The ever increasing costs of additional education are continuous source of headaches for parents looking to place their children in college. Both private and public universities have continued to raise tuition and overall costs over the last decade, to the tune of 30 and 50% respectively. With the outrageous cost and the inability for most people to pay, our educational system is a tumultuous time. However does it need to be or is this a self driven mistake that we ourselves have helped fuel?
The cost of any good or service is risen by basic economic factors including availability and the overall cost to produce the good or service. However, college has seemed to transcend these basic factors and added a hype factor similar to that of the .com boom of the late 90s and early 2000. The hype factor as I have seen it is where customers are flocking to colleges and universities where the cost of going to school is the highest. There has been an evolution where there is link between the cost of going to school and the respective result of the education. How can that be? Lets take a look. It has been documented that one of the way to increase the applications coming into a school is to increase your tuition. Though it sounds odd, there is a sense of exclusivity that is involved and it works. Take for example Ursinus College in PA. They were actively bouncing ideas on how to increase the overall student population. In return they raised tuition costs resulting in an increase of more than 200 applications and within 4 yrs, the school's freshman class size has grown by more than 35%. Hype - nothing more.
Take out the hype and you still have increasing costs due to greed and other human factors. I have read numerous articles and accounts where the frame of mind is too charge as much as possible, not reflective on increased cost of doing business, but simply to see what they can get away with and to see what people will pay. Frankly the idea is insane. There are universities out there that cost in the area of 6-10k annually and offering stronger higher education benefits. However, those schools are wiped under the rug by the media with the focus on the large schools that take advantage of their status to milk applicants and their families of life savings. How do we stop it?
Honestly, one person at a time. People need to evaluate the cost of going to school and the result for their career. There are some schools that no matter how you graduate, as long as you do, will offer better opportunities to the appeared class of person that comes from the institution. But for the most part, that is not the case. The difference between a 25k and a 6k education might be nothing. It might be something. It might be something that means nothing for your career tract or interests. The key is to look at what is important to you, evaluate the small and large, private and public alike, and make the best decision possible. Consider tuition when making the decision. As a large tuition and overall cost could strap you down after college with debt that you otherwise would not have. Be smart and do not follow the crowd. Understand your goals, decide for yourself, and forget the hype.
Jason Monastra is a 10 year veteran in the recruiting industry and current partner with United Global Technologies, http://www.ugtechnologies.com - a leading recruiting and consulting firm serving the IT and engineering vertical based out of Charlotte NC. |
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