ADVERTISEMENT

How to help student tuition problem.

The Spin Meister

Well-Known Member
Gold Member
Nov 27, 2012
35,281
45,778
1
An altered state
Student debt is a big problem. Schools way too expensive. Grads saddled with debt for years or even decades. And having the feds pay for tuition isn’t the answer as that allows schools to charge whatever they want for lousy service with majors that are worthless.

Here’s two possible solutions:

1. Students pay their first year either with loans as done now, their own or parents funds, or scholarship. After the first year have corporations come in to recruit future employees and pay the tuition for those they select. They would pick students with best courses of study and the best grades. Corp pays for three years in return for five years work at full pay. Student could opt out by reimbursing the company if they get a better job offer.

This will have many benefits. The most obvious is reduced loans/debt for students. Second is that freshman year they would be more incentivized to study to get the grades to win a full ride for three years. That would reduce the lure of partying and such behaviors and have kids more focused. It would also incentivize them to pick majors that companies would fund.....probably leading to a big increase in STEM majors. Kids that miss out the first year could qualify after their sophomore year. A company could even offer tutors or other assistance to help their ROI. Companies would also likely have more internships and students would build a network of mentors along the way. And schools would have to improve their offerings to get companies to participate. Having a good program would attract better students. A bad program of this nature would hurt enrollment.

2. Make the schools be co-signers on any student loan. Great way to incentivize the schools to help students succeed. And to enroll students in courses that would result in quality jobs so students don’t default. It would reduce majoring in studies with poor employment opportunities. It would also reduce schools accepting kids that they know will not succeed but pay tuition for a year or two before dropping out. Schools would make professors better teachers instead of just research gods that sleepwalk through some required class.

I know most schools would never agree to such a program. But if enough do so and are successful, the rest would have to fall in line. Hate government mandates to institute such a plan but I would prefer such a mandate over just handing out free tuition to anyone that enrolls in any major.

Ideally it would be a hybrid of both. Schools co-sign for year one, corporations pick up the tab for the top students the rest of the way. Could easily see half the students winning such corporate support.

Go ahead shoot some holes in it. Know it won’t be easy. If you have a better idea let’s hear it.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: bison13
Student debt is a big problem. Schools way too expensive. Grads saddled with debt for years or even decades. And having the feds pay for tuition isn’t the answer as that allows schools to charge whatever they want for lousy service with majors that are worthlessness.
Here’s two possible solutions:

1. Students pay their first year either with loans as done now, their own or parents funds, or scholarship. After the first year have corporations come in to recruit future employees and pay the tuition for those they select. They would pick students with best courses of study and the best grades. Corp pays for three years in return for five years work at full pay. Student could opt out by reimbursing the company if they get a better job offer.

This will have many benefits. The most obvious is reduced loans/debt for students. Second is that freshman year they would be more incentivized to study to get the grades to win a full ride for three years. That would reduce the lure of partying and such behaviors and have kids more focused. It would also incentivize them to pick majors that companies would fund.....probably leading to a big increase in STEM majors. Kids that miss out the first year could qualify after their sophomore year. A company could even offer tutors or other assistance to help their ROI. Companies would also likely have more internships and students build a network of mentors along the way. And schools would have to improve their offerings to get companies to,participate. Having a good program would attract better students. A bad program of this mature would hurt enrollment.

2. Make the schools be co-signers on any student loan. Great way to incentivize the schools to help students succeed. And to enroll students in courses that would result in quality jobs so students don’t default. It would reduce majoring in studies with poor employment opportunities. It would also reduce schools accepting kids that they know will not succeed but pay tuition for a year or two before dropping out. Schools would make professors better teachers instead of just research gods that sleepwalk through some required class.

I know most schools would never agree to such a program. But if enough do so and are successful, the rest would have to fall in line. Hate government mandates to institute such a plan but Imwould prefer such a mandate over just handing out free tuition to anyone that enrolls in any major.

