Posted on 04/10/2015 11:26:50 AM PDT by MichCapCon
Most Michigan residents would guess that the University of Michigan’s flagship campus in Ann Arbor is easily the most expensive of the 15 public universities in the state. After all, a student enrolled there for 15 credit hours typically pays more than $14,000 in annual tuition, compared to less than $9,500 at Northern Michigan University or Eastern Michigan University. But those numbers are often deceiving, because tuition varies with whether a student takes lower- or upper-division courses and, at many schools, with the number of credit hours taken during an academic term. Some schools are also generous with tuition discounts in the form of scholarships.
While these differences are revealing, the true cost of going to college depends not only on the number of years attended but also on the risk of dropping out. Compare the University of Michigan with Michigan State University. A student taking a 12-hour load will pay about $3,000 a year more to go to Ann Arbor – but a student taking a heavy 18-hour load will pay well over $2,500 a year more in East Lansing. That’s because tuition at Michigan is fixed for students taking 12 to 18 hours, in marked contrast to many other schools that charge by the credit hour. In other words, a student at Michigan has incentives to take a heavy load and graduate in a timely fashion.
Almost 85 percent of students who earn a bachelor’s degree from Michigan do so within four years, far more than the 64 percent at Michigan State and an extraordinarily low 34 percent at Wayne State University.
While these differences are revealing, the true cost of going to college depends not only on the number of years attended but also on the risk of dropping out. It is a fact that over half of the first-time undergraduates (non-transfers) entering seven of the state’s public universities never graduate, or at least not within six years. (The seven are Oakland, Wayne State, Eastern Michigan, Northern Michigan, Lake Superior State, Saginaw Valley State, and the University of Michigan-Flint.)
At Wayne State, a paltry 11 percent of students graduate in the standard four years, and only 32 percent graduate in six. The figures are only slightly better at Eastern. (There are major data limitations with respect to transfer students, and Wayne State’s performance mirrors that of similar urban state universities in nearby states.)
Taking these factors into consideration, we calculated a “tuition cost per degree” for the various state schools. This figure takes into account that many students pay a lot in tuition and fees but never get a bachelor’s degree.
Schools with seemingly high tuition rates, notably Michigan, turn out to be relatively less expensive when you factor in those students who pay tuition dollars but fail to graduate, or who take more than the standard four years. At least five state schools cost 20 percent more than Michigan by this criterion. The cost of Wayne State is particularly troubling. When the chances of graduating within even six years are less than one in three, one has to ask: Should the school be closed down in the interest of consumer protection and wastage of human resources? Does the Detroit area need five state universities, particularly when only one of them – the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor – manages to graduate a majority of its students in six years?
Why shouldn’t, for example, Eastern Michigan, with its less-than-40-percent graduation rate and its $20 million-plus annual tax on students to subsidize an anemic sports program located six miles from the Big House, be under intense legislative scrutiny?
Not only do students feel the true higher costs associated with low academic success rates, taxpayers do, too. They are silent partners in funding state schools, contributing importantly to the costs of running these enterprises. Are they getting their money’s worth? That is a question worth exploring.
I don’t like this analysis. It penalizes universities where students take more than four years to graduate. In fact, that penalty is so severe, that the analysis is really measuring the length of time it takes students to graduate. Flagship universities — like U of M — select the students that have the best chance of graduating on time; Wayne State gets the leftovers. If you want to measure how long it takes kids to graduate, a more direct analysis on that factor is much more effective.
Kids graduating from Michigan can write their own ticket. Kids graduating from Michigan State may not be able to write.
College costs a lot. Maybe U of M can show Paddington Bear to protect their fragile little students.
Question:: why do ND grads hang their diplomas off of rear view mirror?
Answer..so then part in handicap parking...LMAO!!!!!!!!
The 4 year graduation rate at Georgia took a nose dive when they went to the semester system from the quarter system. Under the quarter system, the class load was 3 per term, or 9 classes per academic year or 12 in a calendar year (summer term was a full quarter, like the other terms). A normal load for a semester school is 4 each in fall and spring terms, or 8 per academic year.
Generally, you can only squeeze in a couple of classes in the summer. So you are taking 8 courses an academic year instead of 9, and perhaps 10 instead of 12 a calendar year. So unless someone is willing to carry a heavier than average load (easier in some majors than in others), it will take longer to get the same number of classes in.
I’ve taken classes under both systems, and the quarter system is far superior for the students, but more work for the profs, giving them less opportunities for lucrative grants and consulting gigs.
The real question is why the government is involved in higher education at all. Private, Christian colleges are the best way to educate people. Why use taxpayer dollars to give certain, very secular (and inferior) colleges an advantage?
Simple economics: Positive externalities
Americans have understood this for 200 years.
Times the amount charged per student times the amount of students and it would be better if the student went elsewhere as they are being ripped off.
University of Michigan—Ann Arbor enrolled 27,400 students
Times that by $46,000 for 4 years and it equals $1,260,400,000
$1.2 billion plus every 4 years and the schools keep on raising the rates saying they are broke.
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