Cost of Top Colleges Has Outpaced the Value

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If Americans don't pay this tuition, foreign students will. There is a lot of money in Asia right now and Middle Eastern countries are paying to send their people to the USA in droves. So you see A LOT of Chinese, especially the daughters that can't get a free Chinese education, going to school here on their parents' income, and then Middle Eastern governments subsidizing their population's education here for preparation for when their nations will not be able to coast on just oil alone. Because education visas are so easy to get in the U.S., American colleges are in high demand and while most Americans cannot afford it any more, foreigners can, do, and will continue to pay these kinds of rates. In fact, this seems the driving force behind the rate hikes. Economic woes in the USA are lowering effective demand for college by Americans due to our reduced ability to pay. And the government has not drastically increased financial aid over the last few years. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but it's a fact. So tuition will continue to go up, as will housing in areas where the school has the ability to buy up surrounding residences and put them under their control and pricing. Foreigners are not really the root of the problem, though. This is not meant as anti-foreigner. It's our visa system and the fact we give too much student loans and not enough grants to our own people. Both need to be fixed if we want this improved. So many public and private universities here are subsidized by the government through research and various other methods, for it to become so lopsided in favor of benefiting citizens of foreign countries when our taxpayers are paying for a significant chunk of this superior university system... that's our fault as a country. If this keeps up, in the long run it will be impossible to reverse as schools become increasingly dependent on foreigners paying these high tuition costs, sustaining this vicious cycle. It is also dangerous, because China and the Middle East which largely are incapable of having thriving acadamic communities due to their oppressive societies are essentially leaching off of ours without paying teh full cost of it. And we're allowing it.

Ret of OH 12:42AM July 30, 2011

Merit scholarships have virtually been eliminated at these Liberal Arts Schools. Another door closes on the middle class?
My oldest D was accepted by 3 of the top 5 Engineering Schools. The four year cost would have been 170-200k. I understand most students accepted to these schools have fantastic academics but the cost is absurd.
:(

Dad of AZ 9:40PM September 06, 2010

This is very shocking and utterly disgusting. Title it "The Fleecing of American Youth".

J M of TX 8:12PM August 27, 2010

The cost of an undergraduate education is so high that it has become undemocratic. The door is closing most tightly on the middle class--the rich can afford the astronomical tuition and the poor have access to grants, financial aid, etc. I challenge universities to disclose information about how they spend the average student's tuition, room, and board. A non-profit organization should then do an audit and rank schools based on which school use tuition dollors for the specific purpose of instructing students and NOT for all the "other" things. The purpose of higher education is to educate; my deep concern and great desire is for my tuition payments to prepare/develop my children for the future NOT support a great football or basketball program.

Peter Kim of VA 3:42PM August 27, 2010

If your daddy owns a chain of hotels, feel free to go to an "elite" college for four years and waste 200 grand on a degree in Art History, then go work for Daddy as a vice president. If you're paying or borrowing your own way and expect to be employable at graduation, go to a state funded school and major in something usefull. Beware that with the outsourcing of the American work force, those occupations are becoming scarce. Then, hopefully, you can afford to go to Barnes and Noble and buy some books on Art History.

Sam of TX 1:42PM August 27, 2010

There is no reason for these schools to charge this much. None whatsoever. The money doesn't go to the faculty or much of the staff, and the students' learning experiences are not enhanced by that much. It is a race to the highest cost by schools seeking to appeal to the richest elements of this society, as has been the case with everything else over the last 15 years, and it increasingly means that middle-class and poor people have less access or opportunities, if they cannot afford state-sponsored institutions, to attend undergraduate and graduate school. But very few of the policymakers, including those who went to state schools, appear to care about anyone who isn't very rich or powerful, and so goes the way of our country and world.

Athanasius of FL 12:30PM August 26, 2010

I still attend Cal State Northridge and love it. However with California's economic structure crumbling, the Cal States are not looking so optimistic. But when you think about it, I am saving thousands of dollars by making this choice. The tuition is very low compared to other schools, an average yearly cost for a graduate student estimates at about 16,000 in state and 24,000 out of state. It can get cheaper if a student chooses to live at home,dorm or chooses to live in an apartment. But if you ask me, if budgeting your way through college is becoming a difficult task....students should ask what there major is going to be and if they are willing to spend additional years in graduate school. Remember a BA can only get you so much money.
I majored in History. For many it sounds like a way to go but for many its not. For many in the social sciences, students automatically believe they are going to be psychologist, social workers, teachers and possibly politicians. But for many students at the end of their academic years don't know what they are going to do in the future. And if they are going to go through the long road of Graduate study, they will have to tackle on the next 4 to 7 years of financial hardship.
So I ask this question...why pay 200,000 dollars on a major that you can most likely receive in a regional state college or other public university. I know my share of Bruins and Trojans who have shared this question with me. Although I do have to say that UCLA is not as expensive as most colleges in the East Coast but when you think about location location...West L.A. will cost you the big bucks.
So to end my long story, Just ask yourself...will it be worth the time, effort, and money.....and possibly the commute. For some maybe but for others like me who have stayed in state for about 5 years and will probably end up teaching, or going to law school...its pretty much worth it. Will it be worth it for the person who goes to Stanford and will possibly be teaching and making as much money as me....really I don't know...all I know is that that person is going to be f***** with student loans.
But to all students out there be careful and try the make the best judgments for your academic career.

