should college be as expensive as it is?

There are multiple ways to look at this question. On one hand getting a college degree is designed to pay off bigger than the payments you need to make for it and thus should cost a lot because you will get a much higher salary with a degree than without. On the other hand education is one of the most important things to keep a country up and running, but if you make it expensive it will be out of reach for a large amount of people. By doing this your country could go downhill.

Personally I think college should be less expensive which would allow more people to get an education and thus having more citizens able to work they otherwise wouldn't know how to.

what do you think? Should college be expensive because it allows for a much bigger payoff? Or do you want it to be less expensive allowing more people to become educated in the country?

College is expensive for a reason. Professors with Ph.d's do not come cheap. Nor do facilities like laboratories and such. How do you suppose we will lower the cost?Rocky32189

[QUOTE="Rocky32189"]College is expensive for a reason. Professors with Ph.d's do not come cheap. Nor do facilities like laboratories and such. How do you suppose we will lower the cost?Serraph105

The 4-year I attended was private. The Cost of Attendance was about 48K+ during my first year and 52K for my final year. The Tuition alone was roughly 20K per semester, not including other fees and what not. I could have done with spending a bit less.

This is 2008 tuition and fees

College is expensive for a reason. Professors with Ph.d's do not come cheap. Nor do facilities like laboratories and such. How do you suppose we will lower the cost?Rocky32189

There are multiple ways to look at this question. On one hand getting a college degree is designed to pay off bigger than the payments you need to make for it and thus should cost a lot because you will get a much higher salary with a degree than without. On the other hand education is one of the most important things to keep a country up and running, but if you make it expensive it will be out of reach for a large amount of people. By doing this your country could go downhill.

Personally I think college should be less expensive which would allow more people to get an education and thus having more citizens able to work they otherwise wouldn't know how to.

what do you think? Should college be expensive because it allows for a much bigger payoff? Or do you want it to be less expensive allowing more people to become educated in the country?

Serraph105

Less.. especially considering a HS teacher works harder than a college teach from my experience.

it's only going to get more expensive, might as well go while you canlamprey263

The 4-year I attended was private. The Cost of Attendance was about 48K+ during my first year and 52K for my final year. The Tuition alone was roughly 20K per semester, not including other fees and what not. I could have done with spending a bit less.

This is 2008 tuition and fees

clayron

[QUOTE="clayron"]

The 4-year I attended was private. The Cost of Attendance was about 48K+ during my first year and 52K for my final year. The Tuition alone was roughly 20K per semester, not including other fees and what not. I could have done with spending a bit less.

This is 2008 tuition and fees

Lockedge

Less.. considering especially considering a HS teacher works harder than a college teach from my experience.

Espada12

Here in Canada the government pays for more than 90% of the tuition, and we get most of what we pay back on income taxes. I can tell you this, my career goals would be entirely different if I had to pay full price... hell, I probably wouldn't be going to university at all, or have even gone for five years and got my B.A. in Religious Studies.

I definitely agree that tuition costs should be heavily subsidized to make it more accessible... especially given the increasing specialization and undergraduate degrees becoming about as useless as high school diplomas now.

That's just how it is. There is no way to lessen the cost unless you think professors should be paid less (they already make much less than people with comparable degrees) [...] Rocky32189

College is expensive for a reason. Professors with Ph.d's do not come cheap. Nor do facilities like laboratories and such. How do you suppose we will lower the cost?Rocky32189

No good reasons for expensive college. should be cheap so anyone can go if they want to....

That's just how it is. There is no way to lessen the cost unless you think professors should be paid less (they already make much less than people with comparable degrees) or you want laboratories and other research facilities to be downgraded.Rocky32189

I'm sorry, but even with my ignorance on this subject, this is a clear false dichotomy. There's surely other ways of changing the way universities are funded other than cutting costs, even if those ways aren't looked on at all favourably or considered at all.

The 4-year I attended was private. The Cost of Attendance was about 48K+ during my first year and 52K for my final year. The Tuition alone was roughly 20K per semester, not including other fees and what not. I could have done with spending a bit less.

This is 2008 tuition and fees

[QUOTE="Espada12"]

Less.. considering especially considering a HS teacher works harder than a college teach from my experience.

Serraph105

I say abolish separate college institutions, and integrate it into secondary education. Encourage careers in engineering as well. A smarter populace is a better future, I say.CRS98

Less.. especially considering a HS teacher works harder than a college teach from my experience. [...]

Espada12

Elementary and high school teachers set the foundation for college/uni to build upon.Lockedge

Less.. considering especially considering a HS teacher works harder than a college teach from my experience.

