The new 50+ Club-- Outrageous!

There was an article I read over the weekend about the new members of a "50+ club"...that is Colleges and Universities that now cost over $50,000 a year to attend! It is staggering to me that college costs keep rising at a rate that far exceeds the rate of inflation and that there are still so many applicants to the colleges that charge this much for the "privilege" of attendance.

Having just gone through the whole college search/application/acceptance process last year with my older son, I am aware of all of the games that schools play with the numbers. They don't call it all tuition. They call it tuition and fees and then they make tuition the smaller part of that fraction. But the thing is, fees are not negotiable, and you cannot cherry pick the ones you want, or the ones you think apply to you. You pay for all of it whether you use the services they relate to or not.

I cannot believe that the education you receive these days at any college is worth $50,000 a year!

For some prospective students whose families are at or near the poverty line, there are no worries. They will receive a full ride if they have the grades and resume' to be accepted to the school. The full ride may contain grants, loans, scholarships, or any combination thereof. I tend to think those people will get the lions share of scholarships and grants, and have some small loans peppered in. Those in the highest income brackets of all will not have to worry about the price of school. It will not be an issue whatsoever. Getting into the best school of their choice will be the only worry for these people.

Those of us who lie in between these two extremes get screwed in every way. When you get accepted to the schools of your choice, they will offer you aid in the form of loans only.

When you fill out the FAFSA form to determine your "expected family contribution" the government WAY overestimates how much you can afford to pay for college. Basically the government assumes that every dollar you earn should go to pay for this one child's education and if you have any money left over, maybe you can rent an apartment, drive a beater car, and eat store brand boxes of mac and cheese for 4 years while your darling lives in the lap of luxury (?) at your local university. HAH? And for FAFSA to come to this determination, you have to tell them every cent you have, every bit of equity, every investment, every dollar you have ever earned, and where you have been your whole life!

How long will the rate of college cost inflation keep going up until it reaches critical mass? There will come a point where even the richest families may not be willing to shell out this much money for a child's education. There will definitely come a time, a lot sooner, that the lower and the middle class families will have already reached that critical mass, and they will be looking at other options.

I predict that in 20 years, or less, most lower and middle class students will get their college learning from online schools while still living at home.

How will the prospect of this sea change (online degrees) affect the lives of college aged teens in the long run? I am not sure. A college campus is a microcosm for a small city or a small society. Things happen and students that are away from their parents have to learn to fend for themselves and cope with whatever happens. This is a growth experience. If all college students (or a majority of them) stay at home during this time in their lives, it may delay the maturation process and may delay the development of independence. Still, I am not sure if this is a bad thing or a good thing, or somewhere in between.

Reports are always bandied about on how much a person can expect to earn in a lifetime. It usually goes something like this...you can expect to earn X in your lifetime with a high school diploma, and you can expect to earn X + $300,000-$400,000 if you have a bachelor's degree, and so on. Let's face facts here. If the cost of a Bachelor's degree keeps rising, eventually the cost of obtaining one will surpass the increase in your expected lifetime earnings and that is when going away to school will cease to be a viable option for most students. It looks like we are fast approaching that time! These 50+ schools will cost you over $200,000 for a Bachelor's degree that is assuming you can finish in the 4 year time slot. Many students are struggling to "git 'er done" in 4 years now so the overall cost could be higher still.

What will happen to all of these private college campuses when they become ghost towns due to their price rising above the maximum affordability limit?

• Many towns are looking to build schools...elementary through high schools...maybe some smaller campuses will be utilized for that.
• Senior centers and over 55 communities are springing up more are needed. With the baby boomers taking over, maybe they can go back to these campuses and use them as senior facilities. That would be ironic. The same places many of them went as students could now be used as senior facilities!
• Maybe the state college systems will take over some private college campuses that are not being used anymore and they can become satellite campuses that are more affordable.

Most of the bullet points were a tongue in cheek exploration of what I see as the future of many higher educational facilities.

It sickens me to see schools getting away with raping us for an education. I know it is a privilege to go to college, but if our country is to compete in the modern world in the future, we need to find some way to make it more affordable for all to go to college, not a way to make sure fewer and fewer can afford to go. Something will have to give in this system, I am just not sure what that is yet!

Meanwhile, I offer a hearty "congratulations" to the most recent inductees into the 50+ club for college costs (many are in the New England Corridor). I am sure you have already sealed your fate!