It cost $200,000 for B.A. degree that can get you an extra $1.50 an hour working at Home Depot .
Does anyone actually pay the full price, or is it like medical insurance and W.I.C when the baby formula sells for $29.00 instead of $7.00 because its on Uncle Sam's tab ?
Does the demand out weigh the supply , or is it sort of a controlled pyramid scheme ?
2007-07-26 05:48:34 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Education & Reference ➔ Higher Education (University +)
Your undergraduate degree certainly doesn't *need* to cost $200,000. The fact of the matter is that you can attend excellent state universities in the US for a fraction of that cost, as little as a few thousand dollars a year, not counting room and board. The decision to go to a private school that costs a lot (and none cost $50,000/year) is purely optional.
That all said, the earlier posts are correct. Tuition doesn't actually cover the costs of your education to the University, in most schools. The difference is typically made-up through research grant overhead which is acquired by your professors to do the other 50% of their job.
So I'd argue that universities in the US go out of their way to hold tuition down so that it's as inexpensive as possible.
That all said, you're right about the demand oustripping the supply. In some states, there are literally thousands of high school graduates each year that are qualified to go to college, but there are insufficient "seats" in colleges to accomodate them in their home states. As a result, these students are often "forced" to go out of state and pay much higher tuition rates for college. The problem has become acute in the past several years because of the Echo Generation, children of the baby boomers. Universities could not add capacity quickly enough to seat them all, and in fact, didn't want to since once they pass through the system, enrollment (absolute numbers) will decrease to some degree.
Frankly, I wish it were a pyramid scheme... I'd get paid more!
2007-07-26 06:17:27 · answer #1 · answered by Dr. Evol 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Tuition actually contributes less than half the cost of running a university. The other half comes from private donations, government grants, etc.
Like a business, you have to pay salaries of faculty and staff, pay for the real estate, operation costs, etc. All that adds up.
2007-07-26 12:53:47 · answer #2 · answered by Andre 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Where are you going? MIT? A bachelor's degree doesn't cost THAT much.
2007-07-26 12:57:56 · answer #3 · answered by anonymous 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