Why is college becoming almost un-afforadable for the average american

[actsnoblemartin]

and what can be done to solve the problem?

[Gaffer]

It was always unaffordable for the average American. Then discovered they could offer loans and charge more money. Colleges went form academia to big business. Sports then made it an even bigger business. They also nurtured liberal professors who could not work in the real world, but who could make reasonably good money in universities. College degrees are just something you buy now days, and go into debt to get it. Then spend twenty years in a middle management job to pay it off. A job an intelligent high school grad could do.

[Classact]

It was always unaffordable for the average American. Then discovered they could offer loans and charge more money. Colleges went form academia to big business. Sports then made it an even bigger business. They also nurtured liberal professors who could not work in the real world, but who could make reasonably good money in universities. College degrees are just something you buy now days, and go into debt to get it. Then spend twenty years in a middle management job to pay it off. A job an intelligent high school grad could do.Yes a place where the professors were educated while dodging the draft... most majored in underwater basket weaving at Berkley. They are too damned big to use as door stops so they put them in front of young beer drinkers... they fit right in.

[JackDaniels]

and what can be done to solve the problem?

I'm not so sure it's a "problem". At least here in Illinois, state schools are very affordable.

[Yurt]

It was always unaffordable for the average American. Then discovered they could offer loans and charge more money. Colleges went form academia to big business. Sports then made it an even bigger business. They also nurtured liberal professors who could not work in the real world, but who could make reasonably good money in universities. College degrees are just something you buy now days, and go into debt to get it. Then spend twenty years in a middle management job to pay it off. A job an intelligent high school grad could do.

Ah, but would the HS grad get it?

And, I disagree with you. College is important and teaches skills/trains of thought that you don't even touch in HS.

Is college too expensive? Hell yes, especially when you look at universities like Seattle U that gets hundreds of millions of dollars in donations through fundraising, YET, they still need to raise funds. Then there is a school near to me, Cal Poly SLO. This school has a tremendous fund raising machine. It is considered the jewel of non UC colleges, they joke that it is unofficially a UC school. They recieve MILLIONS and MILLIONS of donations, for buildings, baseball fields, new football stadium, yet they keep raising tuition and other rates.

[5stringJeff]

College is more expensive because demand for a college education has increased, as has financial aid, leaving colleges with lots of people with lots of money knocking on their doors. Therefore, they raise their prices to admit only the number of students they want.

[Trigg]

and what can be done to solve the problem?

I don't know how to solve the problem, but if you come up with a solution let me know. My oldest is a freshman and I know we haven't saved enough.

[Yurt]

College is more expensive because demand for a college education has increased, as has financial aid, leaving colleges with lots of people with lots of money knocking on their doors. Therefore, they raise their prices to admit only the number of students they want.

True, so it is ok for a state funded college to raise rates while getting hundreds of millions of dollars in donations?

[BoogyMan]

and what can be done to solve the problem?

I am a Network Engineer for the University here in my home town and I can tell you that tuition in TX, especially at the school where I am employed, is not unmanageable. If you wish to attend a school like Texas A&M or University of Texas you will pay till you bleed and then pay some more, but there are some great schools with international scope, like Midwestern State University, that offer a high quality education and don't try to make a pauper out of you.

[Kathianne]

I am a Network Engineer for the University here in my home town and I can tell you that tuition in TX, especially at the school where I am employed, is not unmanageable. If you wish to attend a school like Texas A&M or University of Texas you will pay till you bleed and then pay some more, but there are some great schools with international scope, like Midwestern State University, that offer a high quality education and don't try to make a pauper out of you.

If one wishes to earn a post secondary degree, it is affordable. It requires sacrifices, but what worth doing, doesn't?

[5stringJeff]

True, so it is ok for a state funded college to raise rates while getting hundreds of millions of dollars in donations?

Yes. State schools compete in the college education marketplace just like private schools do.

[Pale Rider]

I heard on the news that colleges were reporting record profits, just like the oil industry. They've got the public by the short hairs, so they jack up the price of school. So ask the college owners why it's so expensive. Ask them what that huge bulge in their back pocket is?

[Abbey Marie]

We just took our daughter for a drive through the Villanova campus today, and they had a sign bragging about four new facilities/colleges being built or renovated. WHERE do they get all this money? Maybe Avatar can tell us.