Ideally it would be a hybrid of both. Schools co-sign for year one, corporations pick up the tab for the top students the rest of the way. Could easily see half the students winning such corporate support.

Go ahead shoot some holes in it. Know it won’t be easy. If you have a better idea let’s hear it.
How about corporations getting tax incentives for helping employees pay off student loan debt? This can help them still hire the top students and serves as an added benefit.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bison13
There are some government programs now which pay the med school tuition for Drs who agree to work in rural underserved areas for a few years.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bison13
Cut out some gen ed courses to reduce the number of credits required to obtain a bachelor degree. Fewer courses equals less tuition paid. Of course, universities would fight this since they'd lose a year's tuition per graduate. It's all about the revenue. They really don't care what tuition costs may be. That's a student problem.
 
The best way is to get rid of all the useless majors at Every school. i know people will be offended but how many Art history majors do we need. Start teaching basics at HS, no one needs to take all the extra classes they should have had in HS. No more foreign language requirement, let alone 2 semesters. no more history for a business major. If the department can’t cut it, get rid of it. Make a BS degree 3 years instead of 4. We spent at least 20k extra for classes my son Has no need for. Colleges have way too many professors and majors. he Probably could have got what he neede in 2 years
 
The last few posts are excellent.
The schools can easily drop 6 to 12 credits of gen Ed stuff as well as offer a course every semester even if it means some of the time it's an online course.
 
  • Like
Reactions: roswelllion
The first step to fixing any problem is to understand what is causing the problem. Simply put, there is too much money being funneled into universities, so they have zero incentive to make any cuts other than token cuts for PR purposes. Now, who wants to address, really address, how so much money is being funneled to schools. Ignore the why, that's a separate question.
 
And one way to make it cheaper is to have students graduate in 4 years instead of 5. Make sure the classes they need in their majors are offered when they need them.

Or just make college cheaper.

But if you want to make it faster to graduate, get rid of all elective class requirements.
 
It’s a slippery slope. Many courses are irrelevant to whatever degree or occupational objective a student might have, and one could argue that they could be eliminated. But education, the ability to write clearly, and think analytically has value also, even if it’s gained through English Lit or communications classes or something else many would find unnecessary. I’ve encountered a lot of technically brilliant employees with great academic training over the years who couldn’t draft a three paragraph memorandum. There is no absolute answer to this debate - it’s all very relative. But I find significant value in the liberal arts especially when it’s paired with a law degree, MBA, or some other professional school. Many lawyers start off with economics or political science at the undergraduate level and they need that training. Ha - my gastroenterologist majored in music and he plays in a band on the weekends. Make up your own jokes. There is monetary value to taking many courses and there is intellectual value to taking many as well. In my opinion an educated person leads a fuller richer life than a narrowly trained person, and you can’t necessarily measure that value based on income earned.
 
I agree about making schools have some skin in the game re. the student loans. For that matter, just have the schools do all the student loans. That will give the schools an incentive to not rip off students since if it does so it means the school won't get their money back.
 
  • Like
Reactions: The Spin Meister
1. allow refinancing.
2. bigger tax deductions for individual tax payer who pays on the loan, not corporations.
3. Significant Tuition reduction or zero interest loans to students who can show successful payoff of student loans by their parent. Stop the generational debt burden.
4. public universities and colleges first two years should be free.
5. Tuition for remaining two years needs to be based on individual income and need, state approved operational costs, and major choice.
6. Bankruptcy should be back on the table.

The system can be fixed, people just have to want to fix it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: aferrelli
Student debt is a big problem. Schools way too expensive. Grads saddled with debt for years or even decades. And having the feds pay for tuition isn’t the answer as that allows schools to charge whatever they want for lousy service with majors that are worthless.

Here’s two possible solutions:

1. Students pay their first year either with loans as done now, their own or parents funds, or scholarship. After the first year have corporations come in to recruit future employees and pay the tuition for those they select. They would pick students with best courses of study and the best grades. Corp pays for three years in return for five years work at full pay. Student could opt out by reimbursing the company if they get a better job offer.

