Do you think college should be free?

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No I do not think it should be free. I think people need to weigh more carefully if the debt they are going into is worth it. And I think there are plenty of other worthwhile, lucrative things that could done - such as trade schools or apprenticeships. I don’t know why those are looked down on and not encouraged more.
 
Going to college should be made more affordable. The federal government use economic market forces to do so by passing a law limiting the size of any loan and total debt that a college student can take on.

Right now colleges are abusing the student loan system increasing tuition far faster than the rate of inflation knowing that students can currently pick up the tab by taking out huge student loans.

This needs to stop and the federal government could put the kibosh on it by severely restricting the amount of debt that a student can take on. The universities will need to make a choice: lower their tuition so it becomes affordable to more students or start giving out more generous scholarships to students based on their financial need.
 
Why do Americans for the most part have such a huge problem with socially provided programs?

There are lots of countries in the world where they provide post secondary and its not like they are in chaos.

Lest not for that reason.
 
Anrakyr said:
Why do Americans for the most part have such a huge problem with socially provided programs?
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There’s a huge sense of individualism that social programs go against. Also adds to the list of “why am I paying for (thing) I disagree with?”
 
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Anrakyr said:
There are lots of countries in the world where they provide post secondary and its not like they are in chaos.
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I think part of the problem is that they are touted as being “free” when they are not; someone is paying for it.
 
I would add that the US has the equivalent of “social programs” for those who either achieve academically in high school or have significant financial need. I have such people in my own family as well as knowing quite a few from elsewhere. They get scholarships and need-based aid; they wind up with decent educations and don’t graduate with huge debt.

The problem is with the huge mass of average students who still want to attend college even though academically they are not what would have been considered “college material” in the past.
 
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PeterT said:
This needs to stop and the federal government could put the kibosh on it by severely restricting the amount of debt that a student can take on. The universities will need to make a choice: lower their tuition so it becomes affordable to more students or start giving out more generous scholarships to students based on their financial need.
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Or students will have to choose more affordable universities. That’s what I did and I’m in position with peers who went to Brown, Colgate, Villanova (to name a few).
 
Who is paying for it? People who live from paycheck to paycheck? Higher taxes?
 
DeniseNY said:
Or students will have to choose more affordable universities. That’s what I did and I’m in position with peers who went to Brown, Colgate, Villanova (to name a few).
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Definitely an option. A friend’s son worked his way through an affordable university, landed a job in his field upon graduation and is now moving to a better job with a large company. He is very motivated though, and would complain that his classmates didn’t seem to know how to work a room at a job fair or really do much of anything for themselves.
 
Anrakyr said:
Why do Americans for the most part have such a huge problem with socially provided programs?

There are lots of countries in the world where they provide post secondary and its not like they are in chaos.

Lest not for that reason.
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Concern about abuses, to be honest. I don’t know what it is like in other countries, but a lot of Americans abuse anything when it is offered for free and devalue anything they can get for free, whether it is offered by the government or by private parties. I don’t know if this is human nature or just a cultural thing, but I have to think the lack of gratitude for free things and the tendency to inflate regard for things based on the size of their pricetags is cultural. Other cultures seem a bit less money-obsessed, to be blunt.
 
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I agree, but really the whole educational system is broken. And just making college free is not going to fix the system, and may actually worsen it for everyone: students, faculty (full- and part-time), staff, and administrators, as well as the tax-payer.
 
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In a way, yes. However, the part-timers (60-70% of faculty) see very little of that money.
 
I wouldn’t say that was true of my chemistry degree. General chemistry during freshman year was a necessary foundation for the higher level coursework, and the higher level courses were necessary to have a reasonable background for a career in chemistry. Some students get it done in three years, but that’s quite a bit if you don’t come in with general chemistry and some general education requirements essentially out of the way.

Yes, I think some degrees have more “filler” than that.
 
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PetraG said:
I wouldn’t say that was true of my chemistry degree. General chemistry during freshman year was a necessary foundation for the higher level coursework, and the higher level courses were necessary to have a reasonable background for a career in chemistry. Some students get it done in three years, but that’s quite a bit if you don’t come in with general chemistry and some general education requirements essentially out of the way.

Yes, I think some degrees have more “filler” than that.
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Hard sciences have a lot less filler than soft sciences. My bachelor’s degree called for a minimum of 130 credit hours…and no more than 36 of those hours could be in my specific major. I had to have either three 12-hour minors or a second 36-hour major, plus the usual complement of math, science, humanities, etc.

Yep. Lots of filler.

I worked for about five years in the field of my major and then moved on to another, completely unrelated field.
 
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casslean said:
Or highly subsidized.

Forcing young people to start their lives mired in debt is a travesty.
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Playing devil’s advocate, this will convince more people to go to college (even those who won’t benefit much from it), and encourage more people to take worthless degrees. Neither of those things helps society.
 
I think we’re already working on some of the solutions to the college cost/debt problem.

Here are some ideas that I’d like to see expanded:

Allow more opportunities for motivated and capable high school juniors and seniors to get college credit while in high school. This shouldn’t be limited to just AP courses, which can be problematic and rely on a single, high-stakes test. In my local area, community college instructors are coming into the high schools to teach some of these courses. Maybe something more like British A-levels, then moving on to a 3-year Bachelor’s degree program.

Community college! In my state, more and more districts are offering the first year for free. This is a great opportunity for mediocre students or students who just aren’t sure if they want another 4 years of academic work to test out how they do in a college environment. Four year college typically offer limited scholarship opportunities to transfer students and I’d like to see that change. Don’t penalize capable students for making a smart financial choice.

We need to expand offerings of non-traditional routes to college. Not all learning takes place behind a desk. Colleges should increase opportunities to test out of coursework for students having significant experience in the workplace or self-education in a given field.
 
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