CNN examines the high cost of college with their film "Ivory Tower."

[Mai72]

I'm going to have to watch this film again. Right before break CNN was telling a dean that the head of Harvard only makes 900k a year. My guess is the dean that they were interviewing makes a few million, because he went on to say that he does more work. Sure you do. I don't know how they can justify a $3m a year salary.

CNN went on to talk about how colleges are cutting cost by hiring adjuncts to teach classes.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

I'm glad the taxpayers paid for most of my ride
NSF and DARPA funding FTW!
Texas Instruments also chipped in a little.

 

[norseamd]

I'm going to have to watch this film again. Right before break CNN was telling a dean that the head of Harvard only makes 900k a year. My guess is the dean that they were interviewing makes a few million, because he went on to say that he does more work. Sure you do. I don't know how they can justify a $3m a year salary. CNN went on to talk about how colleges are cutting cost by hiring adjuncts to teach classes.

College officials and athletic staff make bullshit cash.

Took a look at the U of M and found this.

Challenges and Controversies

Kaler inherited the University of Minnesota from Robert Bruininks in a state of historic state disinvestment and the state legislature cut support to 1998 levels almost on his arrival.
The Minnesota Daily, the University student newspaper, has criticized the University athletic department for deciding to spend $800,000 to reschedule a football game with North Carolina to increase the football team's rankings.
The University of Minnesota was recently profiled in a Wall Street Journal analysis of higher education spending and mismanagement. According to the Journal, the University of Minnesota salary and employment records from 2001 through the spring of 2012 show that the University system added more than 1,000 administrators over that period. Their ranks grew 37%, more than twice as fast as the teaching corps and nearly twice as fast as the student body, the Journal reported.
Growing under previous president Robert Bruininks, the Journal reported that under Kaler the University of Minnesota has the largest share of employees classified as "executive and managerial" among the nation's 72 "very-high-research" public universities in the 2011-12 academic year.
In the wake of the Wall Street Journal story and a commentary in the Washington Post (that was reprinted in the Minneapolis Star Tribune), Kaler wrote a response, detailing many of the accomplishments of the University in reducing administrative spending and holding down tuition.
In it, Kaler wrote: "The articles did not report that, despite stunning state disinvestment, the university is more productive than at any time in recent history."

 

[OverVolt]

I've had doctors tell me that the pre-reqs they took in college and studying for the MCAT were actually harder than med school. Others disagreed. In any case, I believe the dropout rate is pretty low.

Just wait until the residency cap runs up against the increased enrollment.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I've had doctors tell me that the pre-reqs they took in college and studying for the MCAT were actually harder than med school. Others disagreed. In any case, I believe the dropout rate is pretty low.

A friend of mine went to school in the Dominican Republic. He completed med school there, did his residency state-side....but then his degree was only recognized by certain states so it limited where he could practice. He wasn't able to practice where he did his residency because it wasn't recognized and he could never get his license....crazy huh? They let him work for cheap as long as someone else wrote off for what he did....he was pissed about that too, but he moved back to San Diego to practice so he's in a better place.

 

[Carson Dyle]

That's because universities like money more than they like admission standards. Too many students who have no business being in college are admitted.

That's not really the problem. It's a problem with the atmosphere and the maturity and dedication of the students. I've seen people, mostly young women, who were of very average intelligence (and that's putting it kindly) who've graduated with honors in four years and then gone on to grad school. They just work very hard.

And most of us know a number of people who have gone back to college after flunking out once or twice and have done well and gotten a good degree. Working a few years in dead-end menial or hard labor jobs is one of the best incentives anyone could have for doing well in school.

 

[Carson Dyle]

I've had doctors tell me that the pre-reqs they took in college and studying for the MCAT were actually harder than med school. Others disagreed. In any case, I believe the dropout rate is pretty low.

That's probably due to the pressures of achieving a very high GPA and good MCAT scores in order to gain admittance. Like the old joke: What do you call the person who graduated last in their class from medical school? Doctor.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

It was even stated that college is a business now. I was surprised to see Deans make $2, $3 and $4 million. No wonder college cost have increased.

My wife is a professor at a small college where everyone is paid far far less than many think. The costs are still high because it's inherently expensive. Research costs are fantastic, even for undergrads, upkeep and regulatory compliance as well. It can't be cheap.

 

[highland145]

My Tuition had pretty much the same rates as he did when I was in college and I went to School in California.

Isn't that heavily subsidized by the taxpayers?

 

[Scarpozzi]

My wife is a professor at a small college where everyone is paid far far less than many think. The costs are still high because it's inherently expensive. Research costs are fantastic, even for undergrads, upkeep and regulatory compliance as well. It can't be cheap.

Think about the technology side of the house. In the past 10 years most of the curriculum has been pushed to utilize more and more technology...just learning from a book alone and lecture seems to be a thing of the past.

When you roll that up in school accounts (database entities, email, retention programs, grades, online learning, etc, etc, etc) with multiple departments often duplicating work, you end up getting a lot of IT bloat....and most technology-related costs are often in the quarter to half to multi-million dollar range. It's easy to blow through a budget. Medium to smaller schools with athletic programs suck schools dry too... Athletic scholarships get billed back to the University internally and aren't free. The university I attended had a D2 football program that was losing $1.7M a year.

