I'm not one of those people who thinks that college should be paid for by public funds. However, I am curious as to why it costs such incredible amounts of money.
I mean, where do all the costs come from? You have to pay the teachers, obviously, and I suppose for the text books. But other than that, what? Does this really add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars? I don't understand it.
Probably because they need to build 500 bathrooms for every type of mental illness, and various "safe spaces" for shut ins who are afraid of opinions. Also, universities love giving lots of money to political campaigns. Not sure why that's even allowed.
But seriously, it's for sports scholarships, as well as insanely high admin salaries.
Because it can be. If anyone can get a student loan and the government is granting scholarships and free courses then the universities will just hike their prices as demand won't be affected.
>>72638140
The Teachers Pension Fund. Apparently when it makes a move on the markets the ramifications are felt everywhere.
they can charge whatever they want as long as people keep taking out loans to pay those prices
>>72638140
For your ACTUAL tuition, college is probably just around $10,000.
They heap on extra costs to pay for financial aid, the college's endowment and new projects and research.
The size of these extra costs is going up because of government and bank loans being so dependable that colleges KNOW students will pay and borrow whatever they need to to get a degree, so unless you're some ace student who the college thinks will be super successful and pay them back in huge donations, they'll push you till you literally can't pay or borrow anymore and then stop bumping the price.
The issue with the college bubble is that it's not like cars or gold: an education is perceived to have an inherent value and is non-material, so the likelihood of the bubble popping before the subsequent crash reaches depression-levels is unlikely
>>72638140
Because financial aid and grants exist
>>72638352
fpbp
Also, the federal government subsidizes loans so colleges are incentivized to increase costs.
>>72638140
>Why is college so expensive?
Because colleges don't grow enrollment (increasing supply leads to lower prices), innovate (increase efficiency), and compete (lower tuition), like regular businesses do.
If they behaved like businesses, colleges as they are now probably would not exist, or be few, because it is obviously a silly and expensive way to teach adults.
There are for profit colleges, and they've invested in more efficient methods of teaching, like making most courses online. If we stopped subsidizing college with government student loans, the whole system would collapse, colleges would be forced to innovate, and for profit colleges would survive, cut tuition, and prosper.
>>72638140
Because people keep paying.
>>72638140
Supply and demand, like >>72638352
There's a huge (and largely inflated) demand for degrees. Everyone gets drilled into them in high school that you need a college degree to be hired/successful/happy.
However, some people can't math or science or law so they take easy as shit courses in majors that really shouldn't require degrees, yet since so many people get them they have to have them to be "competitive" too.
When this begins to happen- everyone looking to get a degree- the limited supply of colleges and educators started to drive costs up. Since people were buying into it so much, there needed to be a balance to lower demand and against the perceived value of the degree. So, tuition started going up. However, instead of lowering demand, the government kept issuing vast amounts of loans to allow it to continue to be an option for people who probably don't need it or wouldn't even pursue it without the loan option.
Thus the colleges, recognizing their own limits but also seeing so much easy money to be made, kept raising tuition steadily. The book writers also saw an opportunity- as class sizes got larger, it became harder for professors to teach. So now book companies do this thing were they "sell" the homework for the professor, who now only has to worry about babysitting their class for an hour a couple times of week instead of actually creating the homework for it. This makes it impossible in some cases for students to be used books, as they still need to get access to the homework.
It's things like that which drive up costs across the board. It doesn't stop until either the government stops giving out so much aid or the perceived need for the degree decreases and demand falls.
>>72638140
Good question.
It's not that expensive in my country.
>>72639203
>Supply and demand
If that were true, then the free market would have fixed it.
>>72638473
>>72638976
these
its the government subsidizing loans
>>72639457
That's just it, the free market isn't allowed to work or, at least, has not reached the point where it can.
The government keeps throwing out more and more loans to students who are too blinded to realize they can't afford them. So long as the government keeps giving them money, they'll keep spending, and prices will keep rising. Read the post before replying.
