Posted on 09/10/2007 5:51:48 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Somewhere along the way, college life has gotten a whole lot more posh.
On a number of campuses, students are able to hire personal maids to clean and do their laundry. They pay moving crews to pack and transport their stuff — plasma TVs and other high-end electronics included. And they’re living large in housing that looks like anything but a dorm.
...
Upscale housing and other perks also fit with some parents’ expectations, especially those whose children attend the priciest private schools.
“It makes the $40,000 tuition worth it,” says Brian Altomare, the 25-year-old president and founder of Madpackers, a Manhattan-based moving company for students.
This fall, his company added one-off limousine rides so student customers can arrive at school “like a rock star.” The company also plans to offer grocery delivery and cleaning and laundry services — something other companies, such as Valet Today and DormAid, already do.
Many students say housing amenities, in particular, play a big role when deciding which school to attend.
That worries some education watchdogs, who believe the focus on living the good life is driving up the already burdensome cost of college — and causing some students to ask for more grants and rack up more debt than they normally would.
“Students and school employees are living in increasing luxury while taxpayers are getting soaked,” says Neal McCluskey, a policy analyst for the Center for Educational Freedom at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
My daughter goes to a big school and I never heard of anything like that. It doesn’t surprise me, though.
I fear for this country when these kids are parents and unable to take care of themselves. These kids will be helpless when reality smacks them upside the head someday.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
But somehow I doubt it.
I’ve heard of some real slum-like conditions for students in dorms.
There is no downward pressure on education costs because taxpayer-funded aid always keeps pace with costs. Eventually, it gets to the point where not even wasteful and extravagant academia can soak up that much money, and it starts getting spend on maids and limos.
Within a couple of years, in-room “physical therapy” will wind up getting charged back to the taxpayer. Just wait and see.
This is how they build leaders?
My cousin graduated from Princeton in the mid 1970’s. About ten years ago, I visited the campus with him. He explained to me about the distances he had to walk between classes, having to get membership in a dining club to be able to eat, etc. It seemed pretty rough for what I thought was a high cost school for the privileged.
I graduated from a small town college, and I lived with my parents during my years as a student. I had it much easier. Then it occured to me that the Ivy League used to want to train leaders, and build leadership skills and attitudes, while my school was training technicians (I’m an accountant). He was learning that there was a responsibility attached to the privilege of attending the Ivy League, and being an Ivy League alumnus. There were a variety of skills that my cousin either learned, or he would not have it in Princeton. Since then he has used those skills to build a very impressive career for himself.
But hey, the kids are getting the best left wing indoctrination money can buy. They live in luxury paid for by somebody else and get to pay lip service to saving the great unwashed while their maid picks up after them.
My favorite was two liberal phoneys at law school who used to have serious discussions that they were going to make so much money, they would just have to put an extension on their homes and invite a homeless person to live there.
I used to clean dorm rooms at the end of the semester, after the kids moved out, back when I was at school. The job paid double any other student job, because they could not keep anybody doing it for more than a day. I would work like a dog for three weeks in the summer and over Christmas break, and pay my tuition for the year.
But, I gotta tell you, some of the things we found were beyond human belief. No kidding.
Nancy Pelosi told us that she’d make college more affordable. Apparently, she succeeded.
My dorm room at Iowa was so cold we could freeze a can of beer just by leaning it against a window.
These wonderful kids are too busy with their sociology classes, feminist studies programs, black studies programs, getting masters degrees in boinkology, to clean up after themselves
It makes good business sense for a college to offer this kind of facility to those who can afford it, and are willing to pay. I don’t know why they did not think of it sooner.
A conclusion derived from thorough experimentation, I'm sure...
There used to be, but that is disappearing. Schools have to stay competitive and an increasingly key way is through the quality of the dorms. There’s usually a range of options from no-frills to comfort. Nice dorms are a profit center for schools.
Write down your adventures in condom-removal, maybe it could be worked into the next “American Pie” installment.
Apparently these kids are preparing to live their lives as part of a Gilded Aristocracy. They are in for a rude awakening after the islamofascist takeover.
Minor: Ipod Management
It was a terrible loss, for sure.
Condom removal was the least of it. That barely rated.
Course, I was wearing gloves that went up past the elbows and rubber gardeners boots at all times. For the bad ones, I had a rubber apron and a face shield.
Indeed. Nowadays it's all about keeping their fragile self esteem intact.
Why not just hire a surrogate to attend college classes, write papers and take exams? College can then be nothing but a non-stop party at Mom and Dad’s expense.
I went to Michigan in the 70s. You could get laundry service and one dorm had maid service. Vendors sold loft beds and you could get someone to put them together. I rented a fridge and when my son went, he had a fridge and microwave. My roommate brought a tv and stereo. Life was good.
I don’t see any of this as the end of the world. When I went to school I took a typewriter and a radio; kids these days take their computer, mp3 players, tvs, etc.
I had the chance to go back and visit my old freshman dorm room. It was more packed with stuff than mine had been, but it looked like the normal stuff a young person would have in their room at home. The republic will survive. The kids will learn discipline and sacrifice when they start paying those student loans. : )
Universities are the only business where the end product has no warranty of merchantability.
You get a degree that is essentially worthless because it really only matters who you know in you selected line of work.
Imagine if a student loan could be discharged in bankrupcty and a university lose money for graduates who can get a job.
An elite degree just means you were smart enough to be admitted to an elite university. Employers just hope they didn't damage you too much while you were there.
That's because they used Iowa grads to design and engineer the building.
Sorry, Eric, I couldn’t resist.
They obviously aren't producing any football players.
We’ll find out next Saturday in Ames, eh ?
Well seeing as how Iowa State has already lost at home to such powerhouses as Northern Iowa and Kent State, let’s just say, I think I’m favoring the Hawkeyes in that one.
We had an old, old apartment on campus that had Palmetto bugs (cockroaches) the size of barns flying across the room...
When he was an undergrad his dorm was basic desk, chair, bed and not much more.
This was ahem a number of years ago.
I work with one of their cousins. She gripes about how unfair tax cuts are in one breath and then brags about the huge house she and her "partner" (the man she married, but she will not use the word "husband" because she thinks it is sexist) in Madison, WI.
I am turning in my notice on Thursday of this week. I can't say I am unhappy about it.
She is in an apartment now that is nicer than our first home!
I lived out of a seabag for the first few years.
It was a tremendous education.
What a letdown it was to enroll in college after my hitch was up.
I did the right thing and didn't spend all of Daddy's money.
However, I did hit up Uncle Sam for all he was worth.
One may only hope the ‘amenities’ will offset to some limited degree, the sour taste of the collectivist faculty lectures.
A pal of mine who was at Oxford in the late ‘70s (and eventually took a First in Classics) used to say that winters there were so cold that one had to break the ice in the sink basins before using them as urinals.
You earned it.
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