This will have many benefits. The most obvious is reduced loans/debt for students. Second is that freshman year they would be more incentivized to study to get the grades to win a full ride for three years. That would reduce the lure of partying and such behaviors and have kids more focused. It would also incentivize them to pick majors that companies would fund.....probably leading to a big increase in STEM majors. Kids that miss out the first year could qualify after their sophomore year. A company could even offer tutors or other assistance to help their ROI. Companies would also likely have more internships and students would build a network of mentors along the way. And schools would have to improve their offerings to get companies to participate. Having a good program would attract better students. A bad program of this nature would hurt enrollment.

2. Make the schools be co-signers on any student loan. Great way to incentivize the schools to help students succeed. And to enroll students in courses that would result in quality jobs so students don’t default. It would reduce majoring in studies with poor employment opportunities. It would also reduce schools accepting kids that they know will not succeed but pay tuition for a year or two before dropping out. Schools would make professors better teachers instead of just research gods that sleepwalk through some required class.

I know most schools would never agree to such a program. But if enough do so and are successful, the rest would have to fall in line. Hate government mandates to institute such a plan but I would prefer such a mandate over just handing out free tuition to anyone that enrolls in any major.

Ideally it would be a hybrid of both. Schools co-sign for year one, corporations pick up the tab for the top students the rest of the way. Could easily see half the students winning such corporate support.

Go ahead shoot some holes in it. Know it won’t be easy. If you have a better idea let’s hear it.
I like both of those ideas. Regarding number 1, I would make it after 2 years instead of 1. Many students don't even start into their major until year 2.
Regarding some of the other posts
. colleges should be cheaper - the two primary costs are labor [teachers] and buildings [Cap X] - There is no reason tuitions need to go up more than 2-3 % per year. Also if you insist on new buildings colleges should use their billion dollar endowments not tuition hikes
- Mixed emotions on eliminating electives. It should be an easy way to "round out" your educational experience. in my day however it ended up being a way to pad my GPA. Rather than take a class that would broaden my knowledge I took classes that were deemed easy.
 
I like both of those ideas. Regarding number 1, I would make it after 2 years instead of 1. Many students don't even start into their major until year 2.
Regarding some of the other posts
. colleges should be cheaper - the two primary costs are labor [teachers] and buildings [Cap X] - There is no reason tuitions need to go up more than 2-3 % per year. Also if you insist on new buildings colleges should use their billion dollar endowments not tuition hikes
- Mixed emotions on eliminating electives. It should be an easy way to "round out" your educational experience. in my day however it ended up being a way to pad my GPA. Rather than take a class that would broaden my knowledge I took classes that were deemed easy.
Let the companies decide who and when. A freshman in science or engineer takes physics, calc, chem, bio and more. Gets a 4.0 or close deserves a scholly for the next year. Maybe half, maybe full. Up to company to decide the risk/reward. Have to maintain grades each year to renew scholly.

As for others suggestions.....less unrelated classes and more......they are just nibbling around the issues. And the greedy administrations would find other ways to fleece the sheeple.
 
  • Like
Reactions: roswelllion
Original suggestion #1 is an interesting idea, but not sure how it could be pulled off in reality. I think after the freshman year is completely unrealistic. Even after a sophomore year is still very iffy when you think that the schooling payment method would have to be settled well before the semester was starting. How can a company commit when they don’t know anything about a young person? Then what happens to the intern student when a company decides to not foot the bill? If you say they pay, then what is different from now? A company is free to do these offers now if they'd like. It would be wrong for the gov't to force them. I'd also expect everything would be analyzed so that quotas for various types of students are met. Also, I see many complaints being made about young people being stuck with a company for x years. Before anyone says the student agreed to it, they’ve also agreed to the loans that there are countless complaints about now.

So tired of hearing ideas like “Tuition for remaining two years needs to be based on individual income and need”. That goes for everything in life. Want to talk about the real privileged and advantaged? It is those that systems keep giving benefits to when they don’t contribute.
 
