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comment by kleinbl00

To elaborate:

I did a lot of work as an architectural consultant for universities. Sometimes they were classrooms. More often they were rec facilities, stadia, etc. There's a great book called College Unbound by the editor of the Chronicle of Higher Ed who breaks down where college costs are going, and they are decidedly not going towards academics. The appeal colleges are using nowadays aren't about the curriculum but the facilities. The dorms. The rec centers. The concierge service. From a recruitment standpoint, academics are no longer driving the bus.

Meanwhile, a college education is still valuable, but the marginal utility of a 4-year private degree compared to "any damn degree" is falling.

$64k a year x 4 years = $240k. You can open a Subway with that, free and clear.





snoodog  ·  2863 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    $64k a year x 4 years = $240k
cost is actually higher than that.

Only 59% of students who enroll graduate, and on average a student is enrolled for around 6 and 1/3 years. So when calculating average ROI you can basically double your 240K

Source for 6 year claim:

http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2013/aug/11/ron-johnson/average-college-degree-takes-six-years-us-sen-ron-/

illu45  ·  2862 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Only 59% of students who enroll graduate, and on average a student is enrolled for around 6 and 1/3 years. So when calculating average ROI you can basically double your 240K
    Only 59% of students who enroll graduate, and on average a student is enrolled for around 6 and 1/3 years. So when calculating average ROI you can basically double your 240K

That may be true in general, but evidently at Oberlin 75.8% of undergrads finish within 4 years. It's also worth noting that most of the kids who go to Oberlin would likely be going to another institution where their parents would be paying tuition, so it's unlikely that the choice is between paying $64K and paying nothing. Not to say that Oberlin is cheap or that their costs are justifiable to the average person.

illu45  ·  2863 days ago  ·  link  ·  

| The appeal colleges are using nowadays aren't about the curriculum but the facilities.

I'd say that's part of it, but not all of it. Yes, there are bigger expectations from colleges in terms of facilities, and that's perhaps doubly true of private institutions that charge exorbitant tuition. But a lot of the appeal of 4-year colleges is still in the ability of a 4-year degree to open up career paths in "white collar"/prestigious jobs. Of course, you don't need to go to Oberlin to do that. But I'm sure that the parents paying 64K/year for their kids to go to Oberlin don't want their kid to be a franchise manager. They want them to be lawyers, doctors, dot-com entrepreneurs, or some other Well-Paying White Collar job. Those parents are also probably wealthy enough that $240K over four years doesn't mean that much, and they'd rather little Johnny or little Jackie have the "best possible experience", which includes new dorms, shiny rec centres, and low student-to-teacher ratios.