>>72638140
Because the federal government got involved
is the short answer
>>72638140
>kikes stoke the "you HAVE to get a 4-year degree" meme
>increase in demand for meme school
The easiest way to gut the political left is to get the government out of college loans and restore some market economics to higher education.
>>72639663
Also the government attacks "for profit" colleges routinely effectively removing the competition
It came from the govt providing loans to almost anyone who wanted to go. Colleges realized quickly that they had a captive audience and started hiking the prices.
>>72638462
>But seriously, it's for sports scholarships, as well as insanely high admin salaries.
Holy shit this. My school's athletic department had some like $13 million deficit this year and the fucking coach gets paid $2.75 MILLION a year to coach a losing football team.
Then you had admins like our president who gets paid $675k a year. What the fuck does a president at a school even do? I never once met my school's president.
>>72639805
Except supply is also increasing, so therefore the shift would not be as great as your gif
>>72640002
In my country it's even easier to get a student loan: Interest rates are lower, and you don't have to pay it back if you fail to find a job.
Yet, here most people from poorer families say "no thanks" because they don't want to be in debt.
I think America's real problem is that being in debt is considered normal.
>>72638140
Meritocratic system where rates decrease based on scholar performance?
Is this pheasable?
>>72640479
lol, supply takes infrastructure, which naturally lags demand. While it's certainly not stagnant, it's almost never as quick to change as demand. To get around this, colleges are simply increasing class sizes which may or may not lead to reduced quality of education.
>>72638140
Because 2/3 to 3/4 of your degree is bullshit classes. Gotta subsidize those unemployable cat ladies.
>>72640690
mijn stufie is nog een gift XD
>>72638140
>I am curious as to why it costs such incredible amounts of money.
A lot of people talk nonsense about a 'college bubble', likening it to the housing bubble of cira 2003 to 2008. It's not the same thing obviously since college degrees can't be bought and sold like houses.
However, there is a similar underlying dynamic. The key thing here is to understand that the availability of debt to fund a product will tend to increase its price in a tight little cycle.
1. College loans are made or guaranteed by the federal government.
2. This makes college affordable for more people, driving up demand.
3. In order to soak up the avaliable funds, universities need to expand operations either by increasing enrollment, or by offering better accommodations, faculty, etc. Naturally, tuition has to increase.
4. Meanwhile, the cost of living in college towns also goes up to soak up the available money.
5. After a few years, Students will have to take out larger loans to pay for 3 and 4.
6. GOTO 1
>>72638140
because the govt guarantees cheap, accessible loans for anyone
this is the exact same shit as the housing market in 08. also, colleges know they're a monopoly. they can charge whatever they want, and people will pay for it
the democrats feed into their own state run monopolies when they promise free education
>>72639017
Wait a money, so the money from other students tuition goes toward financial aid? That seems kind of fucked up.
Artificially inflated demand and no restricition on the money supply. Not to mention in the usa that you cannot use bankruptcy to get relief onot the debt from college.
So you have a bubble that, for kow, cannot be popped.
>>72639153
>There are for profit colleges, and they've invested in more efficient methods of teaching, like making most courses online.
This is wrong. Most of the for profit colleges such as university of phoenix, etc. are on the same government funded gravy train as the State Colleges. Typically they provide much less value for money than public institutions, because they are effectively diploma mills.
Functionally they are mostly cash grab scams that load people up with massive debt and turn them loose with a worthless degree that won't increase their earning power.
>>72638140
kikes giving out student loans like candy.
after the 2008 housing crash the student loans given out shot up INSTANTLY.
>http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-08-03/fed-finally-figures-out-soaring-student-debt-reason-exploding-college-costs
>>72640843
You are also seeing for profit universities and online degree programs pop up everywhere because there is such a large demand.
>>72639153
This meme needs to end. The university system works together to keep a certain set of requirements, preventing people from self studying or having reduced course costs.
The only way to fix it is to have government create a new standards system which they would force all public universities to accept credit from nonstandard sources.