If a professor wants to keep their tenure, they're going to have to be pumping out seriously relevant academic works. From the professors I know personally, your speculation definitely does not apply. When they aren't teaching and marking, they're reading, when they're not reading, they're writing. Most professors work 12-14 hours days, teaching at least 12-15 hours a week, and reading/writing for the rest of it. There is one professor I know who said he hasn't read a piece of fiction or creative writing in almost a decade, because he has no free time to read stuff that isn't relevant to his field.

foxhound_fox

Well in my fields IT - most never even strayed from the syllabus and basically did out of the book work. I.E teaching you to pass exams, and currently with law the profs are required to know updated law regardless of their teaching job since most of them do consultation.

Usually private colleges or universities are much expensive than a government colleges because you have to pay much more charges and even expensive fees in order to study on the colleges. I'm currently studying on one of the government universities which offering a cheaper fees at about MYR 400 ( USD 114.30) and all the education costs are subsidized by the government and also i'm currently applying for the educational loan from the government and currently waiting for application process to be qualified.amirzaim

Government colleges are just as expensive. They just get their money from that tax pool instead of charging everything to the student.

Private non-proffit is the way to go.

[QUOTE="amirzaim"]

Government colleges are just as expensive. They just get their money from that tax pool instead of charging everything to the student.

Private non-proffit is the way to go.

psychobrew

[QUOTE="amirzaim"]Usually private colleges or universities are much expensive than a government colleges because you have to pay much more charges and even expensive fees in order to study on the colleges. I'm currently studying on one of the government universities which offering a cheaper fees at about MYR 400 ( USD 114.30) and all the education costs are subsidized by the government and also i'm currently applying for the educational loan from the government and currently waiting for application process to be qualified.psychobrew

Government colleges are just as expensive. They just get their money from that tax pool instead of charging everything to the student.

Private non-proffit is the way to go.

The 4-year I attended was private. The Cost of Attendance was about 48K+ during my first year and 52K for my final year. The Tuition alone was roughly 20K per semester, not including other fees and what not. I could have done with spending a bit less.

This is 2008 tuition and fees

clayron

I'm paying ~20k/semester for my freshman year too (sucks being out of state), but I plan on dropping a few courses to take somewhere else for cheaper, and then transferring those credits back.

I'm going to Michigan St. by the way, coming from PA.

Lest we forget about the messed up student loan system. Interest rates can be killer which is an issue in a job market where having a masters doesn't even guarantee you a job let alone a bachelors. I even know people with PhDs in language who have given up pursuing college research positions and have just become civil servants so that they can make their loan payments.

[QUOTE="clayron"]

The 4-year I attended was private. The Cost of Attendance was about 48K+ during my first year and 52K for my final year. The Tuition alone was roughly 20K per semester, not including other fees and what not. I could have done with spending a bit less.

This is 2008 tuition and fees

Lockedge

The 4-year I attended was private. The Cost of Attendance was about 48K+ during my first year and 52K for my final year. The Tuition alone was roughly 20K per semester, not including other fees and what not. I could have done with spending a bit less.

This is 2008 tuition and fees

[QUOTE="mattbbpl"]2/3 of[QUOTE="Lockedge"] I will say that is an absurd amount of money. I know in the USA, school expenses are hefty, but that's still rather absurd. clayron

[QUOTE="clayron"][QUOTE="mattbbpl"] Yes, well, not to be blunt, but he paid that much by choice by ignoring the state-funded benefits of going to a private institution (or even better, attending Community College for the first two years).mattbbpl

[QUOTE="mattbbpl"][QUOTE="clayron"] I went to a community college for two years, and then transferred. That school is an instate college, I am from Los Angeles and the college is in Los Angeles. clayron

[QUOTE="clayron"][QUOTE="mattbbpl"] Congrats on the Community College choice - very smart. But I thought you said the 4-year you attended was private? If it's private, then what does being in-state have to do with anything? (I'm not familiar with California law - in Illinois 2/3 of all costs of public universities are paid by the state, but the same doesn't hold true for private universities).mattbbpl

[QUOTE="mattbbpl"][QUOTE="clayron"] The 4-year university I transferred to from a community college is private. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I believe the school has increased fees for out-of-state/international students. I do not know the rules for how much the government pays for within California.clayron

Having a college degree increases your lifetime earnings by approximately 1 million dollars.

Having a college degree increases your lifetime earnings by approximately 1 million dollars.

sonicare

Having a college degree increases your lifetime earnings by approximately 1 million dollars.

Having a college degree increases your lifetime earnings by approximately 1 million dollars.

[QUOTE="sonicare"][QUOTE="clayron"] A million dollars over a lifetime isn't a lot.Serraph105