Letty of CA of CA 9:00PM August 23, 2010

I would also like to mention that while I acknowledged that the science programs at Augustana are respectable, Black Hills State has the NASA connections and the stellar Biology program, and SDSMT in Rapid City blows Augustana away at everything... all for a one of the lowest state school prices in the nation. And if you are thinking "Augustana is not a prestigious school", I would like to inform you that around here, they consider themselves prestigious. They have the highest average ACTs, low faculty:student ratios and a high price tag that (in some minds) signifies a superior school.
I had many academic scholarships and ended up paying only $60,000 in five years. I funded my entire education by myself. The education was expensive, but the payments are manageable. I am simply saying that the prestige of a school is not worth the cost. On rare occasions, the name of a college can open doors, but generally speaking, nobody cares where you went to school when it is time to hire. I made the mistake of thinking it mattered, and now I will pay for it. I just hope others reading this will listen instead of writing off what I am saying.
As for liberal arts in particular, which I forgot to address in my previous post, avoid it at all costs. It will be used as an excuse to give you a thoroughly irrelevant education. If you can read outside the classroom and learn by yourself and are not simply a drone that needs a teacher to tell them what to learn, you do not need a liberal arts education. Go to school for a job, learn on your own time. It will save you a lot of time and money. Liberal arts degrees are, in my opinion, currently geared toward kids with rich parents who want to pay for their children to be pampered. They are also geared toward kids who will not need to use their degree to get a job.
The liberal arts education will simply force you to waste time on useless things that professors deem appropriate. There is nothing about a liberal arts education that I found beneficial. I came in speaking two languages, I graduated speaking two languages. I placed in the 99th percentile on the SAT and I graduated placing in the 97th percentile on the GRE. The small school translates into nosy professors who do not let you live your life but rather babysit you. They inquire constantly when they should not and treat students as if they are all children... which I, as somebody paying for his own education, resented.
I have applied for multiple jobs as an admission counselor at state schools for this exact reason: I want to help others avoid making the mistake I made. I never got to relax during undergrad because I was constantly worrying about money, and in the end, I may as well have gone to a state school where my loans would not have gone directly to the college and where I could have relaxed and lived a normal college life. I sincerely hope at least one person reads my posts and changes their mind.

Andre of SD 1:38PM August 22, 2010

While all colleges and universities are currently too expensive, I think it is fairly obvious that private schools are way too expensive. In this recession, jobs are scarce. Politicians cite low unemployment in South Dakota, but a hefty percentage of us have merely been downgraded into positions below our pay grade. There is no recovery going on for mainstream America right now. Every job that I am applying for requires experience. Or, it is a go-nowhere job with no future, and I am not talking about a low-level government job (I am not picky), I am talking about flipping burgers. I am either over-educated or under-experienced for every position I find. A degree is a degree, nobody cares where you graduate from.
The college that I attended, Augustana College in Sioux Falls, SD, raised tuition over $1,000 per year while I was there. During a recession, I am astonished that they considered this inflation appropriate, especially as they built a 6.1 million dollar football complex and made a worthless, cosmetic 6.0 million dollar upgrade to a pathetically inadequate library. The science facilities are outdated compared to what the kids at state schools and bigger private schools get, yet the price keeps rising. US News calls Augustana a "value" because it is "only" $30,000 a year, but in a state like ours with wages and employment opportunities like those we have, that is much like $80,000 in New England.
I have a Government and International Affairs degree, and before anybody comments on that, let me first say: the size of the school worked against me here. I was driven coming out of high school, and I took 20 credits in my major within three semesters. An overbearing, pushy advisor, who only cared what I did for 2 hours per year, ridiculed the idea that I change majors and called my ideas "stupid". So I stayed, which was my mistake, because I did not care since I was law school-bound anyway. Now, I am taking a year off, and realizing how truly daunting it can be to find a job with a non-"vocational" degree. However, even the nursing majors I know are struggling, working as CNA's because there are no RN positions.
Disregarding my evidently worthless major, the competition from state schools is astonishing. In spite of the so-called "advantages" of attending Augustana, graduates are consistently outpaced by other schools. The science programs are solid and the pre-med placement is good, but otherwise, nothing separates us from the state school grads (nor should it, in my opinion) when it comes to the job hunt. Northern and Black Hills State place more teachers, U of South Dakota does just as well in Business and related fields and SD State nurses come from a more touted program. Private schools are all about the name and the coddling experience. That is what you pay for, and it is too expensive. Do not go for prestige and do not go for the supposedly superior quality of education. Both are myths, and neither will get you a job.

Andre of SD 1:21PM August 22, 2010

Getting out of school with a $200,000 and finding a $50,000 or no job at all is not worth all that money. The job that could pay us back the money we invested in our schooling are outsourced for a lot less. If you get one of them you have to consider yourself lucky and this often means you know someone who knows someone.

Elle of TX 8:45PM August 21, 2010