College is Too Expensive

Posted by: Meredith K. | Jan 09,2008


That seals it: we’re in debt .  But not just normal debt.  An insane, no-holds-barred, cartoonish sort of debt.  The debt figures are out for November of last year.  The debt in November rose to 15 and a half billion dollars.  This is twice what analysts were expecting.  The largest sector for debt is “Non-revolving credit, which includes closed-end loans for big-ticket items like cars, boats, college educations and holidays, rose $6.70 billion, or by 5.15 percent, to $1.568 trillion."

I could write an entry and say that everyone’s gone credit crazy and they’re living way beyond their means – like in another dimension beyond their means.  But I don’t entirely think that’s what’s going on here.  One of the major problems is not that so many people are taking out student loans, but that these student loans are necessary in the first place.  

The median tuition for a liberal arts college is $30,000.  That is an insane figure.  The education is the same, the campus is the same, but somehow college tuition is going up way beyond the rate of inflation.  I understand that colleges have to go digital and this takes up some expense, but really to me this seems like greed on the part of the administrations and professors.  The rationale is that a higher salary brings in the “best” professors.  I don’t know, the best professors do it for the love of teaching.  A professor doesn’t need to drive a Mercedes.

This argument is basically spitting into the wind because there is no real evidence that college tuition is going to come down.  You’d think with the credit crisis and so many people struggling, colleges would adapt to people’s economic needs.  Instead of politicians offering government help for people to be able to afford college, many college administrations should hold up their end of the bargain and make college more affordable.  

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