College costs a lot of money. You don't have to go. What cracks me up is the number of people who major in bullshit and cry when they wasted 4-7 years of their lives getting a degree that has no solid career path and little or no earning potential. For those willing to go to Med school and Law school and take chances, they get rewarded with careers that will work them like dogs and pay them adequately for the crap they had to go through to get there.

 

[preslove]

The only thing worst than a Doctor with 300k I'm student loan debt is the med school dropout with 300k in student loan debt

But that's OK the U.S. government will underwrite all of that grad school debt backed by U.S. taxpayers.

The US taxpayer makes billions of dollars off the student loan program.

 

[preslove]

Isn't that heavily subsidized by the taxpayers?

Not anymore. The USA has stopped caring about making college affordable. Contrast this situation with the 19th century, when states were just giving universities land and tax money out the ass. Now we expect kids to go into a house's worth of debt to get an education, and the supposed financial "aid" program bilks these young adults for billions of dollars in profit.

It's disgusting.

 

[drinkmorejava]

CNN needs to get their act together. Video is not online.

 

[jlee]

The US taxpayer makes billions of dollars off the student loan program.

Where's my check?

 

[highland145]

Not anymore. The USA has stopped caring about making college affordable. Contrast this situation with the 19th century, when states were just giving universities land and tax money out the ass. Now we expect kids to go into a house's worth of debt to get an education, and the supposed financial "aid" program bilks these young adults for billions of dollars in profit.

It's disgusting.

I meant in Cali.

Otherwise, I'm with you. My kid is 13 so I hoping there's some type of implosion/reform in the next 5 years. It was posted here that Clemson's tuition went up 36% in 5 years. That's ridiculous. The kids aren't getting a 36% better education.

 

[highland145]

Where's my check?

So sorry. Your $$ was used to pay the EITC for the underemployed lib arts majors at Starbucks.

 

[PricklyPete]

live and let live folks, if people want to spend a ton of money on going to school to party so be it, some of us will still go to learn

It is our problem if our government (read us) is propping up this industry with nearly condition free loans.

 

[highland145]

It is our problem if our government (read us) is propping up this industry with nearly condition free loans.

And the possibility of forgiving them.

 

[SP33Demon]

Canada doesn't have ass-f*** stupid tuition rates. You simply can't compare your experience to what it is in the US.

Canada is getting bad now. Really only a few of the top ones are worth it, University of Toronto is in the 30K/yr range for International students. Only McGill is giving the best value but how much longer until they get greedy too?

 

[PricklyPete]

I meant in Cali.

Otherwise, I'm with you. My kid is 13 so I hoping there's some type of implosion/reform in the next 5 years. It was posted here that Clemson's tuition went up 36% in 5 years. That's ridiculous. The kids aren't getting a 36% better education.

My niece just got into Clemson. She is out of State and the costs are $40k a year. She got scholarships that dropped it in half...but dear god...

 

[SP33Demon]

And the possibility of forgiving them.

There's nothing wrong with forgiving student loans if the person graduated and has become employable with actual skills. Education is what helps drive economic growth and the smarter/more skilled we are, the more the economy will thrive. The sooner we realize this the better. Minimum wage monkeys aren't driving growth, old fucks with diminished cognitive function aren't driving growth, but the educated worker bees with real STEM skills who pay taxes to support the rest of the degenerates of this country. STEM degrees should actually be subsidized like other countries. This country has a lack of recognition for who is actually keeping their businesses humming and STEM degrees should be rewarded with full forgiveness.

 

[highland145]

My niece just got into Clemson. She is out of State and the costs are $40k a year. She got scholarships that dropped it in half...but dear god...

For Clemson??? The system has got to be unsustainable. I keep telling my kid that I'm funding my retirement before his eduction.

 

[Carson Dyle]

My alma mater has the dubious distinction of being the most expensive public university in the nation for 2014: $17,000+ for in-state tuition and fees per year at the University of Pittsburgh. (Out of state is $28,000+) Add in typical living expenses and you're talking well over $100,000 just to get an undergrad degree from freaking Pitt.

The economy in Pennsylvania has sucked so badly in recent years, that the state has been forced to cut back the funding of all of PA's state schools.

 

[Scarpozzi]

The economy in Pennsylvania has sucked so badly in recent years, that the state has been forced to cut back the funding of all of PA's state schools.

All states are doing this except a couple. They're cutting funding and most specifically tell the institutions NOT to pass the funding cuts onto the students because they want to remain competitive with other states.

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=4135

 

[Mai72]

My niece just got into Clemson. She is out of State and the costs are $40k a year. She got scholarships that dropped it in half...but dear god...

Wow. Thank god your niece got the scholarships to cut the coat in half. It's still not cheap though. $80k for a four year degree! I can't even imagine how graduates are even going to pay back $160k unless they take a profession that pays well.

We should all come together and forgo college for a year. Just don't enroll. I bet that would have a huge impact on college tuition.

I think a lot of the blame has to go to the parents. They should sit down with their 19 year old and talk about the pros/cons to going to college, how they intend to pay back their loan, and the consequences to taking out such a large amount. The problem is most parents are just not involved.