Free loans & Easy admissions
Loans carry no risk
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Ample money supply for universities
& no pressure to cut costs
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Increase in budget and expenses
University FOMO for not being
competitive on shiny offerings
(Admin, fancy facilities, etc.)
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Perpetually raising costs
Students take bigger loans
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Student loan crisis
The easiest lever to pull is adjusting the student loan situation. Students need to be able to discharge their debt, which will put risk calculus back into the equation. STEM degrees, graduation rates, degree value, and student academic performance will be directly correlated with risk.
Under these changes, a student with so-so academics going to an expensive school for art history won't work anymore. STEM degrees at local community colleges will be affordable and abundant. That's what the country needs rather than a system that buys fancy academic buildings.
Our ancestors could make do with learning in decrepit old buildings. They didn't have staycation amenities. They turned that into incredible productive value and didn't go into debt. That's what we need again.
If we want to continue to provide access as a matter of policy, then we should make universities meet strict standards on budget and degree cost to offer non-dischargeable loans to students. Then universities can decide whether they want to meet those eligibility requirements or continue inflating their own costs. The market will fix itself.
Why US Men Think College Isn’t Worth It Anymore- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43788914 - April 2025
Pew Reseach: Is College Worth It? - https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2024/05/23/is-coll... - May 23rd, 2024
There is some progress here on companies removing the credential requirement, and the situation should improve as labor supply continues to decline into the future due to structural demographics (forcing employers to loosen hiring requirements).
Learn a trade, get a CDL (~$5k), etc.
The beautiful thing is that making the debt dischargeable fixes all that.
Nobody will write a loan for your slapdash STEM program that doesn't actually correlate with earnings.
Same goes for a basket weaving degree from a prestigious university.
>Learn a trade, get a CDL (~$5k), etc.
Spoken like someone who's never been with spitting distance of either. They are not at all easy money compared to office stuff. The trades are all regulatory captured by the professional associations, licensing bodies, etc so you'll toil for 4-10yr making peanuts while you destroy your bodies and sometimes you can't even make the big bucks without going into business yourself and taking on huge risk. CDL jobs are all 60hr a week slogs, more if your company has someone overseas editing the E-logs which a good chunk of them do.
If you can hack it an office job that requires "real math" is almost universally better.
I have a associates in science in cyber security, most credits didn't transfer to a bachelor's of science in cybwrsecurity program despite both being public schools and not private colleges. Its set my education back years all because most jobs demand a bachelor's and certifications.
Seems like you haven't even gone down the path most of the world operates on and just assume the system as it exists can't be modified.
The other finalist school she didn’t choose is also private but has every amenity under the sun. The newer dorms which she would have been in because of her major have state of the art gyms inside them and parking garages under them which she would have been assigned a spot in. Multiple dining facilities whith a wide range of high quality food. The school has a full array of D1 sports programs and new atheletic facilities built within the last 5-15 years. It is located in a large metropolitan area. It doesn’t have near the same quality of academics as her choice.
The estimated cost of attendance for 25-26 is with $500 of each other. Both being around $89k before any aid. She doesn’t qualify for federal financial aid. Luckily both offered very substantial merit aid. She did also consider one of our state schools. Although not as nice as the private she didn’t choose it is much closer to that than the school she did choose. They, along with all our state schools, are known for giving almost no aid beyond federal financial aid. The cost to attend would have been more than the two private schools after their merit aid awards.
I guess my point is they get you whether they give you amenities or not and whether they are private or public.
The initial correspondence was also addressed to "the parents of $student".
Someone certainly felt confident in their clever little scheme to milk their endless supply of cash cows.
$90K/year in 1982 was fuckin’ rolling in it.
Scholarships and financial aid will basically expand as necessary to meet tuition demands for students. Therefore, the colleges can name their price, as it is basically funny-money, and any given student will be on a combination of scholarship, FAFSA, mom/dad funds, loans.
In fact it is sort of a joke. When I was in community college, Phi Theta Kappa made overtures to recruit me. One of their seminars featured a few students who had earned a lot of scholarships by virtue of their membership and service. And I do mean "a lot". I think one of the figures tossed out there was $23 million in scholarships. For a community college student. And to think I was baffled how to spend an extra $500 or so kicking around.
I got really disillusioned, even with community college, after my final years there. It seemed that the tuition was the right price, and all the instructors were highly credentialed, knowledgeable, and helpful. The classes themselves were great. But the whole package was draining, and exhausting. It was like a neverending exposition of clubs, events, deals, and engagement. Every table on the mall, every student leader next to me, was simply dying to gain my loyalty, membership, and engagement in whatever they had going on. And I personally could not keep a lid on that, so I just sort of got torn to pieces. I was in 5 clubs and doing honors and all kinds of extra stuff that just wore me out.
All I had wanted to do was just Take some Classes, Earn the Credits, and get out of there. But that is not a satisfactory goal for the colleges of today.
Also realistically, you're likely getting a loan, so you need to factor in interest.
littlexsparkee•6h ago