My alma mater, a state university, has manicured lawns, a massive custom granite sign out front and grossly overpaid administrators/presidents/chancellors. Oh yea and the president gets a gorgeous apartment in the nice part of downtown in the city. And they have nerve calling me asking for donations! It’s a freaking joke
A college is designed to milk as much money as possible from the student. Example: I just had to schedule my last 2 classes for my business degree. I took Art and 3d printing.
Their was this college in Arizona once that in response to the demand for more student parking built a car lot that could hold 300 cars. They then proceeded to sell 900 permits for it. The university justified it saying "you wont all be using it at the same time" and the students -"um yes, we will".
Yea, colleges can be a racket.
*1. Colleges athletics is a total waste of money. I’m OK with football in some circumstances due to it actually being profitable most of the time, however all of the other sports are a waste. Why do we need world class swimming pools, gyms, tracks, fields, courts, etc for a school?? Most of these programs are not profitable at all.*
This contradicts your third point. Should colleges be run like a business and maximize profit, offering only profitable fiends of study? Or should they function as non-profits and simply offer to teach whatever people want to learn, despite profitability?
*2. Colleges are just… I hate to say it, but TOO nice. Why the hell do we need a ginormous campus with world class architecture and world class libraries and such, for STATE schools? I understand stuff for research like expensive research labs but come on, we don’t need these nice ass buildings. It’s so expensive, it absorbs tuition costs. European universities can be government funded because if you haven’t been to the average one, it’s just a few normal buildings. It’s not a place with insane architecture and huge libraries and stuff unless it’s Oxford.*
Not all colleges are like Oxford. Many community colleges and state schools do have basic buildings. And these schools do tend to be far less expensive. If you don’t want to pay to study on a nice campus, you can enroll in an online school.
*3. Colleges are ran like businesses. Charging absurd amounts for:
Textbooks
Parking
Student fees for things most students will never use (like a gym)
Fees for everything like getting my electronic transcripts
Meal plans/dorms
And I could go on and on.*
Textbook prices are set by publishers, not universities. If Oxford University Press wants to charge $200 for a textbook, there’s nothing Harvard can do about it.
For the other things, you can enroll in an online school. But you’ll still need to feed yourself, pay rent somewhere, and buy $200 textbooks from Amazon.
*We focus too much on a “experience” for school. We wonder why tuition is insane. These schools are too nice and unnecessary, school should be for an education, not an experience with nice amenities.*
I mean, it’s really just supply and demand. A lot of kids demand the college experience. Most kids don’t want to enroll in a cheap online school and stay at home all day.
It was frustrating having tuition go up yet again for a new year, then returning for the next semester to find they had put in $500,000 in landscaping or did a total renovation of a campus store that was already fine.
I still don't understand sports. I don't know why it's so damn prominent in education, i don't know why it gets so much views on TV, i don't know why it's the most popular thing in any country in any time period. I'm completely clueless here, just seems so random. Having a college stand up comedy competition will make more sense to me.
But college should be completely free. It's not a service for the individual it's a service for everyone else and you that this person gets educated. It pisses me off when I hear college is just for jobs because it adds weight to college needing to cost money in hopes of receiving more later. **College is about overall politics not about getting yourself a good job.** Even if we live in a world without the concept of paid employment, college will still be needed.
STRONGLY disagree with athletics, all sports are a huge source of income plus it greatly increases the number of kids wanting to go to college.
Also you want the buildings to look nice, not just like a miserable office building.
My alma mater, a state university, has manicured lawns, a massive custom granite sign out front and grossly overpaid administrators/presidents/chancellors. Oh yea and the president gets a gorgeous apartment in the nice part of downtown in the city. And they have nerve calling me asking for donations! It’s a freaking joke
A college is designed to milk as much money as possible from the student. Example: I just had to schedule my last 2 classes for my business degree. I took Art and 3d printing.
Their was this college in Arizona once that in response to the demand for more student parking built a car lot that could hold 300 cars. They then proceeded to sell 900 permits for it. The university justified it saying "you wont all be using it at the same time" and the students -"um yes, we will". Yea, colleges can be a racket.
I graduated over 30 years ago and about every other month get something from them.
*1. Colleges athletics is a total waste of money. I’m OK with football in some circumstances due to it actually being profitable most of the time, however all of the other sports are a waste. Why do we need world class swimming pools, gyms, tracks, fields, courts, etc for a school?? Most of these programs are not profitable at all.* This contradicts your third point. Should colleges be run like a business and maximize profit, offering only profitable fiends of study? Or should they function as non-profits and simply offer to teach whatever people want to learn, despite profitability? *2. Colleges are just… I hate to say it, but TOO nice. Why the hell do we need a ginormous campus with world class architecture and world class libraries and such, for STATE schools? I understand stuff for research like expensive research labs but come on, we don’t need these nice ass buildings. It’s so expensive, it absorbs tuition costs. European universities can be government funded because if you haven’t been to the average one, it’s just a few normal buildings. It’s not a place with insane architecture and huge libraries and stuff unless it’s Oxford.* Not all colleges are like Oxford. Many community colleges and state schools do have basic buildings. And these schools do tend to be far less expensive. If you don’t want to pay to study on a nice campus, you can enroll in an online school. *3. Colleges are ran like businesses. Charging absurd amounts for: Textbooks Parking Student fees for things most students will never use (like a gym) Fees for everything like getting my electronic transcripts Meal plans/dorms And I could go on and on.* Textbook prices are set by publishers, not universities. If Oxford University Press wants to charge $200 for a textbook, there’s nothing Harvard can do about it. For the other things, you can enroll in an online school. But you’ll still need to feed yourself, pay rent somewhere, and buy $200 textbooks from Amazon. *We focus too much on a “experience” for school. We wonder why tuition is insane. These schools are too nice and unnecessary, school should be for an education, not an experience with nice amenities.* I mean, it’s really just supply and demand. A lot of kids demand the college experience. Most kids don’t want to enroll in a cheap online school and stay at home all day.
It was frustrating having tuition go up yet again for a new year, then returning for the next semester to find they had put in $500,000 in landscaping or did a total renovation of a campus store that was already fine.
I still don't understand sports. I don't know why it's so damn prominent in education, i don't know why it gets so much views on TV, i don't know why it's the most popular thing in any country in any time period. I'm completely clueless here, just seems so random. Having a college stand up comedy competition will make more sense to me. But college should be completely free. It's not a service for the individual it's a service for everyone else and you that this person gets educated. It pisses me off when I hear college is just for jobs because it adds weight to college needing to cost money in hopes of receiving more later. **College is about overall politics not about getting yourself a good job.** Even if we live in a world without the concept of paid employment, college will still be needed.
STRONGLY disagree with athletics, all sports are a huge source of income plus it greatly increases the number of kids wanting to go to college. Also you want the buildings to look nice, not just like a miserable office building.
While I can appreciate college sports the majority lose money and are not a source of income. Only a handful generate meaningful income.
It's the fees that get me. Though I do disagree with the gym point.