University education should be free, but it should be streamlined to reduce costs. Both can happen at the same time.
>>72638140
>Why is college so expensive?
There is free college for american students in several European countries
>>72641928
Eventually its going to crash and bunch of students are going to default. The debts are going to need to be erased, it's inevitable.
>>72638140
Because dumbass college kids either spend their loans on beer and drugs or they're too lazy to get a job.
cheap credit combined with colleges having a monopoly on prices and can raise them endlessly.
also outsourcing manufacturing jobs means only (some) white collar jobs are viable career options for a middle class lifestyle.
also corporations were banned from using testing to determine good future workers in the 70s because "muh racism" so instead you have to go to 4 years of schooling
all 4 of these factors combined have raised prices exponentially.
>>72641948
Job placement rates for for profits are miserable. A box top degree from DeVry is easily characterized as worthless by certification standards which, perversely, brick and mortar schools have full reign over.
>>72641973
>free
>streamlined
>run by government
choose one
>>72638140
Administrative costs, plus kids expect college to be luxurious.
Average professor doesn't get paid that much, especially when you factor in how much of the actual teaching is done by grad students and adjuncts (I am a humanities grad student).
University system ceased being about real education a long time ago. Science and math are still ok for the most part. Humanities are in the shitter. My advice is trade school or STEM unless you are independently wealthy or monastic/give no fucks.
>>72639153
For profit colleges are even more of a scam than traditional higher ed.
>>72638140
The answer is niggers. State Universities are not only required to meet diversity standards, but the biggest factor is that niggers are athletic.The tuition at my university went up $2500 last year to account for the new track and basketball courts they are currently putting in (these are giant facilities with construction costs estimated at around $3,000,000). You see this a lot on campuses, especially with this new movement to give "compensation" to school athletes. They already get free meals, housing, and free passes on criminal charges, so the universities jack up tuition for traditional students to cover the costs. Now, if I was going to Notre Dame or another large school with a solid performance/win record, I would be more okay with this; but at my university, the football team wins two or three games a year and nobody even stays for more than half of the home games. Again, it's all about covering costs.
>mfw unlimited free degrees
>>72638352
>want to get into stems because it's my dream since childhood to be a researcher
>the field is an absolute joke in brazil
>everywhere else is expensive as fuck thanks to the inflated prices
>trades are the best financial option
>>72639383
which is why a college degree in your country is just about worthless as fuck (we're getting there too)
If you got at least decent grades you can get a full ride to a kind of shitty school
that's what I'm doing, I have to pay 3k out of pocket every year for college going to a 60k institution
>>72643667
>commenting on Netherlands.
You literally know nothing. shut up.
>>72643733
This is objectively false.
>>72643844
how did I do it with a 3.3 GPA then
>>72638140
This is why.
>>72644059
>how did I do it with a 3.3 GPA then
Are you black?
But seriously, that can't be too common. and 60K? as in $60,000 per year? That is outrageous for a 'kind of shitty' school.
>>72642209
Honestly it seems like a miracle it doesn't cost more
>>72638140
because they spend more money on non-teaching faculty than anything else in an effort to make more people attend. literally the ratio of admins to students is way to fucking big.
If you commute to a state college and do like 12 credits a semester it's really not that expensive
>>72644311
I'm half latino and first generation college student
I got 1980 on the SATs tho so that helped
60,000 including room and board and other costs
>>72641928
they shot up because parents used to be able to take out a second mortgage to fund the kids college.
>>72638140
Because it is mostly paid for with newly printed money via federal student loans and grants. There is no incentive to keep cost down, because lower tuition would just mean less printed cash. I am sure there are plenty of incentives to actually raise tuition in order for students to qualify for ever more government funding programs.
>>72644059
I have a GPA of 3.9 and I get minimum aid, about 12k a year. It covers courses but nothing else. I am probably one of the best students in my department(STEM).
The "do well in school!!!!" is a meme, hardly anyone actually gets their university payed for in the US(maybe if you're nonwhite and your parents were illegal immigrants).
