymore (and vice versa).
