111 colleges now cost more than $50,000 a year (Sarah Lawerence, NYU top most expensive list)

The College Fix ^ | 10/11/2011

[Moonman62]

Having just watched a major home renovation I’m impressed with the skills, knowlege and innovation by contractor- tradesmen; electricians, plumbers etc., Mostly young white guys and older, legal immigrants.

Females now far outnumber males on college campuses.

[Marathoner]

Thanks, that makes sense. Tell you what, if I had a kid preparing for college, I guarantee he/she wouldn’t be going to any school ranked up there on the donations to Obama list, at least not with any of my money. Talk about paying for the rope to hang oneself with, that’s worse than paying property taxes.

[JerseyHighlander]

Six of the ten most expensive Unis in the USA are actively funding the Occupy Wall Street movement through student union/activity dues, and professors providing material and logistical support during their work hours and classroom instruction hours to the Occupation movement.

Average income for tenured professors at those schools (not sure about New School though) all are over $110k. Which by the way, makes these professors the working poor in Manhattan.

That’s what those tuition dollars are going towards.

[Moonman62]

The one with the best grades just finished grad school in engineering (3.9 GPA).

What type of engineering?

[fungoking]

College of the Ozarks, tuition free due to the student work program, very conservative.

One tax that I would support; tax on colleges endowments of schools that don’t give sizable financial aide to their students.

[cuban leaf]

Structural. Did a lot of work in concrete and her team actually won a bridge building competition for strength. Another one won for being the pretiest.

[cuban leaf]

It was a steel bridge and it was a national competition.

[Moonman62]

I suppose that’s similar to civil or mechanical engineering. I just read yesterday that some companies will train engineering graduates in other disciplines to be petroleum engineers. The pay is top notch and petroleum engineering is the top paying undergraduate degree. With a masters your daughter could have an advantage.

[cuban leaf]

My bad. I think of it as structural, but it is Civil Engineering. Sometimes I type too fast...

[PA Engineer]

So, where does one go to for college?

My Daughter was accepted at three of the colleges (Drexel, Hopkins, CMU) on the list. She had scholarship offers, but came back with a rational decision. For her engineering degree she looked at the ranking and size of the alumni association. She decided to go to Penn State because it was cheaper even without scholarship dollars and was highly ranked in her major.

We were proud with her on investigating the best choice overall for college. It is still very expensive at 30K a year, but nothing like the other three. The worst of the three was CMU. Her acceptance letter came in the form of "this is what it will cost you to come here". We laughed at first, but became very angry after it sank in. Colleges are not about education. Colleges are subsidized business monopolies. This bubble is also beginning to burst.

The total cost for her engineering degree (biomedical) will be 120K. That is one of the cheaper colleges. She also wants to continue on to med school. We pretty much know where she will go. That will cost over 220K. Imagine in nine years her education (one of the more economical choices) is going to run 340K. She will not be actively practicing until she finishes her residency-fellowship. She will be at least 32 by the time this happens.

The college education system in the US is not sustainable. Our Daughter will have a professional degree when she finishes. I estimate at least 90% will not. We are paying for (earn too much) it. That was our promise if she maintained a 3.5 or higher. Even with the professional degrees it would take at least a decade to pay it off if it were loan based. She would have been 42 before she could move on with her life. Imagine the other students.

Our economy is going to be mired in a very long depression. The college debt burden will prevent them from buying houses and cars. The debt will also prevent them from raising families. Who are going to buy the houses on the market now as well as ten years from now when my generation begins to retire?

A college education is now nothing but the next bubble to burst. The common thread in all the bubbles has been our government.

[NVDave]

Petro engineering was the highest paying in ‘84 when I graduated too. Of course, no one TOLD me this when I went in to get a EE. They tell you these things when you’re coming out...

Idiots.

Anyway, the guys who slid right into the petro field were ChemE’s. I have a couple classmates that went through a slight rough patch in the mid-80’s in the Houston area, but after that, they never looked back. One of ‘em has been all over the world, too, on the company’s dime. Had some interesting things to say about the middle east and their future prospects when their oil runs out... something about “they’ll wish they could aspire to the Dark Ages...”

[End Times Sentinel]

Isn’t that worth the money though? After all, it’s often WHO you know. I suspect that a lot of the Ivy Leaguers get their initial positions because of their contacts in college.

Oh, some of the Ivies, yeah, I can see that. You get a plum internship at Siemans because your frat brother's dad is the CEO and he gets one at Kodak because you're dad is the CEO.

But if you're spending 40k a year on University of Virginia, you're not doing yourself any favors.

[Moonman62]

I think young people avoid petro because they’ve been brainwashed that it’s evil, and many in the field are reaching retirement. There’s not a lot of growth from what I’ve read, but there should be openings.

[ronnie raygun]

Lets question WHY? college professors and faculty have to be paid exorbitant amounts of money to teach students they know will be in debt for years. Ask Elizabeth Warren the anti capitalist running for congress who is making 600,000 as a professor and demands the rich pay thier fair share. We are sending our kids and paying to have them brainwashed and programed to hate this country and it’s system to progress an agenda that is not our own.