{"id":10532,"date":"2023-08-15T08:56:58","date_gmt":"2023-08-15T13:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/?p=10532"},"modified":"2023-08-16T08:47:06","modified_gmt":"2023-08-16T13:47:06","slug":"how-much-college-tuition-is-reasonable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2023\/08\/how-much-college-tuition-is-reasonable\/","title":{"rendered":"How Much College Tuition is ‘Reasonable’?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Good piece at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em> on the wealth divide in admissions to public universities: \u201cThese State Schools Also Favor the One Percent.\u201d<\/a> The gist of it is that the high tuition at state flagship universities, especially for out-of-state students, creates a de facto set of admissions preferences favoring wealthy students.<\/p>\n

As someone now scouting colleges for the fourth time in six years, I agree wholeheartedly. I take issue, though, with this quote from the piece:<\/p>\n

Administrators are essentially running two institutions in parallel: a reasonably affordable public university for the residents of Michigan (in-state tuition: $16,736), and a very expensive private university for everyone else.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m sorry but no. $16,736 a year for tuition is not<\/em> reasonable. It is\u00a0not<\/em> affordable. And remember that is only tuition \u2014 any student whose family doesn\u2019t live in the immediate area also has to pay for housing during this time.<\/p>\n

When we talk about the student loan crisis, we aren\u2019t just talking about precious lambs who couldn\u2019t resist an anthropology degree at some elite liberal arts college. We are talking about ordinary kids who end up with upwards of $100,000 in loans for attending their in-state public university.<\/p>\n

\u2013> Some of those students are entering high-paying professions and will be able to pay off the debt without too much difficulty, as long as nothing bad happens.<\/p>\n

\u2013> Some of those students have been lulled into thinking that any college degree, for any college student, is all that it takes. They\u2019re preparing for no-profession-in-particular, and their ability to pay back the debt will depend entirely on their own native talent and initiative.<\/p>\n

\u2013> Some of them, finally, are preparing for professions that require a college education, are in fact needed by society, but don\u2019t pay well and probably never will.<\/p>\n

All three categories of students are vulnerable. The latter two groups, in particular, are being preyed upon. Neither the universities collecting tuition nor the lenders marketing unsecured, virtually bankrupt-proof student loans have any incentive to speak reason to their customer base.<\/p>\n

And recall: These are customers the state deems too immature to buy a beer . . . but apparently they are perfectly capable of making major, permanent, life-altering financial decisions with the click of an \u201caccept loan\u201d on their financial aid portal?<\/p>\n

The part where a journalist at\u00a0The Atlantic<\/em> can both lament the class divide in college education and think $16k a year in tuition is \u201creasonably affordable\u201d lets you know just how deeply engrained the culture of terrible financial decision-making for teenagers has become.<\/p>\n

Updated\u00a0 8\/16\/24 with a related link:<\/strong> \u201cRegarding the cost of college in 2023\u2026\u201d<\/a> from Brad Warthen, who has a couple inflation-adjusted sample figures to make sense of how public university tuition has changed over the years.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Photo: Clemson Memorial Stadium \u2013 Clemson University, packed to the gills. Having been brought up properly, of course I always had that sneaking discomfort that one of my children might go on to join that sea of orange. But I fear no more: They can\u2019t afford it<\/a>.\u00a0 Photo by Daderot<\/a>, CC 1.0\/Public Domain.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good piece at\u00a0The Atlantic on the wealth divide in admissions to public universities: \u201cThese State Schools Also Favor the One Percent.\u201d The gist of it is that the high tuition at state flagship universities, especially for out-of-state students, creates a de facto set of admissions preferences favoring wealthy students. As someone now scouting colleges for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1209,"featured_media":10535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,418,216,110,466],"tags":[869,866],"class_list":["post-10532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economics","category-facepalm","category-its-all-catholic","category-rant-o-rama","category-thinking-topics","tag-college-debt","tag-student-loans"],"yoast_head":"\nHow Much College Tuition is 'Reasonable'?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"State flagship universities are turning into elite institutions that have no scruples about preying on financially-vulnerable teens.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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