OT: Rider University (NJ) bankruptcy? Is this a thing?

[Cosmos]

All of that is 100% true. The other issue is the whole question is what sort of post high school education is necessary to prepare young people to get a decent job and make their way in the world.

Hint: It ain't necessarily a bachelors degree. People are culturally ingrained now that you either go to college or you're a bum. So students buy the lie and go into hock for $200 grand + in order to earn some completely unmarketable degree. Check out the number of people paying student loans who NEVER earned a degree - it is shocking. Why? They hate college, they're not academically suited for college, they have poor preparation for college. These are the people slinging coffee at Starbucks, paying off loans forever, and are completely behind the eight ball.

My unscientific, unsubstantiated guess is that 40% of undergraduates at places other than Stanford or Yale would be far, far better off in technical or trade school. Do a two or three year program in something marketable - nursing, plumbing, HVAC, respiratory therapy, systems, robotics, instrumentation, auto mechanics. Join the Union and enter the apprenticeship program to be an electrician or an ironworker or an equipment operator.

Why people turn up their noses at these careers I will never understand. You complete your training at 21 or so and start working - trust me on this, there is no such thing as an electrician with 5 years experience who is not making $50 grand. That ain't bad for a 25 or 26 year old - and you'll have your pick of jobs.

You need to be an autodidact. Nobody is going to spoon feed you anything. If you have a passion for philosophy - then read books or take some night school classes in whatever you like. And the library is always free.

^^^ This!^^^

My advice to any young man these days. Learn a trade, get some experience plying that trade and don't make some local gal pregnant. Then take it from there. Or, if you're so inclined, go ROTC. But certainly don't encumber yourself with student loans.

 

[BobPSU92]

As ludicrous as it would be to pay any of these dildos $200,000 per year, you are off by a factor of about 2 1/2.

The average University President - nationwide - receives compensation of $501,000

Sims - along with over a dozen of his empty-suit colleagues - is pulling down MORE than the average comp for a University president.

WRONG. METRICS.

 

[Art]

You do have a way with words, Arthur. LOL!

Well, look at him. Is this not the picture of someone who sucks dick?

And if you need more evidence, what do you think these two are chortling about?

 

[NitNE73]

Tuition, room and board when I started in 1968 was approximately $1100 for the year. That is roughly equivalent to $7850 in 2017. That leaves a huge gap between what kids pay today and what we paid then. Unfathomable.

 

[CF LION]

^^^ This!^^^

My advice to any young man these days. Learn a trade, get some experience plying that trade and don't make some local gal pregnant. Then take it from there. Or, if you're so inclined, go ROTC. But certainly don't encumber yourself with student loans.

I'm an engineer and work with a lot of people in the contracting community that started out as tradesmen, worked their way up and started their own businesses without a single college course. Many of them are very, very wealthy.

 

[heckmans]

So I was in a coffee shop yesterday enjoying a cafe mocha and pistachio muffin ( ) when I couldn't help but overhear a conversation between a barista and a patron who obviously knew one another. They were catching up, and the barista started talking about college plans. She said she had planned on going to Rider University, "but they are going bankrupt". I hadn't heard this before, so I did a quick search on Google.

I found no very recent articles concerning Rider and bankruptcy, but I did find this article from 2015:

http://www.nj.com/education/2015/11/rider_university_strikes_deal_to_save_majors_avoid.html

From the article:

"LAWRENCE -- Rider University's faculty union has agreed to a two-year wage freeze and other concessions that will spare the college from slashing more than a dozen majors and laying off professors.

The private university announced the agreement Friday, just two weeks after new President Gregory Dell'Omo told the school's 3,712 undergraduate students he planned to cut 13 majors, which would have forced 123 freshman and sophomore students to transfer or change majors.

The wage freeze alone will cover the more than $2 million Rider would have saved through the budget cuts, Dell'Omo said. The university will also extend its early retirement incentives to more full-time faculty members and have more flexibility in replacing them with adjunct professors, he said.

In exchange, the union saves the jobs of 14 full-time faculty members and an undetermined number of adjunct positions that would have been eliminated."

It sounds like Rider had become bloated in terms of overhead and majors that were not realizing a positive return. Had their enrollment fallen? Has Rider righted the ship or are they still in trouble?

It's times like this I am thankful that Penn State has eric barren at the helm.

If you thought the housing bubble was big, just wait. The education bubble is coming and it will be ugly. Schools have mountains of debt that drove building sprees and tuition increases. When the bubble bursts, there will be tons of bankruptcies, closures, and decimated endowments.

 

[BobPSU92]

If you thought the housing bubble was big, just wait. The education bubble is coming and it will be ugly. Schools have mountains of debt that drove building sprees and tuition increases. When the bubble bursts, there will be tons of bankruptcies, closures, and decimated endowments.

Please take this opportunity to remember that Penn State is led by the likes of eric barren and mark dambly.

 

[massimoManca II]

In the next 10 years, I think you see a lot more of that going on in these small, private colleges. They have liability in pensions they cannot pay and they don't have the taxpayers to bail them out.

I deal with VP-level decision-makers in both public and private college settings, I can tell you that small private denominational colleges - specifically those not fortunate to have bloated endowments - are already rattling/ throwing blue smoke and spraying oil ... the education bubble is cracking and these schools (i won't name names) will become the Oldsmobiles/Mercurys/Pontiacs/Plymouths/Saabs as this shakes out...