Why is college tuition more expensive in the US?

  • we have a system called hecs in australia that is basically a CPI indexed loan for one's tuitition that gets paid back through one's taxes...

  • I'm sure someone can come up with an educated and nuanced answer, but my guess is the obsession with capitalism and individualism.

    It's hard to say about the tax thing when ultra-rich people are allowed to evade taxes . So add corruption to the list.

  • Why do you think these universities start to run at this point?

  • Pikachu-Senpai share some of your thoughts about this thread?

    It's basically capitalism unfortunately. Instead of the USA seeing it as a necessity it's seen as a "business".


    So you have all these private companies opening up colleges and the whole "go to college or else you're nothing" mentality in the USA is horrible. Especially with how a lot of jobs are wanting "experience" so now those who are graduating are having a hard time finding a job even though they've spent thousands and thousands of dollars to seem more enticing for a job.

    ~ ω


  • I'm sure someone can come up with an educated and nuanced answer, but my guess is the obsession with capitalism and individualism.

    Those concepts are not taught in American colleges, and have nothing to do with the current disastrous system.


    Look instead at giant campuses, layer upon layer of high-salaried, tenured professors who have not taught a class in years but delegate the work to graduate assistants so they can spend all of their time on political activism, countless unnecessary programs of study, huge endowment funds, big sports programs that don't quite pay for themselves, bloated administrative staffs, and students willing to pay any price for a degree with a particular college's name on it because easily available Federal student loans allow them to do so without calculating the long-term consequences.


    Yes, university education in the US is a gigantic scam perpetrated on younger people - but the scam has nothing whatsoever to do with capitalism. The free market is already creating many inexpensive, online alternatives to the university monopolies. Without help from their friends in government, the university monopoly is not going to hold onto its illicit power over credentialism for much longer.


    The big universities survive on mind-share - the idea that a "Harvard degree", for example, is an automatic ticket to the good life and worth paying any price to obtain. It's too late for Millennials, but I think Gen Z is already starting to realize that there are many paths forward - and no need to bribe ancient gatekeepers to get there.

  • https://www.statista.com/stati…and-private-institutions/


    There were approximately 19.6 million students in the U.S. in 2019, with around 14.5 million enrolled in public colleges and a further 5.14 million students enrolled in private colleges.


    https://www.webometrics.info/en/distribution_by_country


    Countries arranged by Number of Universities in Top Ranks

    United States of America 58 3254
    United Kingdom 8 282
    Canada 6 370
    Australia 6 193


    https://www.migrationpolicy.or…udents-united-states-2020

    About 1.1 million international students are enrolled in U.S. institutions in school year (SY) 2019-20

    I believe most of them have above average financial capability and swarmed to get in top 1-200, if not top 58 in US.

    Nearly 400K out of the 1.1M are from China, private unis loved them to death.

    .

    All in all I get if private colleges are founded by profit oriented companies then it is capitalism, supply versus demand determined their market value and tuition offered, Brand name = money. This is about 5.14 off total 19.6 millions students.


    My question would be , are the rest of 14.5 millions state college students over charged ? if they do how did that happen?

  • Pikachu-Senpai your gig again , provide some education pls?

    I'm the lead medical secretary for the Neuro-Spinal surgery department at my hospital. I have a bachelor's in web design lol. But they still hired me looooool.

    ~ ω


  • What about the possible job salary from graduating? the job salary in the USA compared to other countries that have lower tuition fees should be higher?

    Pikachu-Senpai your gig again , provide some education pls?

    So I will say that a lot of the surgeons and doctors in my department are still massively in debt because of how expensive college was. So a lot of them are living paycheck to paycheck. Most of them don't have a house either because of how expensive the housing market is in the USA.


    The only ones who are living the high rise life are the ones who have been surgeons/doctors 20+ years. Even one of the surgeons who's been a surgeon for 9 years now is still trying to pay off his debts.

    ~ ω


  • These schools charging 250k to students (kids really) for something like a History degree is criminal.

    The criminal part is a government willing to loan money for such a program. It's a form of kickback in return for the institution's political support. Individual students have to understand that these entities are just using them to achieve their financial and political goals. When "free"money is dangled in front of them, they should be wary of what the real motives are.

    • Official Post

    In the 80s/90s, a college degree became a requirement for getting a good paying job so demand for higher education increased. Because demand went up, prices went up.


    There's also evidence that the government passing the bill that set up the pell grant and federal student loan program also caused prices to rise because suddenly *everyone* could qualify for a grant or a loan so naturally they raised their prices to meet that.


    College is a terrible return on investment at the moment.

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