Because the government got involved in "helping". The same reason health care costs soar because of medicare/medicade.....or car insurance. Pretty much anytime the government forces you to buy anything or pays for it with taxpayer funding, prices go up because that industry takes advantage of the situation.
The answers in this thread are hilarious.
Colleges are a business, so they spend money and what will make them money. Throw the "jews, sjw," etc crap out and lets start this the right way.
As a business what attracts dumb 17/18 year olds to one college over another?
In no particular order:
>sports team
>pretty campus
>pussy/cock
>good housing
>good night life in the area
>"interesting degree programs"
>maybe prestige
Cool so you throw your money at that shit. Realize some of the shit is going to be niche market type stuff, obviously some can be a party school and just dump money in that area others are wannabe ivys.
Now the "explosion of cost" from demand
>free credit for everyone!
>everyone should go to college!
Where does money need to be spent to capitalize on this?
>moar housing
>moar sports team/advertising
>prettier campus!
>buy/fix/develop areas around campus for good night life
>spend money on PR from "safe space" to "look at our awesome college experience"
All extra money, like any buisness gets dumped into upper management/administrators/coaches. Please note if you look it up those are the only wages on campus increase. The rest are stagnant or being lowered.
Doesn't need a conspiracy, its just greed and corruption working itself out. If they want to be political they'll buy buses to take students voting. Guaranteed students voting in favor of education benefits/moar money for campus.
>>72644165
tl;dr
Don't go out and buy a new car or put a down payment on a house right after graduation. Live in a shithole for a few years and be financially responsible.
>>72645271
>Implying you can get a STEM job in a shithole area
>>72639805
Demand still outpaces "supply" (kikes on tenure spreading tumblr memes as higher education) and still results in a price increase.
>>72640479
meant >>72645506 for >>72640479
>>72644539
>60,000 including room and board and other costs
That is the same cost as fucking Harvard.
http://www.collegetuitioncompare.com/colleges/MA/Cambridge/Harvard-University.html
I would say you're getting ripped off, but you say you're not paying.
>>72639017
That doesn't make sense.
>>72645723
My state university would have been more expensive than what I'm paying for this college
kind of silly shit but I'm glad I get to go to college without any debt
Because boomers told use we had to go to succeed so colleges were able to increase prices because of demand.
Why the fuck should you pay 60 000$ a year for a college degree?
College in Belgium is like 850€ a year maximum
Instead of wasting 60 000$ on a sjw indoctrination college witch doesn't even guarantee you a job after graduating ,
you could invest 60 000$ in your own business and be self employed instead of working for some kike boss for the rest of your life
>>72645771
For every $1 the pell grant goes up, 55c is added to college tuitions on average.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/09/08/student_loans_drive_up_college_costs_what_should_we_do_about_it.html
It's was like $800 a year for tuition AND room/board back in the 60s at the U of MN and now it's $12,000 a year just for tuition. Even with inflation, it doesn't make sense.
>>72645342
Not shithole area, just a building with four walls and a roof. Not that I have a STEM degree.
>>72638140
simple: because those that can make money off of it really like money, and there is nothing to stop them charging whatever they can
>>72638979
>college's endowment and new projects and research.
Research is a profit center for the university. Maybe 40% of the grant money to do the research goes straight to the university as 'overhead'.
To state it another way, research is a for-profit enterprise run by the university, using ultra low cost graduate student labor. The graduate student is paid only a small stipend. Now of course due to the perversion of this system, there are many less jobs available for PhDs that there are PhDs, so graduate students end up in an orbit around universities as PostDocs continuing to work for pennies.
>>72646033
Not buying it and not believing a fucking slate article.
>>72638140
Sports.
Many colleges, especially smaller ones, are willing to go millions in debt to fund football teams merely out of tradition or because they falsely believe it raises enrollment. Or they are told the lie that it brings in money, when it truth only the top 10 division 1 teams will bring in money for the school.