I think most universities have a mission problem that prevents them from making the changes they need to make in order to provide a reasonable cost / benefit offering to students. To put it simply, I think many universities aren’t sure why they exist.
 
Student debt is a big problem. Schools way too expensive. Grads saddled with debt for years or even decades. And having the feds pay for tuition isn’t the answer as that allows schools to charge whatever they want for lousy service with majors that are worthless.

Here’s two possible solutions:

1. Students pay their first year either with loans as done now, their own or parents funds, or scholarship. After the first year have corporations come in to recruit future employees and pay the tuition for those they select. They would pick students with best courses of study and the best grades. Corp pays for three years in return for five years work at full pay. Student could opt out by reimbursing the company if they get a better job offer.

This will have many benefits. The most obvious is reduced loans/debt for students. Second is that freshman year they would be more incentivized to study to get the grades to win a full ride for three years. That would reduce the lure of partying and such behaviors and have kids more focused. It would also incentivize them to pick majors that companies would fund.....probably leading to a big increase in STEM majors. Kids that miss out the first year could qualify after their sophomore year. A company could even offer tutors or other assistance to help their ROI. Companies would also likely have more internships and students would build a network of mentors along the way. And schools would have to improve their offerings to get companies to participate. Having a good program would attract better students. A bad program of this nature would hurt enrollment.

2. Make the schools be co-signers on any student loan. Great way to incentivize the schools to help students succeed. And to enroll students in courses that would result in quality jobs so students don’t default. It would reduce majoring in studies with poor employment opportunities. It would also reduce schools accepting kids that they know will not succeed but pay tuition for a year or two before dropping out. Schools would make professors better teachers instead of just research gods that sleepwalk through some required class.

I know most schools would never agree to such a program. But if enough do so and are successful, the rest would have to fall in line. Hate government mandates to institute such a plan but I would prefer such a mandate over just handing out free tuition to anyone that enrolls in any major.

Ideally it would be a hybrid of both. Schools co-sign for year one, corporations pick up the tab for the top students the rest of the way. Could easily see half the students winning such corporate support.

Go ahead shoot some holes in it. Know it won’t be easy. If you have a better idea let’s hear it.

A lot of corporations should drop the college education requirement for most positions.

You can apply for a job today with 20 years of experience and a bachelor's will be a requirement.

If you want a company to pay for college why not just have their own training program? It is considerably cheaper and students will learn a heck of a lot more.

I know during my training we went through accounting in 2 weeks.

Step two Is for Universities to decide if they are day care or education facilities.

If they want to remain as day care, they can cut a lot of the BS and cheapen the cost. Get rid of half of the professors who do nothing. Have larger classes.

LdN
 
First get rid of the following requirements:
  • Arts (GA): 6 credits
  • Health and Wellness (GHW): 3 credits
  • Humanities (GH): 6 credits
  • Social and Behavioral Sciences (GS): 6 credits
  • United States Cultures: 3 credits
  • International Cultures: 3 credits
That alone is 27 credits which is basically equivalent to a year. If someone wants to take these that is fine, but my degree was in Mechanical Engineering, and these should not have been a requirement to graduate. I understand that they say they want to create a "well rounded" student, but these classes just got in the way and became what needs to be done to pass.
 
I like both of those ideas. Regarding number 1, I would make it after 2 years instead of 1. Many students don't even start into their major until year 2.
Regarding some of the other posts
. colleges should be cheaper - the two primary costs are labor [teachers] and buildings [Cap X] - There is no reason tuitions need to go up more than 2-3 % per year. Also if you insist on new buildings colleges should use their billion dollar endowments not tuition hikes
- Mixed emotions on eliminating electives. It should be an easy way to "round out" your educational experience. in my day however it ended up being a way to pad my GPA. Rather than take a class that would broaden my knowledge I took classes that were deemed easy.

See I would be all for eliminating anything that does not apply to your major. Anyone who wants to learn about an ancient civilization or anything else can read a book or research it if they want to. It should not be a requirement for you to graduate with a degree in Engineering to take Art 101 or History of Eastern Civilizations. All it does is keep you in school for another year at 20-40K that wasn't needed.
 
