Posted on 10/03/2012 12:11:20 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
College skeptics are whipping out the B-word. Many students are bulking up on loans and coming up empty on the job market while schools keep hiking tuition. Pretty soon, critics say, the bubble has to burst.
My former colleague Megan McArdle lays out a thoughtful version of that argument in the most recent issue of Newsweek. She's correct that there are lots of people now who aren't benefiting much from their education. But in spite of the country's growing load of education debt and the rough job market for recent grads, most students who make it through with a diploma are getting their money's worth. The problem isn't that higher ed has turned into a bubble that's ready to deflate as the market sours on its prospects; it's that the system might be working just well enough to continue business as usual without some much needed changes.
Tuition isn't soaring like you've heard.
It's conventional wisdom by now that college tuition costs are rising and taking a greater and greater bite out of stagnant middle class incomes. How bad is it? Here's McArdle:
"The price of a McDonald's hamburger has risen from 85 cents in 1995 to about a dollar today. The average price of all goods and services has risen about 50 percent. But the price of a college education has nearly doubled in that time."
Talking about "the price of a college education" is like talking about "the price of a car." Just as it's not so useful to discuss the cost of a BMW Z4 and a Ford Focus in the same breath, it's hard to put Harvard and Iowa State in the same discussion about tuition, because they operate on very different economic rules. Beyond that, your average undergrad probably won't pay the full sticker price
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Jordan Weissman - Adjunct Professor USC
This is exactly like all of those ill informed articles about "Why NOW is the best time to buy property" written by realtors just before the crash.
When the academics start squealing, you know that we areon to something.
What cost $3500 in 1977 would cost $12444.39 in 2010.
Also, if you were to buy exactly the same products in 2010 and 1977,
they would cost you $3500 and $939.09 respectively.
A lot of things were actually more expensive back then. We had huge inflation.
For example, a six pack of Busch beer (12 oz.) cost $3.25 and today it’s about $4.25.
A large Super Supreme pizza delivered from Pizza Hut was over $25. You can practically get two for that today. Gas was going from .50 a gallon to over $1 (I know, we wish now) and that was in a few months.
Of course gas, pizza and beer was our main focus back then! lol
Yeah, I got a big problem with this guy's numbers. When I went to the University of Tennessee during my first failed attempt, my last semester was in 1991 and tuition, not room and board or books, was right at $1,000 per semester. My last semester during my second, and much more successful, stint was in 2008 and was, I beleive, $3,300 per semester. It more than tripled in 17 years. That works out to an average increase of about 7.3% per year. Inflation over that time frame is no where close to that. Also, the rate of increase appears to be increasing. While I was in school the second time, I believe the two increases were 8% and 9%, if not double digit percentage increases.
RE: I started at the Univ of Arkansas in 1977 and the cost for one year (tuition/dorm room and cafeteria/books) was only about $3,500-$4,000.
According to this Inflation Calculator:
http://www.westegg.com/inflation/
What cost $4000 in 1977 would cost $14222.16 in 2010.
Question: What is the tuition plus room and board of University of Arkansas today?
According to this site:
https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/university-of-arkansas
Tuition plus room and board costs: $16,108
Which means it is 13% above inflation.
IMHO, it looks like this university is good value for money compared to most others...
Well, it is a state university!
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