Strickland33
Well-known member
Most of my evidence is anecdotal, I agree, but I disagree with your assessment. My point about the starving college student is related to the country-club nature of campuses now. In the 'old days' dorms were spartan and campuses were focused on educating students. Now dorms are luxurious and campuses are covered with fancy student centers, and rec centers and world-class work-out rooms, pools, and on and on. you must know that this is true. I went through the process of touring schools with my kids over the past 10 years or so and was amazed at what I saw on campus after campus. None of it essential to the mission of the school but intended to attract more students.
The glut of students clamoring for space on campuses has many causes - including the population bubble as the children of baby-boomers reached college age, the aforementioned societal changes that created the expectation that everyone go to college, etc. - but, the easy access to student loans was definitely a factor.
I think most of those amenities are the product of wealthy donors, though, right?
I’m losing track of the argument, but I appreciate your perspective as a parent.
I teach at a big university and a lot of my students are struggling. Many work multiple jobs and a lot of them live at home (even though I don’t work at a “commuter school”). I have never been in the dorms, though. Probably a good thing. I can imagine that they’re probably fine, but nothing special. Facilities here tend to be good where there is donor money and shitty where there isn’t donor money. Nice law school library and business school facilities. Shitty research library. Same as most places, I think? Tuition here is really high but less than a third of what a student pays annually at Wake.
Wake seems to be more of an outlier in this case - expensive, small, exclusive, private university. I’m no expert, but there can’t be that many of them. Liberal arts colleges and big private universities are in a similar league, but don’t make up the majority of schools and probably don’t explain close to the majority of student debt. Students at these schools are also much better off in terms of job market outcomes, too.
I think that as long as Wake remains a good school (in terms of education and job market outcomes), then students will take risks to get an education there. It’s a rip-off, for sure, but I really can’t imagine that schools like Wake are driving the student debt crisis.
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