The Higher Cost of Higher Education

[hunterridgefarm]

My son just graduated from a state college. They could not guarantee him a dorm room and as it turned out he was never able to get in a dorm.

So I paid $600.00 a month for an very small efficiency apartment, one room with small closet and bath. We had to take the College Foundation type school loan to help pay for tuition, books, etc. And he was able to get some assistance from a teacher type scholarship to help reduce the amount we borrowed.

He also attended for 2 years at a community college which we paid in full since it was cheaper and could transfer.

The cost of this education is out of site compared to when my wife and I graduated in 1982.

But of course colleges need to pay for all the athletic programs and supply tutors for most of the athletes. Plus build new buildings and dorms to attract students.

And yes it is a business.

 

[Egbert]

Do you think a university president with a $440K salary ought to be hiring $500K consultants to do their job for them?

I recently retired from 39 years in higher ed. In the last 10 years of that, we had an unending string of consultants costing many hundreds of thousands of dollars. While the administration would say it was for efficiency, the truth was - consultants serve as a CYA for administrators. They shed all responsibility for unpopular or failed decisions by pointing a finger at the consultants. Believe me, we had in-house expertise for almost every project where consultants were contracted. Even worse, "most" of the consultant solutions either wasted tons of money or simply failed. The worst outcomes I saw were in the HR and Computer departments.

The college president, at least in my experience, serves only as a public face for the institution.

 

[dave1949]

Do you think a university president with a $440K salary ought to be hiring $500K consultants to do their job for them?

I recently retired from 39 years in higher ed. In the last 10 years of that, we had an unending string of consultants costing many hundreds of thousands of dollars. While the administration would say it was for efficiency, the truth was - consultants serve as a CYA for administrators. They shed all responsibility for unpopular or failed decisions by pointing a finger at the consultants. Believe me, we had in-house expertise for almost every project where consultants were contracted. Even worse, "most" of the consultant solutions either wasted tons of money or simply failed. The worst outcomes I saw were in the HR and Computer departments.

The college president, at least in my experience, serves only as a public face for the institution.

Pretty expensive face. :laughing:

I understand that the president is not a down in the trenches position, they do have a staff. IIRC in private business a manager should be able to efficiently utilize about 10-12 direct report positions. The president should be sufficiently in contact with, or aware of, the institution's daily operations, successes and failures, to make valid policy decisions on their own.

I guess if I were a univ. president and the trustees wanted to hire consultants, I would be unhappy. On the other hand, human nature is such that $400K can alleviate a lot of job dissatisfaction. How loud would I scream?

Also, if I were a univ. president and I wanted the trustees to hire consultants for that type of fluffy work, I don't think I could do it with straight face. No doubt that is one of my major shortcomings. :laughing:

 

[JimRB]

I see that my $532 a semester tuition 1979 ($800 when I finished) is $1656 a semester in 2012 dollars. I gather the state of Ohio contributed less to the colleges since I was in school so the college had to make up some of that money. What I find amusing/disgusting is the lack of gang bathrooms in modern dorms. Prissy kids can't share a bathroom with 40 other people. They all have to have their own private apartment. Granted that is not actually tuition but board but still it hints at some of the coddling colleges have to do to attract students that will not have jobs when they graduate.

They built a new fancy student athletic facility just before I started school. It was torn down a few years ago. For some reason I recall $6 million was the cost. I surely would like to see buildings last a bit longer than 20 years. Heck they are using turn of the century buildings still. That would be early 1900s buildings. Or maybe they were WWII era buildings. I would have to go find my history book on that question, but still 20 years for a building. Built to last was not a concept, or maybe it was just a bunch of bad engineering.

By the way it is questionable if I ever used my business administration degree. Basically that is a business liberal arts degree where you specialized in nothing so you were ready for nothing.

 

[milkman636]

My sister has two kids are in college now. My niece is finishing a bachelors degree this year and planning more school, and my nephew is in his second year. From the figures I'm hearing it sounds like it costs around 30k a year to go though a university now.

I came up though trades and never borrowed a dollar for school, and made more money than many of my friends that did. But in my early 40's now I find myself trying to break away from the tools and reshape my career for the next 20 years. More than 75% of the people I work with now are degreed, and to advance farther with my current employer there are HR requirements that require bachelors degrees before a resume will even get to the hiring manager. After living in this new word for a couple of years now I am convinced that my kids will need a degree to have decent opportunities. The cost has me scared because I have 7 kids to coach through this financial game, and # 8 is on the way. Mayday! That's like a million dollars to get 8 kids through 4 years of college. Right now I have no idea how that is going to happen.

 

[dirt ditch]

I graduated form a technical school in the early 80's. Back then all you had to do was learn the trade and you passed. In the 90's the community colleges took control of the technical schools around here. The community colleges immediately added all the college courses like English and speech to the requirements. They turned a 9 month, 8 hour a day hands on class into a 2 year college program.

 

[RedNeckRacin]

I recently graduated from the circus we now call higher education. I started in 2004 paying 5400/semester plus room and board plus books. When I graduated 4 years later, I was paying 6800/semester plus room and board and books. My worst semester for books was almost $1500 IIRC. What really made you sick was the amount that vendors would "buy" the books back from you at. I graduated with over $70,000 in debt from school. The part that really fried my bottom was that the university kept calling asking for donations from alumni. I ended up ending that with a not so nice phone call that I'm not particularly proud of but It was sickening to give money away when I already owed them so much.

 

[dave1949]

My sister has two kids are in college now. My niece is finishing a bachelors degree this year and planning more school, and my nephew is in his second year. From the figures I'm hearing it sounds like it costs around 30k a year to go though a university now.

I came up though trades and never borrowed a dollar for school, and made more money than many of my friends that did. But in my early 40's now I find myself trying to break away from the tools and reshape my career for the next 20 years. More than 75% of the people I work with now are degreed, and to advance farther with my current employer there are HR requirements that require bachelors degrees before a resume will even get to the hiring manager. After living in this new word for a couple of years now I am convinced that my kids will need a degree to have decent opportunities. The cost has me scared because I have 7 kids to coach through this financial game, and # 8 is on the way. Mayday! That's like a million dollars to get 8 kids through 4 years of college. Right now I have no idea how that is going to happen.

It's going to be cheaper for you to charter your own university.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I recently graduated from the circus we now call higher education. I started in 2004 paying 5400/semester plus room and board plus books. When I graduated 4 years later, I was paying 6800/semester plus room and board and books. My worst semester for books was almost $1500 IIRC. What really made you sick was the amount that vendors would "buy" the books back from you at. I graduated with over $70,000 in debt from school. The part that really fried my bottom was that the university kept calling asking for donations from alumni. I ended up ending that with a not so nice phone call that I'm not particularly proud of but It was sickening to give money away when I already owed them so much.

I have had somewhat the same experience; I was in my late 30's when I started back to school; had a family, full time job, etc. Despite all that, they insisted that I get my folks to cosign for me on my student loans...and there was no tolerance. I could get little or no help from them and was treated more like an irritation than an adult. When they called me for donations, I reminded them that they should have thought about that when I was a student.

 

[check]

I am a professor, and most of my students live at home. That way, the cost of their education is reduced considerably, as the tuition is around $6000 or so.

Actually, the biggest problem is that too many students are going to university that should not be there in the first place.

Meanwhile, employers offering "lower-level jobs" are screaming that they can't get anyone to go into e.g. the trades.

On a more general level, I have heard a lot about labor shortages, but my cynical side says what these people are upset about is the fact that no one wants to work for the lousy wages that they offer.