Why is college so expensive????

Question

why are textbooks so expensive, why are there a million different fees, if they want there to be educated people in this world, why do they make it so unaffordable for us to become educated?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Answer 1

I can tell you why textbooks are so expensive. If the manufacturer puts out 50 new books, all 50 will be bought as new and they'll pocket the money from it. The next time, though, ~45 of them will be sold as used for a discounted price, so they won't profit as much (if at all - students might sell amongst themselves and the printing company won't see a penny of it). They need to market the books high so they make enough money from the initial batch of sales so that they won't take a blow when the books are re-sold.

Tuition is expensive because college/universities have a lot of expenses that need to be paid off. They need to pay water, gas, and electricitiy bills, pay the salaries of professors/university employees, maintain the landscaping, often provide wireless internet on campus, and pay for damages & repairs (to buildings, esclators & elevators, etc.). So, they aren't just pocketing the money - they're putting it towards various necessities around campus.

I agree the costs are absurd, though - I think with strategic planning, they'd be able to curb some of the costs and make it more affordable to students.

Answer 2

It's all about supply and demand. The demand is high, the supply is low.. and the prices are high. It's simple economics, and colleges are not exempt. As long as there is a demand for well educated people, college will be expensive. As long as there is demand to go to the top schools, college will be expensive. You get what you pay for. If people didn't think it was worth it, demand would drop, and prices would follow.

Is it pricing people out of a good education? ... Perhaps from the Harvards of the world... but there's no excuse for not going to college.. community colleges and state colleges are still relatively cheap...

Answer 3

Because tuition rates keep skyrocketing.

I heard a recent report on the news, that in less than ten years, the majority of Americans will no longer be able to *afford* college--no matter what they save!

The guy doing the report said the American Dream of going to college and getting a better job has become harder and harder to accomplish these days.

Most college students have gone into credit card debt earlier than expected--just to finance their education. The average amount is roughly $3000, but it's not unheard of college students carrying more than $30K.

On average, each student carries at least 3 credit cards on their person, and a growing minority of them drop out--because they can no longer afford to go to college.

Many of them getting low-end jobs just to pay off their credit card debts.

It's sad that this combination is killing our children's promising futures--only because of some people's greed.

Answer 4

Because they are a business like any other, and just like any other they are concerened about making money.

If you compare text books over the years and read through a whole text book straight you will find that information is repeated in the book. Not once, or twice, but over and over again to make the book thicker and mroe expensive.

At the same time it is well known that a lot of the top colleges and universities (harvard and yale for example) just graduate people because they pay. If they have a low percentage of students graduating then they will have a lot lower percentage of people applying. On the other hand its very easy to skew their numbers to make it look like the people were employed after graduating, they call it placement but they have a very wide range of what 'placement' is including working low paying jobs and not even working at all, but going on with school.

I have seen in great private colleges kids who litterally would sleep through whole classes frequently and still graduated with honors. As the saying goes, its hard to get in, but once you are in its a piece of cake.

You let the government fund education and you get huge classes and low paid teachers who only teach students what the government wants them to know.
If you let the private sector handle it you get over paid rich old foggies linning their pockets and half the time not bothering or caring whether the kids are learning at all.
Either way they are more concerned with quantity, not quality.
Its a loose loose situation for Education in America right now. America has fallen behind other countries and they will continue to do so as long as the American people don't care and think they are getting quality.

*additional* one Study I read showed that the money you earned in your life time from getting a college education, including the additional percent higher you were supposed to recieve for that degree in the work place but minus what you paid for the college education plus any intrest on loans was way less money then if you had just invested the college money into the bank (accounting for intrest rates) and worked a job at McDonalds.
Remember Bill Gates, Michaell Dell, Paul Allen, Larry Ellison, steve jobs, and so many more never graduated from college!! In fact over 70 percent of Forbes richest people int he world never graduated from college.

Answer 5

Think about from the university's perspective. They are a huge organization with incredible expenses - they have to maintain the buildings and dorms; they have to support the sports teams and art groups; they have to hire hundreds of professors, instructors, and researchers; they have to organize the annual arrival of thousands of students, books, and teaching materials; they have to market the university to get applicants and grants; the have to maintain relations with alumni in hopes they will donate back to the school; and much more. It's a huge enterprise.

Yes, some private schools receive a great deal of private funding, but most public schools depend almost entirely on grants from the state and federal government; your tuition is just a drop in the bucket compared to what it COULD cost. Most universities aren't trying to rob your pockets for the sheer greedy thrill of it - they are simply trying to cover their own costs so that they can continue to provide this quality education to you.

Yes, it's expensive and difficult and many people get denied the education they desire. But that's life, honey - no one ever said it would be easy. Anything worth having is worth striving for.

Answer 6

It's economic nepotism. Poor people can't afford to go to college, so only people who can afford to pay the price go. The result is that college students are the children of the wealthy. Look at the students walking around any college campus.. wearing designer clothes, driving nice cars, living in safe and comfortable apartments, and almost none of them work.
These students graduate college, get jobs that pay well, and are able to afford their own children's tuition. The cycle repeats.

Answer 7

Textbooks are not so expensive as you think if you know where to find them; the college bookstore is not the best place. try online bookstores like amazon alibris biblio , or try a price comparison site like books99.com which will do the search for you; finally you can try ebay.

Answer 8

Cause they're mean. It's just the way our culture is. Where I live, native Indians (Canadian First Nations) get free post-secondary education, but for everyone else it's unfairly expensive. Universities are greedy.

Answer 9

They don't get as state and nationally funded as high schools and grade schools. Many grade schools are even losing money because of less state funding.