It’s $75k-ish* not 40. But people line up to pay it. It may be a rough few years, but that’s what a $40B endowment is for.
*unless your household income is under $200k, when it starts to scale down pretty reasonably. I have no idea why it makes people mad that private colleges charge rich people lots of money. These kids graduated from private high schools that coat $50k/year, but no one gets mad about that.
Sure, if your 18 year old can support himself for a year or two with no job. How many can do that?
I’ve gone back to school (Penn State) online to get my bachelor’s degree. My classes are just differently formatted sections of the same classes taught on campus, nothing in my transcripts indicates the classes are online, I’ll eventually graduate (on campus) which the exact same degree and diploma as an on campus student.
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That was me and yes, I’d be pushing a gap year hard right now I was a high school senior.
That was me and yes, I’d be pushing a gap year hard right now I was a high school senior.
My experience is as a professor in a regional state school in Texas. Many students are commuters, and most live at home (or are moving back in due to closure of dorms or job losses). So far, it has been a struggle to keep the courses going. As there is now a pass-fail option, a number of students have ceased to work in the class. Many online course platforms are designed for the “desktop era” even though many of the younger college students today only have a tablet or a phone. Or if they have a laptop, it is a Chromebook with limited functions. The family desktop has gone the way of the landline phone in many households.
Texas and some other states are heavily dependent on oil and gas revenue. That was in free fall even before the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic became clear. The budget will be ugly for a while.
Some university courses (far too many) are basically “read the textbook or course notes” and get quizzed on them. These do not tend to be great courses, although the best courses are those where the notes reflect the experience of the teacher and could not really be found in any textbook or anywhere else.
I don’t do a lot of online learning, but looked at some of the courses offered. A positive psychology course was simple and somewhat interesting, but maybe not at the highest level. Learning a language well involves conversation, and I’d imagine it is hard to give enough individual attention over the interwebs since this is often done in groups. Certain aspects of drama or math could be done electronically. But if all you are doing is reading a book or average notes one might not think this worth high fees.
Even watching TV, shows done by hosts from home (such as The Daily Show or A Late Show) have a markedly different character. More intimate, and sometimes interesting, but certainly more unpolished and a little harder to watch. I’m not sure if this is because it differs from expectations, is genuinely worse, is related to technical issues, means less reliance on writers who can’t workshop stuff in the same way, or due to the missing psychological effects of a big background band and audience laughter. In many classes, a lot is learned from classmates.
That said, which courses work best over electronic media? Which ones don’t work as well? Are some things untraceable - I can’t imagine online anatomy lab being the same although have often been surprised by the high quality of a few courses.
Here is a decent article from The Antlantic which summarizes things needed to do a good job of online teaching, based on the experiences of twelve teachers. But this is below university level, and emphasizes peer-to-peer and technical help, the ability to bend the rules, ensuring adequate Internet access and supplementing low income students.
What I worry about, having two children in college right now, is that if they don’t return to school as expected next semester their student loans will become a problem. As I understand it, there is a six-month deferment period after they leave school (either graduate or quit, but presumably a gap semester or year would encompass “leaving school”), and then monthly payments become due. I seriously doubt they’ll be able to find jobs that will cover the loan payments in the near future.
Bumping this because there has been an interesting development. Typically, schools.pill off their waitlist after May first, and most don’t go deep. But lots and lots of highly selective schools, from Cornell to UChicago to Tufts–among several others–are starting to call kids on the waitlist. But the ones they are calling seem to be overwhelmingly domestic, full pay kids. So it may be they are anticipating low yields, or it may be they are expanding the freshman class to increase revenue
Of my three college-age grandchildren, one is just finishing HS and is expecting to study jazz performance starting in the fall. While other courses could be online, I don’t see how a performance course could be online. The next is finishing his junior year and was basically told not to come back after spring break. He is in engineering and I have no idea how that will work. But he is finishing his courses from this term online from home. The third is graduating this term and is just now emptying her dorm and UPSing it back home. I guess she will get her degree, but the intermship she had arranged for the summer seems off. She wants to write comedy (seriously).