Use on line education to eliminate paying for the same lectures over and over again. See Coursera and edX as examples of same.
Eliminate 50% of non- instructional administrative overhead- which has grown multiple times faster than educators over the last 40 years.
Any function can only have one “assistant.”
 
Student debt is a big problem. Schools way too expensive. Grads saddled with debt for years or even decades. And having the feds pay for tuition isn’t the answer as that allows schools to charge whatever they want for lousy service with majors that are worthless.

Here’s two possible solutions:

1. Students pay their first year either with loans as done now, their own or parents funds, or scholarship. After the first year have corporations come in to recruit future employees and pay the tuition for those they select. They would pick students with best courses of study and the best grades. Corp pays for three years in return for five years work at full pay. Student could opt out by reimbursing the company if they get a better job offer.

This will have many benefits. The most obvious is reduced loans/debt for students. Second is that freshman year they would be more incentivized to study to get the grades to win a full ride for three years. That would reduce the lure of partying and such behaviors and have kids more focused. It would also incentivize them to pick majors that companies would fund.....probably leading to a big increase in STEM majors. Kids that miss out the first year could qualify after their sophomore year. A company could even offer tutors or other assistance to help their ROI. Companies would also likely have more internships and students would build a network of mentors along the way. And schools would have to improve their offerings to get companies to participate. Having a good program would attract better students. A bad program of this nature would hurt enrollment.

2. Make the schools be co-signers on any student loan. Great way to incentivize the schools to help students succeed. And to enroll students in courses that would result in quality jobs so students don’t default. It would reduce majoring in studies with poor employment opportunities. It would also reduce schools accepting kids that they know will not succeed but pay tuition for a year or two before dropping out. Schools would make professors better teachers instead of just research gods that sleepwalk through some required class.

I know most schools would never agree to such a program. But if enough do so and are successful, the rest would have to fall in line. Hate government mandates to institute such a plan but I would prefer such a mandate over just handing out free tuition to anyone that enrolls in any major.

Ideally it would be a hybrid of both. Schools co-sign for year one, corporations pick up the tab for the top students the rest of the way. Could easily see half the students winning such corporate support.

Go ahead shoot some holes in it. Know it won’t be easy. If you have a better idea let’s hear it.

Not many corporations are going to sign up to take on liberal art student as $60K/yr liberal arts colleges. It is these kids who end up with obnoxious student load and no way to pay for them. STEM students usually have the income to pay down their loans. Depending on the degree, corporations will pay some pretty good money over the summer for degrees in demand. My company was paying $25/hr+ to summer students. If you want corporations to help, I'd like them to help after they got out of school. Hell on the blue collar side most corporation now refuse to set up apprentice program for machinist, mechanics, welders, ect employees they desperately need fearing the people they train will just bail on them when they become fully trained and they have satisfied any obligation they might have with the corp.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ski
First get rid of the following requirements:
  • Arts (GA): 6 credits
  • Health and Wellness (GHW): 3 credits
  • Humanities (GH): 6 credits
  • Social and Behavioral Sciences (GS): 6 credits
  • United States Cultures: 3 credits
  • International Cultures: 3 credits
That alone is 27 credits which is basically equivalent to a year. If someone wants to take these that is fine, but my degree was in Mechanical Engineering, and these should not have been a requirement to graduate. I understand that they say they want to create a "well rounded" student, but these classes just got in the way and became what needs to be done to pass.

The economics classes I took were interesting especially when I wreaked the curve for the liberal arts student. Beyond that the rest of those types of classes were useless. Engineers don't need that nonsense. Today those classes are more liberal indoctrination class more than anything else.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ski
How about mandating that Universities with huge endowments must begin to offer scholarship $ based upon a percentage of the endowment or the interset earned on the endowment...
 
How about mandating that Universities with huge endowments must begin to offer scholarship $ based upon a percentage of the endowment or the interset earned on the endowment...