If you look at the highest paid public employee in your state, I guarantee you it will be a coach at a state university.
>>72645212
youre quite the imbecile aincha?
My wife taught a course at a reasonably well-known college recently. Given the nominal cost per credit, my wife was paid 4% of the college's income from the course. No TAs, etc, she was the sole instructor, and provided the relevant materials.
>>72645271
false dilemma
>>72646042
My cousin went to the U for a year. Said the dorms were like the ghettos
>>72638140
Because retards are willing to take out massive loans to learn Nigger History and Wymynz Studies.
>>72645342
What does that even mean? People here in brazil are used to taking 4 hour long trips to get to their jobs, schools, etc, because the prices close to those areas are too high, are you telling me people in the US are incapable of doing the same? Sure it's not sustainable, the only logical step is getting out of the sheeple cycle before things go to hell like they are on brazil, BUT if you really need, there are ways to get a degree.
>>72639075
>Also, the federal government subsidizes loans so colleges are incentivized to increase costs.
this is precisely why.
whenever the feds fill a trough, the hogs come running.
welfare for blacks, loans for students, the interstate highway system, whatever.
th intention is good. the result not so good.
the reason we have endless wars (cold war, drug war, terror), is because of ww2, where lots of men got rich building shit to get blown up, which is a lot more lucrative than trying to build a better washing machine.
same with nasa. and the epa. and any other huge federal program.
it makes natalya sad. it should make you sad. unless you are feeding at the trough.
>>72646258
I mean its not like its discussing israeli war crimes where there'd be a bias.
there are plenty of other sources aswell
http://www.forbes.com/sites/akelly/2015/10/08/does-federal-student-aid-cause-tuition-increases-it-certainly-enables-them/#199e237119dc
https://fee.org/articles/student-loan-subsidies-cause-almost-all-of-the-increase-in-tuition/
>>72645771
I'm using round numbers to make this easier to follow.
If you are willing to spend $1000 on your degree and enough other people are willing to spend the same amount but not a dollar more AND that is the lowest price the university is willing to charge you then that is will be the price of getting a degree, give or take a few dollars.
Now the university wants more money but will lose too many customers if they raise prices.
In comes student loans and financial aid(who will charge interest up the arse and prey on stupid kids who don't understand basic finance) and they'll give everyone $500 to get their degree.
So now the highest amount you're willing to spend isn't $1000 it's $1500 because you have credit. And the university raises prices and keeps services on par with the old price in order to pocket the difference.
Now some people aren't eligible for loans but enough people are so that the university doesn't need to worry about them. They could only afford $500 before and the $500 loan would have sent them to university.
So they're now taking out two loans of $500 or a single $1000 loan to get a degree.
But a $1000 loan being available to the poorest people means that a $1000 loan is obviously available to the richer students who have more collateral and thus are a safer bet. So now they're able to spend $2000 on college and university administrators raise their price accordingly.
This all takes place over years and years but you get the point. The more credit you make available to everyone(not just the poor who deserve/need it) the higher prices will go.
>>72646333
That's what I'm doing. Graduating next week with a total bs degree, paying less than $300/month in rent, and making $200/month car payments. Yeah I don't get to really go out and do FUN stuff, but at least browsing 4chan is free entertainment!
btw nice trips
>>72638140
>Why is college so expensive?
because there are suckers willing to pay for it.
>>72639383
There's a difference between what college costs and what you have to pay as a student.
>>72640690
That changed after the last reform and you know it.
I know for a fact that universities in Canada are quite inefficient when it comes to labour in particular. 40% of the professors at my uni make over $100,000. There is no fucking way someone who lectures twice a week and doesn't even have to mark papers (TAs do that) should be paid 6 figures.
I know that professors research too, but professors should do research OR teach, not both. it makes no sense why some guy who is researching things at the forefront of their field is wasting their time teaching 20 year olds.
the whole thing is just idiotic.
