Me too. A MPH at a state school was just barely affordable thanks to socking money away when she was born. Not everyone can afford to do that but it was worth the trouble.
I also attended the University of California from 1964-66, having gotten my A.A. from the California Community College system. I, too recall that tuition was basically free. I also remember that health care from the Student Health Center and the University hospital was very inexpensive. If my memory is correct, I paid something like $104 in fees per semester. It was an extraordinarily effective system.
I'm thinking that may depend on the state. When I went to Illinois State, tuition plus room and board for the year was about $5k. When my daughter went 26 years later, it was about $25k for the year. It cost more for her to go for one year than it was for me to graduate.
Thanks for this analysis. I hadn’t seen this information elsewhere.
There’s another longterm effect of all these polices that a future (non-evil) administration would not be able to quickly fix. The media obsess over elite private institutions and flagship state schools, but the overwhelming majority of students attend small privates and state branch and regional colleges. These schools don’t attract the wealthy fail-kiddies or the wealthy hardly at all.
Non-elite institutions are already struggling due to demographic changes (a depressed birthrate 18 or so years ago, a drop in foreign enrollments), and many are in grave peril.
If the overall population of college-going student further shrinks due to these MAGA policies, these smaller schools will be forced to close, thus reducing opportunity even if funding, etc., is fully restored. That destruction will take generations to undo. Bye-bye American “greatness.” The Make America Great Again movement has done and is doing more to undermine this nation’s “greatness” than any foreign adversary could dream.
There may not be much thought that’s gone into this. It’s just another front in the battle against women. Against minorities. Against Asian and African and other immigrants whose tuition has boosted universities across the country. Against science and medicine and the humanities. Against Art. It all sucks. It is cruel, and it is evil.
Repayment options narrowed. Pell Grants under pressure. These aren't random policy decisions landing randomly on random populations. This causes reduced access, compounding debt, and credential stratification. It's functioning exactly as a class-sorting mechanism would if you designed one on purpose. Whether that's intent or consequence we can technically debate but the results aren't debatable.
Many graduate programs only require 9 credit hours (typically 3 courses) to be considered full-time and many offer online courses and programs which reduce costs by not requiring driving and parking, and allow someone working part- or full-time to do their coursework around their jobs. Part of the problem with the way a "professional" program is defined is that people making the rules have no idea what is required in many fields. If someone with an undergraduate accounting degree wants to qualify as a CPA they need 150 hours which is generally an additional 30 credit hours. A masters degree is not required but getting these hours without one is difficult. Most additional accounting courses are only offered at the graduate level and, while sometimes a qualified student can take 1 or 2 graduate courses before being accepted into a masters program, many programs don't allow this. If a student chooses not to enter a graduate program they're also facing competition from other accountants who will have a masters degree. I also suspect that many rule makers think nurses do nothing but take blood pressure and give out pills. Heaven forbid they learn about anything they're passing regulations and laws about.
Worth holding this next to the student loan relief data specifically: 82.9% of Black undergraduates take federal loans. The SAVE plan eliminated. Repayment options narrowed. Pell Grants under pressure. These aren't random policy decisions landing randomly on random populations.
Same outcome I mentioned above: reduced access, compounding debt, credential stratification. Again... It is functioning exactly as a class-sorting mechanism would if you designed one on purpose.
One possible reason that Repubs make sure that the loans cannot be forgiven nor wiped out via bankruptcy - private equity wouldn’t be interested? They must salivate at the thought of high interest rate loans that must be paid no matter what. It is more and more obvious to everyone that our country is seen as a business by the Republicans and “we the people” as sources of income to be exploited for the benefit of the elite. Perhaps that is why we are always called “consumers” rather than “citizens?”
The underclass they are deliberately creating will be housed in the deliberately oversized ICE facilities they are building, and will provide them a handy source of forced labor.
I think that the effects of the policy will have unintended consequences that haven't been mentioned: many industries (pharmaceutical, chemical, energy) look to graduates with PhD degrees to assist them or come up with new inventions. Some of those degrees are quite pricey even at lower tier schools. At some point if those students are not entering the pipeline I can see corporations either looking to international students or possibly just moving their research facilities overseas in order to attract the students they want. Universities/colleges will also look to reduce degrees in certain fields if they can't get the students. Their options could be to give those students a free ride for those advanced degrees but where is the money coming from to support the rest of the university/college. In a way I think higher education may have brought some of this on by expansion of management thus needing higher tuition. My undergraduate school has a graduate school of graduate schools that you apply to rather than the graduate school office of the department you wish a degree in. In other words, an added bureaucracy and to me a way to weed out students that they "consider" not acceptable.
I have over 5 degrees and can see how tuition over time has changed. My first 2 degrees were $283 a semester and the next degree $189 a quarter. My first law degree was $10,000 a year (14% student loan interest when I graduated!) and the second one $25,000 a year.
All college students should be required to take two years of required course in various fields. Then they could major in whatever they want. No tradition college courses should be eliminated.
Reform colleges by greatly reducing the number of administrators.
Oooof! Everything good or helpful this administration touches withers and dies or is reborn as a demonic force keeping all of us down but lifting up the one percenters.
Grateful that my daughter graduates from college this morning. IU has also eliminated/consolidated the type of degress offered.
Me too. A MPH at a state school was just barely affordable thanks to socking money away when she was born. Not everyone can afford to do that but it was worth the trouble.
Skull & Bones for me, not thee?
Thanks to state schools, college has been almost affordable but even they are becoming too costly.
When I went to college - 1968 - the University of California system was free to Californians. (I was out-of-state—I think we paid an extra grand.)