Endowments are typically earmarked for specific purposes. So while universities like to flex their endowments (o_O), they can’t do whatever they want with them (o_O).
 
  • Like
Reactions: lions1995 and Art
How about mandating that Universities with huge endowments must begin to offer scholarship $ based upon a percentage of the endowment or the interset earned on the endowment...
Yes because that falls right in line with the constitution. Private institutions should be forced by the government to give snotty b1tches free money.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sullivan
The first step I'd like to see which I think is easy to implement is to freeze tuition costs for a student throughout their individual tenure (with a reasonable time constraint, consecutive years only, max 5 years). This will allow for better financial awareness of exactly how much money a student will need to get their degree right up front. This doesn't address the high costs, but at least helps with transparency and planning. It complicates bookkeeping for the university though, because at any given time they will have 10 different tuition prices depending on a student's in/out of state status and enrollment year.

Another suggestion in the interest of transparency would be to include data for incoming students that plainly illustrates the total cost of attendance, loans, amortizations and interest costs, as well as average market starting salaries and average job openings upon graduation for the selected degree. Students should already be doing this, but based on the sticker shock so many seem to have it appears they do not. Let's make the universities put this information in front of every student so it's crystal clear what they are signing up for financially.

I agree with the comments to cut out the requirement for filler courses so that a semester or a year of attendance can be eliminated, and also reducing student costs without any tuition changes.

Tuition prices and increases need to be controlled. For public schools the government can step in but I don't know how this would be reasonably accomplished, there would a big fight and there isn't a simple solution. I don't agree getting corporations to take on tuition is the answer. This would put stronger financial backing behind the tuition and likely would encourage schools to increase tuition since they know companies would pay it. Steps that make it less likely for universities to get paid if someone is in financial trouble is what needs to happen, not the opposite. Only when universities see that at a certain cost their risk of actually getting that money decreases will they actually make changes.
 
Get the federal govt out of the loan business

Remove lenders' safety net of federal guarantees

Let lenders set each borrower's interest rate at a level that fits the person's risk. We would see much different interest rates charged to business analytics majors vs. art history majors. Maybe students would make better choices if they saw the actual risk associated with fluffy majors
 
Stop subsidizing it and allow it to operate on free market principles. Only way the cost will go down. There are no easy answers, but there are simple ones.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Keyser Soze 16801
Stop subsidizing it and allow it to operate on free market principles. Only way the cost will go down. There are no easy answers, but there are simple ones.
Without subsidization all universities would in effect become privatized. It may not have a crushing effect on PSU since the state subsidy is less than 10% of the budget, or so I've been lead to believe. OTOH, the PASSHE schools would see a dramatic tuition increase which would definitely lead to closures. As you wrote, no easy answers.
 
Student debt is a big problem. Schools way too expensive. Grads saddled with debt for years or even decades. And having the feds pay for tuition isn’t the answer as that allows schools to charge whatever they want for lousy service with majors that are worthless.

Here’s two possible solutions:

1. Students pay their first year either with loans as done now, their own or parents funds, or scholarship. After the first year have corporations come in to recruit future employees and pay the tuition for those they select. They would pick students with best courses of study and the best grades. Corp pays for three years in return for five years work at full pay. Student could opt out by reimbursing the company if they get a better job offer.

This will have many benefits. The most obvious is reduced loans/debt for students. Second is that freshman year they would be more incentivized to study to get the grades to win a full ride for three years. That would reduce the lure of partying and such behaviors and have kids more focused. It would also incentivize them to pick majors that companies would fund.....probably leading to a big increase in STEM majors. Kids that miss out the first year could qualify after their sophomore year. A company could even offer tutors or other assistance to help their ROI. Companies would also likely have more internships and students would build a network of mentors along the way. And schools would have to improve their offerings to get companies to participate. Having a good program would attract better students. A bad program of this nature would hurt enrollment.