>>72641568
>Most of the for profit colleges such as university of phoenix, etc. are on the same government funded gravy train as the State Colleges.
like I said, if we cut subsidized student loans, for profit colleges would prosper first because they already innovated by doing everything online. They can easily turn a profit, even without student loans. Most regular colleges would shut down without student loans, because they haven't innovated, and still teach adults in the traditional way.
>>72646984
My boss is exactly like the professor you are describing.
At least here professors are only paid 3/4 of the year. They have to bring in their own salary for the rest of the year from research dollars.
He works his ass off for his salary, that is for sure. He manages ~15 researchers and students, and brings in big bucks for the university, (far, far above what is salary is).
And, like you mention teaches several classes per year.
He does not do it for the money though, but he should not get paid less imho.
>>72643667
You do realize it's only the brightest and the best that attend university in Europe because it's based on merit, right? Europeans wouldn't be able to afford free college if it meant letting in every dumb nigger, the selections are hard but fair. If you can't cut it, you go to the trade school and there is no shame in it unlike in the US where everyone has to attend college "or no jerbs". One of the reasons your tech companies opt out for H-1B workers is because it's the US degree that isn't worth much these days, you're producing a fuckton mediocre talent that do not even know how to code upon graduating.
t: software architect, worked 3 years in San Francisco
>>72643562
Trades can be good. My cousin makes good money as an HVAC tech.
>>72638140
>Why is college so expensive?
To finance the fight against global warming.
>>72639075
Fpbp?
>>72638140
wages and expenses rose in relation to inflation which has been insane since the creation of the Federal Reserve and their money printing scam. In real buying power, your dollar can get you what pennies used to buy. for college all of those increases are compounded and passed on to you. Every salary, bunsen burner, new building, diversity hiring initiatives, 100s of tryhard student "clubs" with fund allocations, all come at a cost. It maybe was okay when buying power was at a level where tuition could be earned with the pay from a few months of productivity. However, the secret tax of money printing has been so devastating that no one really has any "money" left. We have worthless federal reserve notes and it takes more than a years worth of productivity to earn what you need for a year of college.
>>72650038
First post best post
I'm paid to go to college.
ENS master race.
>>72638140
The costs come from the fact that they can charge whatever they want and the government will lend the money to morons. They get their money regardless if the moron pays, and the government goes after the moron to get the money back.
The same thing happens in hospitals. Now imagine how much they would gouge our tax dollars if it was fully publicly funded and you'll see why I am opposed to it.
>>72649931
>being a good goy and actually going to shit presentations
>>72647846
How hard it is to get in a research?
>>72649758
Yeah but I just want to help humanity reach the next technological level, money is not so important for me.
>>72638140
That's a dope picture, anon. Reminds me of The Last Of Us. Where'd you get it?
>>72638140
Here's a breakdown in the costs without actually using numbers.
In the average American university you have a staff of 10 administrators/support staff for every 1 teacher.
Now that 10 to 1 ratio doesn't include the Graduate Teaching Assistants actually outnumber professors 3 to 1. Their average salary can be up to $45K a year.
Finally in many universities(Not all) you have a ridiculously well paid staff of athletic directors and coaches. In many states the highest paid public employee are these coaches and directors. With the athletic departments often getting more money then any three other departments.
Then you have the facilities that they blow ridiculous amounts of money on. The University of Akron spent nearly a million dollars building a lazy river inside their multi million dollar rec center. You find this more and more all over America campuses are building insanely expensive recreational and entertainment facilities on campus that they must then staff and maintain.
Many universities funnel massive amounts of money into research that they have their professors doing. The "Publish or Perish" culture that has grown in Universities is ridiculous to the extreme at this point.
So you have:
1: 95%+ of salaries being spent on non-teachers.
2: Incredibly expensive in both cost and maintenance entertainment facilities that have nothing to do with learning.
3: Professors being funded by the schools to do research instead of teach students.
So that's why it is so expensive.
Now a huge part of this is led by the massive abundance of funds. Loans are given out left and right and in some states if you are in the top 10% of your class you are guaranteed a place in Public University and a loan.
