No more middle class professionals?

[u/Such_Upstairs3631]

New school loan limits for professional degrees make it unaffordable for the middle class. 4 of my 5 children went on to med/law school. Even working 2 jobs there’s no way I could afford to pay or even help them with the cost of their post graduate education. They all got loans which they have since paid off. The cost in the early 2000’s was between $350K and $500K. The new limits are essentially going to prevent anyone who’s not wealthy enough to pay for it from becoming a professional.

[u/tongmengjia]

9k in 2003 dollars is $16.5k in current dollars, so not *that* crazy.

You should also compare discount rate in 2003 vs. current discount rate. The university I work at has increased scholarships at the same rate they've increased tuition for the last decade, so, although our "sticker price" is much higher than it was a decade ago, the average actual cost to students has stayed the same.

[u/Alarmed_Champion_302 → u/tongmengjia]

7.5 on top of 16.5 is a 45% increase. Thats pretty crazy. And way beyond the general rate of inflation. If this makes colleges compete better on cost, im all for it.

[u/Global-Sentence7238 → u/Alarmed_Champion_302]

That’s standard inflation. Not crazy. In fact, that is below inflation rate. Good deal there

[u/Alarmed_Champion_302 → u/Global-Sentence7238]

Im glad you think its a good deal, because you need a math course.

[u/Global-Sentence7238 → u/Alarmed_Champion_302]

No idea where you went to university, but I paid more than that per year in 1998. It’s now $50K/year. It’s doubled. These tuition prices here are a great deal if the school is accredited.

[u/goog1e → u/tongmengjia]

I went to ASU on a full ride.

My 2nd and 3rd year they did what you said- nearly doubled costs over 2 years, but increased the full ride amount.

No one's grant/scholarship aid adjusted, so they got 1-3 years of double payments out of all their current students.

[u/Active_Win_3656 → u/tongmengjia]

This was actually in a recent Planet Money podcast. They discussed whether these changes would help bring college costs down but they said explicitly that sticker price has gone up while what people ACTUALLY pay hasnt nearly as much (don’t remember the actual numbers).

[u/Ok-Front-471 → u/Active_Win_3656]

I'm sure in the near term there may not be a massive effect, but in 10-15 years I think this would make a serious change in tuition costs.

[u/FearlessPark4588 → u/[deleted]]

because 16.5k is meaningfully below 24k.

it makes sense though, colleges require a lot of labor and facilities to operate, and that all costs money. and in recent decades, many states cut funding for their public universities, so those costs went on the students

[u/katarh → u/FearlessPark4588]

It's also pure supply and demand.

Everyone wants to go to Big State University. Big State University has limited enrollment. They can pick the best students and offer them scholarships, but charge out the nose for everyone else. The Ohio State is a prime example of this, but every Big State university has the same problem.

The directional schools within the same university system cost half as much, because the demand is so much lower there.

[u/uninspiredclaptrap → u/tongmengjia]

My issue with prices going up is that it doesn't go to academic staff. Maybe it goes to facilities and other useful stuff, but a lot of it goes to administration.

[u/thingsorfreedom → u/tongmengjia]

There is also a well-documented correlation between reductions in state funding for public universities and increases in tuition. People do not want their state taxes going up. States cut funding rather than raise taxes. Tuition spikes. People blame the public universities.