The major difference with the real estate crisis is the extreme safety of student loans. Literally the only way to cancel them is to off yourself.

I think there's a problem, but I wouldn't define it as a bubble. Worse still, everyone has their own way of fixing it, and all of the solutions sound a bit specious to me. Some <party redacted> say you can just offer cheap education and the inflation problem magically just goes *poof*, as if education is somehow a commodity. Others say you can just magically pay them more, which makes just about as much sense. Some <party redacted> think there isn't a problem, or that people who can't afford to go to school shouldn't go to school, because damnit, you were born poor so you should stay that way. Then there's the crazy <party redacted> who think getting rid of student loans altogether suddenly makes people not need them (what?)

Certainly, most of that makes sense in moderation, however. The cost vs. benefit in education runs on an exponential scale. Nobody needs 150,000 in student loans to become an artist, and anyone who ends up in that situation probably wasn't ready to graduate high school in the first place. You can easily finish any 4-year program affordably with like 30,000 in student loans and be employable at entry-level anywhere.

I think there are many stupid students.

There are stories about people who accumulate six figures worth of debt to get degrees with limited earnings potential.

There are very expensive schools like Harvard and Yale that run about $40K per semester. There are very inexpensive schools and community colleges that can be as low as $1K per semester. As was discussed in several similar threads recently where we were looking at 2010 numbers, looking across the nearly 3000 colleges and universities around the nation, the MEDIAN school cost was $2916 per year and the MEAN was $4081. You could make a list of all the schools and pick one at random and have a better than 50/50 chance of paying under $3K per year once you qualify for in-state tuition. Yes, those are the per year numbers, not per semester numbers. It includes all those rural schools and small town schools and places that don't have a sports program, or that do have one or two competitive sports teams but they are ranked in the high 300's rather than the sweet 16.


The problem is a lot of youth don't like going to the cheaper schools. They want to go to the big name schools, the popular schools, the big name schools with hundred-million-dollar sports programs. They don't want to go to the small school located in a small town that still provides a solid educational experience.

In one of the discussions, they really wanted to go to Penn State since it is the popular school with a massive sports program in their city; it is also $16k per semester. When we pressed them hard they admitted that yes, there were several small schools and community colleges that were 1/10 of the cost, but they really had their heart set on Penn State because of popularity reasons.


Education in the US does not need to be expensive. You do not need to go to the high end schools or the popular schools. If you are willing to shop around and travel a bit, there are many inexpensive yet still high quality schools available. For example, you could move to my city and attend a community college for two years while you wait for residency (currently 2400 per semester for non-resident tuition) then transfer to one of the state-run university for two more years (currently about 1800 per semester) with the end result as a bachelor's degree for about $30K. You can repeat this for nearly every state in the country; move and attend a community college until you hit residency, then transfer to a bigger inexpensive state-run school.

If you qualify for grants and scholarships it is fairly easy to get the costs down to less than a household usually spends on smart phones.

The OP was talking about high tuition and debt. I agree with you that dropout rates, employment viability, family and health concerns, these are big issues. Tuition and debt do not need to be.

It is extremely easy to move inside the US. Hundreds, even thousands of families do it every day. You might need to pull up your roots for a few years, but apart from the emotional difficulty you can easily choose to move somewhere that education is commonplace. I've got 11 big non-profit schools with CS departments within a one hour commute of where I am sitting. Six of them are state funded public schools. Then there are also several trade schools and the normal collection of sleezy for-profit institutes as well. Most of the big schools charge between $2000 and $3000 per semester, the although some of the private and all of the for-profit places charge much more.

My niece and also several of my neighbor kids are attending a smaller college about 2 hours away, the cost is $1400 per semester for a well regarded 2-year college. Non-resident rates depend on various factors but can be less than $3500 per semester so moving is an option especially when you compare the rates with the $16K per semester at a popular school discussed in the other thread. It is a nice (yet very rural) community, lots of students there, lots of opportunity to study, and there are even opportunities for part time jobs to help pay the bills.


Yes, I agree that dropout rates, viable career fields, family concerns, health concerns, these are all very real problems.

But the OP was talking about tuition and debt. You don't need to go to an expensive school just because it is the popular local school. In the US, cost by itself is usually not a valid reason to not get an education. There are low cost options available if you chose them and are willing to make hard choices; you don't need to accumulate $100,000 in debt.

There are many other very real concerns that prevent attending and completing higher education courses, but if you are determined to get an education the cost is not one of those reasons.

Out-of-state cost for that school is $12,650 per year ( $50,600 for BA ) . Of course the ACT course would run an additional $1,200 per year.
So $55,400 for a BA from them. This seems quite expensive.

That's a two year school, so you wouldn't get a BA from them.

Any options for some one like me, who is unable to get student loans, and is only qualified for $450 a year government grant ? (( yes I filled the federal student grant paperwork out ))

Move for real and establish residency. It can take one year, but it can also be less if you qualify for assorted rules to establish residential ties. Get a real job for a few months, or find a school in a state with a relative, or otherwise discover the rules and use them to your advantage.

You mentioned one grant, the grant process IIRC is specific to the school. You might get a different value for a different school.

Next, scholarships. Apply for everything. If you are serious about your study then do the work and get good grades. Half-tuition and full-tuition scholarships are easy to get if you maintain high grades. (I had a half tuition scholarship for four years, in addition to working part time and being married halfway through school all the while living without family support. It is possible to do. A little more work and I could have kept a full tuition scholarship, but I was relatively lazy.)

Also, consider a wide number of schools. University of Wyoming is one of the cheapest. Move for a year then enroll in one of the cheapest universities in the nation.

Whilst at University I studdied alongside a lot of US students who had decided to study here in the UK simply because even taking into account flights, accomodation, overseas tuition fees it was still cheaper for them to study in the UK. This iprobably doesn't happen as much now sinse we have had the huge tution fee hikes in the UK but, still possible in Scotland which kept their tuition fees low.

I think the education bubble isn't a new thing but actually started in the mid 90s with "Media Studies" and "General Studies" degrees and esculated from there. It has become more and more fashionable to go to university just for the experience whereas it used to be only the Gifted or the Rich actually studied to this level.

There are far too many people studying degrees that will not improove their prospects in the job market in any way. Of course there is the other argument that job prospects should have nothing to do with your degree and that the reason for studying is purely an Academic persuit.