I also attended the University of California from 1964-66, having gotten my A.A. from the California Community College system. I, too recall that tuition was basically free. I also remember that health care from the Student Health Center and the University hospital was very inexpensive. If my memory is correct, I paid something like $104 in fees per semester. It was an extraordinarily effective system.
Indeed it was. And, amazingly, California was not rent asunder from above. And people even learned a thing or two.
I'm thinking that may depend on the state. When I went to Illinois State, tuition plus room and board for the year was about $5k. When my daughter went 26 years later, it was about $25k for the year. It cost more for her to go for one year than it was for me to graduate.
Thanks for this analysis. I hadn’t seen this information elsewhere.
There’s another longterm effect of all these polices that a future (non-evil) administration would not be able to quickly fix. The media obsess over elite private institutions and flagship state schools, but the overwhelming majority of students attend small privates and state branch and regional colleges. These schools don’t attract the wealthy fail-kiddies or the wealthy hardly at all.
Non-elite institutions are already struggling due to demographic changes (a depressed birthrate 18 or so years ago, a drop in foreign enrollments), and many are in grave peril.
If the overall population of college-going student further shrinks due to these MAGA policies, these smaller schools will be forced to close, thus reducing opportunity even if funding, etc., is fully restored. That destruction will take generations to undo. Bye-bye American “greatness.” The Make America Great Again movement has done and is doing more to undermine this nation’s “greatness” than any foreign adversary could dream.
Several small colleges in Mass. have already closed or merged with a larger university. Currently Hampshire College has announced a closure.
You’re right. The closures/mergers have been coming apace for some time. These new policies will only expedite them. Hampshire is a big loss.
There may not be much thought that’s gone into this. It’s just another front in the battle against women. Against minorities. Against Asian and African and other immigrants whose tuition has boosted universities across the country. Against science and medicine and the humanities. Against Art. It all sucks. It is cruel, and it is evil.
Repayment options narrowed. Pell Grants under pressure. These aren't random policy decisions landing randomly on random populations. This causes reduced access, compounding debt, and credential stratification. It's functioning exactly as a class-sorting mechanism would if you designed one on purpose. Whether that's intent or consequence we can technically debate but the results aren't debatable.
Many graduate programs only require 9 credit hours (typically 3 courses) to be considered full-time and many offer online courses and programs which reduce costs by not requiring driving and parking, and allow someone working part- or full-time to do their coursework around their jobs. Part of the problem with the way a "professional" program is defined is that people making the rules have no idea what is required in many fields. If someone with an undergraduate accounting degree wants to qualify as a CPA they need 150 hours which is generally an additional 30 credit hours. A masters degree is not required but getting these hours without one is difficult. Most additional accounting courses are only offered at the graduate level and, while sometimes a qualified student can take 1 or 2 graduate courses before being accepted into a masters program, many programs don't allow this. If a student chooses not to enter a graduate program they're also facing competition from other accountants who will have a masters degree. I also suspect that many rule makers think nurses do nothing but take blood pressure and give out pills. Heaven forbid they learn about anything they're passing regulations and laws about.
I am an RN, and if that were all we did, it would still be more than what the rule makers do! :)
Worth holding this next to the student loan relief data specifically: 82.9% of Black undergraduates take federal loans. The SAVE plan eliminated. Repayment options narrowed. Pell Grants under pressure. These aren't random policy decisions landing randomly on random populations.
Same outcome I mentioned above: reduced access, compounding debt, credential stratification. Again... It is functioning exactly as a class-sorting mechanism would if you designed one on purpose.
One possible reason that Repubs make sure that the loans cannot be forgiven nor wiped out via bankruptcy - private equity wouldn’t be interested? They must salivate at the thought of high interest rate loans that must be paid no matter what. It is more and more obvious to everyone that our country is seen as a business by the Republicans and “we the people” as sources of income to be exploited for the benefit of the elite. Perhaps that is why we are always called “consumers” rather than “citizens?”
The rethug party depends on an ignorant populace to win elections.
Thanks for naming this. It has been incredibly obvious to me but I see it seldom discussed in these terms.
The underclass they are deliberately creating will be housed in the deliberately oversized ICE facilities they are building, and will provide them a handy source of forced labor.
But they want trillions to slaughter millions of innocent civilians around the world.
I think that the effects of the policy will have unintended consequences that haven't been mentioned: many industries (pharmaceutical, chemical, energy) look to graduates with PhD degrees to assist them or come up with new inventions. Some of those degrees are quite pricey even at lower tier schools. At some point if those students are not entering the pipeline I can see corporations either looking to international students or possibly just moving their research facilities overseas in order to attract the students they want. Universities/colleges will also look to reduce degrees in certain fields if they can't get the students. Their options could be to give those students a free ride for those advanced degrees but where is the money coming from to support the rest of the university/college. In a way I think higher education may have brought some of this on by expansion of management thus needing higher tuition. My undergraduate school has a graduate school of graduate schools that you apply to rather than the graduate school office of the department you wish a degree in. In other words, an added bureaucracy and to me a way to weed out students that they "consider" not acceptable.
I have over 5 degrees and can see how tuition over time has changed. My first 2 degrees were $283 a semester and the next degree $189 a quarter. My first law degree was $10,000 a year (14% student loan interest when I graduated!) and the second one $25,000 a year.
All college students should be required to take two years of required course in various fields. Then they could major in whatever they want. No tradition college courses should be eliminated.
Reform colleges by greatly reducing the number of administrators.
Oooof! Everything good or helpful this administration touches withers and dies or is reborn as a demonic force keeping all of us down but lifting up the one percenters.
Further widening the gap between haves and have-nots. But no class warfare, right? This regime is destroying everything, speeding us back decades.