2. Make the schools be co-signers on any student loan. Great way to incentivize the schools to help students succeed. And to enroll students in courses that would result in quality jobs so students don’t default. It would reduce majoring in studies with poor employment opportunities. It would also reduce schools accepting kids that they know will not succeed but pay tuition for a year or two before dropping out. Schools would make professors better teachers instead of just research gods that sleepwalk through some required class.

I know most schools would never agree to such a program. But if enough do so and are successful, the rest would have to fall in line. Hate government mandates to institute such a plan but I would prefer such a mandate over just handing out free tuition to anyone that enrolls in any major.

Ideally it would be a hybrid of both. Schools co-sign for year one, corporations pick up the tab for the top students the rest of the way. Could easily see half the students winning such corporate support.

Go ahead shoot some holes in it. Know it won’t be easy. If you have a better idea let’s hear it.
Its a top level scam that the swamp loves.... Those being released of any debt are federally funded loans which doesn't amount to a hill of beans in the long run since most loans are privately held. It just ticks off a box for Slow Joe and his radical left. The only way to fix it is to hold back on research funding until the schools reorg their financial models and then have students borrow from the schools directly. Until the schools feels some pain, why change? Who ends up paying in the long run? Joe middle class as usual. The people who for the most part play by the rules.
 
Its a top level scam that the swamp loves.... Those being released of any debt are federally funded loans which doesn't amount to a hill of beans in the long run since most loans are privately held. It just ticks off a box for Slow Joe and his radical left. The only way to fix it is to hold back on research funding until the schools reorg their financial models and then have students borrow from the schools directly. Until the schools feels some pain, why change? Who ends up paying in the long run? Joe middle class as usual. The people who for the most part play by the rules.

Most student loans are privately held? Really?

https://ips-dc.org/the-federal-government-owns-92-of-student-debt-will-biden-wipe-it-out/
 
How about mandating that Universities with huge endowments must begin to offer scholarship $ based upon a percentage of the endowment or the interset earned on the endowment...
Many highly endowed schools already do this voluntarily - no student at Princeton or Harvard graduates with college loan debt. It’s not based on a formula- it’s their policy.
 
Cut out some gen ed courses to reduce the number of credits required to obtain a bachelor degree. Fewer courses equals less tuition paid. Of course, universities would fight this since they'd lose a year's tuition per graduate. It's all about the revenue. They really don't care what tuition costs may be. That's a student problem.
Yes, cut those courses out. The knowledge that was needed in the past and helped fuel our information economy for decades is simply no longer needed in the present and in the future. Make degrees 10 credits.
 
First get rid of the following requirements:
  • Arts (GA): 6 credits
  • Health and Wellness (GHW): 3 credits
  • Humanities (GH): 6 credits
  • Social and Behavioral Sciences (GS): 6 credits
  • United States Cultures: 3 credits
  • International Cultures: 3 credits
That alone is 27 credits which is basically equivalent to a year. If someone wants to take these that is fine, but my degree was in Mechanical Engineering, and these should not have been a requirement to graduate. I understand that they say they want to create a "well rounded" student, but these classes just got in the way and became what needs to be done to pass.
Sorry Mr Mechanical Engineer ~ there is disagreement with your line of 'thought'
 
Consider what would happen if you eliminate the gen ed classes and get people graduated within 2 to 3 years strictly with their major of choice. You just dumped even more workers onto the field with even more to follow year after year. Potentially fewer jobs, which now pay less because of the inflated supply, and no alternative education for those students to fall back on since we just produced a one-hit wonder. Again, the point of college is not to produce an employee, it is to produce an educated person. Getting someone to be educated takes time and they should be allowed to explore new fields and subjects. That's why the first two years should be free. I am all for the next two years being a self-financed major focused experience that presumably would go straight through to graduation (no summer breaks).

I don't hate self-investment debt. That kind of debt is good. But people need to be prepared for success, not setup for failure. Our system doesn't help anyone who is just starting out (in fact it makes them guaranteed walking annuities for the debt providers) and doesn't help them after they graduate.
 
ADVERTISEMENT