The makeup of the Ivies and other top private colleges wouldn't change much. Their endowments are large enough they can finance a lot of charity scholarships.


Where you would really see changes is in the tier-2 private schools. They would either cease to exist or have to change their models pretty dramatically.

Which is precisely how it was before student loans and pell grants were invented.

 

-----signature-----

You have to look at why there are so many more people seeking college educations.

That reason is pretty clear: lack of economically viable prospects in the careers of skilled labor. These include things like welders, machinists, CNC operators, mechanics, equipment operators, carpenters, electricians.

Here's the rub - you can talk about all the building trades and how that labor is going over seas and will never be back, but then you have to pay attention to the fact that the same exact thing is happening in the STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics).

These are traditionally fields requiring college education - and what's happening here is the same story with labor - companies tell us they can't get qualified applicants in these fields so they want to ship that work overseas or import folks on temporary, ever renewing work visas - when the reality is that again, they can't get people who are qualified to work for the wages they want to pay. Meanwhile if the guy here on the temporary visa complains about his wage, his employer withdraws their sponsorship of their visa and back to the rice paddy they go... alternatively, they just have the work done overseas and pay the going wages there.

This whole stupid college bubble is as related to the presence of "cheap" loans without qualification as it is related to the downward pressure on wages in an ever increasing number of markets.

Nobody really needs an entire nation of Modeebs - accountants with 14 degrees in unrelated stuff - no offense to Modeeb meant.

I realize that many of you are arguing this as if I am trying to advocate some sort of aristocracy in degrees, but that's simply not the case. I'm railing against the continued striation of the standard of living here in the US. The college bubble is not actually helping that, it's actually making it happen faster...

 

-----signature-----

Well, sort of. Smart poor people have always got charity scholarships to attend Harvard and Yale. But back in the day charity scholarships would have made up 5% of the class, with 95% of the class being rich kids.


But we wouldn't go back to that even if government loan funding dried up. The top private schools these days could afford to continue to be need-blind even without federal loans. What would probably happen is they'd raise sticker price even more, and use the money to pay for the difference. Tuition would probably go up about 10k, but the only people who would actually pay the increase would be the rich ones, with the money used to subsidize charity scholarships.

it is still the case that the expensive schools are filled with rich kids.

edit: also the only benefit to those schools is for your first job when you have no experience.. thats the only time an employer looks at what school you went to instead of what you did at your last job and how important you were at your previous job. it seems like a big waste of money to get such an expensive efucation.

Again though, you are merely feeding the system with that thinking. The system is broken.

If EVERYONE gets a degree that just means that an advanced degree (MS/MA, Ph.D, MD, DO, JD, etc.) is the new standard and the college degree is just a stupid money pit that takes years out of peoples' economically productive lives. It's like an arms race, except with fkn degrees.

 

-----signature-----

That's not entirely true for a lot of larger companies.

 

-----signature-----

Yeah, Eodell is completely wrong about that, at least concerning "top" jobs.


If you didn't go to an Ivy or somethign comparable you will be unlikely to get a shot in the NY finance scene (goldman etc). There are always exceptions, but it'll make your life a lot, lot harder, no matter how well you do your first job.


Biglaw is not hiring anyone (again, with very few exceptions) who didn't graduate from a top school.


There is still a lot of oldboyism, especially on the east coast. The west coast is not as parochial and snobby.

That is absolutely true and although you may think your competitors are Jim, Bob and Mary - your true competitors are everyone in your field globally. And while you might think your BS/MS/*** is a wash with Jim Bob and Mary, it's not a wash when competing against {insert a string of racists names here}.

The stage of opportunity is shrinking at the same time more and more participants are trying to get on that stage...

The pool of mediocrity is growing, you still have to tread water...

 

-----signature-----

The term 'bubble' doesnt make much sense when referencing college costs. College degrees are still pretty valuable. I havent really seen evidence that the cost of college is way out of line with the return on investment.


College is more expensive than it was, but the charged term 'bubble' is misleading as college costs really do not resemble the housing bubble, the dot-com bubble or the tulip bubble.


Something that always seems unexplored is the supply side of the equation. Rising revenues should pull more investment into the industry. Why isnt that keeping up?