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A college degree is a lousy investment

Brangus said:
Is this the thread where I annually come to complain about the fact that Wake Forest tuition costs around $60,000 a year and that a realistic 4-year cost for undergrad at Wake Forest is $400,000? Is this the place where I annually argue that's completely insane?
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It is completely insane, and a good bit of the insanity is administrative bloat, incredible bloat.
 
Brangus said:
Is this the thread where I annually come to complain about the fact that Wake Forest tuition costs around $60,000 a year and that a realistic 4-year cost for undergrad at Wake Forest is $400,000? Is this the place where I annually argue that's completely insane?
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Especially for a liberal arts school that doesn't really pop on a resume. Like it's fine.
 
Toogs said:
Especially for a liberal arts school that doesn't really pop on a resume. Like it's fine.
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If a national SLAC doesn't "pop" on a resume that's the fault of the reader and not the applicant
 
Brangus said:
Is this the thread where I annually come to complain about the fact that Wake Forest tuition costs around $60,000 a year and that a realistic 4-year cost for undergrad at Wake Forest is $400,000? Is this the place where I annually argue that's completely insane?
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So living expenses for a college student at Wake are around $40k per year?
 
wakephan09 said:
If a national SLAC doesn't "pop" on a resume that's the fault of the reader and not the applicant
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No, not really. Good for getting you into law school, but 99 percent of jobs don't care about a Wake undergrad degree, .5 percent accurately assess that the candidate is likely insane, and the other .5 respect it.
 
Toogs said:
No, not really. Good for getting you into law school, but 99 percent of jobs don't care about a Wake undergrad degree, .5 percent accurately assess that the candidate is likely insane, and the other .5 respect it.
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"Not really" to you too. Maybe you don't care about SLACs when hiring but that doesn't mean that others don't. Many jobs in this country don't require a college diploma, but I wouldn't think it would be fair to say that hiring managers "don't care" about a Maryland degree.
 
sailordeac said:
It is completely insane, and a good bit of the insanity is administrative bloat, incredible bloat.
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College costs are definitely insane but blaming it on administration is such a lazy libertarian talking point. There are about 1000 reasons why costs have exploded and having too many Deans and Directors is just 1 of the reasons.
 
wakephan09 said:
"Not really" to you too. Maybe you don't care about SLACs when hiring but that doesn't mean that others don't. Many jobs in this country don't require a college diploma, but I wouldn't think it would be fair to say that hiring managers "don't care" about a Maryland degree.
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I think many hiring managers don't care about a MD degree as well.

Edit: for both statements, I certainly meant for jobs that a degree matters.
 
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If you're hiring people based largely on the brand name of their degree, then I'd suggest you're not looking deeply enough

Like I said before, not recognizing the value of a SLAC education is a hiring manager problem, not that of the applicant
 
Brangus said:
Is this the thread where I annually come to complain about the fact that Wake Forest tuition costs around $60,000 a year and that a realistic 4-year cost for undergrad at Wake Forest is $400,000? Is this the place where I annually argue that's completely insane?
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Of graduates that take out student loans, the average debt after graduation is:

Wake $36,000
UNC $22,000
Maryland $39,000
 
Rafi said:
Of graduates that take out student loans, the average debt after graduation is:

Wake $36,000
UNC $22,000
Maryland $39,000
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C’mon, that’s obviously exclusion bias from the applicant pool.
 
myDeaconmyhand said:
C’mon, that’s obviously exclusion bias from the applicant pool.
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There are several variables in play. Some students pay full tuition without taking loans, which is why I only included those that took out some loans. If you include all students, the debt is lower than $36,000. Wake has 1400 need-based scholarships covering $70 million per year and another $11 million per year in non need-based scholarships.
 
"In 2019-2020, 36% of our full-time beginning undergraduates received grant/scholarship aid."
 
All I know is graduating from a Top 30 university with only $18K in debt doesn't sound like a terrible proposition. Also, you can't really buy a house for $18K.
 
BillBrasky said:
Or Wake has a lot of rich kids who pay sticker price.
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Yeah, I thought that part was clear. About half of the students pay tuition without loans. For those that take out loans, their average debt after 4 years is $36,000.
 
Good to see Rafi land on his feet with a job in admissions after Wellman retired.
 
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