The initiatives include a 22% reduction in tuition for incoming freshmen and transfer students for the fall 2012 semester.

The university is guaranteeing that no undergraduate student will pay more than $19,500 for tuition next year.

$40,000 tuition per year to go to school in West Virginia?

*fires pistols in air and does sarcastic Yosemite Sam dance*

Also, DIAF for linking a press release.

Woohoo! At these prices I can get two puppeteering degrees!

So that means they've been bilking students for years prior.

JNowe: Woohoo! At these prices I can get two puppeteering degrees!

Both Javanese and Balinese varieties.

I wonder if higher education is the next "bubble".

/engineering degree for under $10K, priceless
//$9436.32 in 1994 USD

degree paid for itself first year out of school

Tyrone Biggums: I wonder if higher education is the next "bubble".

"next"?

no icon tact: /engineering degree for under $10K, priceless
//$9436.32 in 1994 USD

degree paid for itself first year out of school

looking at my old spreadsheet, that INCLUDES books

Also, inflation from then to now for USD is 2.4%, so $14,185.48 in 2011 USD

Looking at my university tuition today, a 338% increase from when I left.

Yeah, that there is a bubble, even at the "reasonably priced" schools.

Colleges and universities are the ones the students in OWS should be marching on. Its not the banks and wall street that has put them in debt, it is the colleges and universities who brainwash them into thinking all degrees are equal, do not prepare them for the real world, increase tuition/fees/board way above the inflation rate, force them to buy overpriced course books every year, and have no accountability for loans or the value of the degree. What the University of Charleston has done is a start, I hope others follow - but I'm not holding my breath.

University of Charleston is right across the river from me. I'm not sure why people would choose UC when the state has more affordable colleges within an hour or two of here. It's a nice campus and all, but even with this tuition cut they're so proud of, it's just too much.

Nishu: I'm not sure how people can afford to pay 20K a year to go to school.

I think (I hope) that we will begin to see more of this as people start to realize how ridiculously overpriced college is. It doesn't matter how much the government tries to make college more accessible. All of our financial aid and student loans increases have been soaked up by the colleges and prices went up much faster than any other price in the market. Those with the ability and the desire to access financial aid and loans have done so, and those who aren't quite poor enough to get aid or dumb enough to take on tens of thousands in student loans were increasingly priced out of the college market. You can use the housing bubble as a perfect model of this. The college bubble is about to burst.

THIS.

Nishu: It doesn't matter how much the government tries to make college more accessible.

It sure as hell matters to the taxpayers.

As a taxpayer, I know there's no such thing as a tuition cut. Just forwarding the bill.

no icon tact: /engineering degree for under $10K, priceless
//$9436.32 in 1994 USD

degree paid for itself first year out of school

Yikes. That's about what I paid PER SEMESTER.

/student loan total was greater than what my parents paid for their house

So at most universities, they'll say that some huge number like 80% of all students receive some form of financial aid. They're probably right. But if so many people need aid, and a lot of that is coming directly from the university anyway (in the form of grants, scholarships, and work-study), then why not just lower the prices?

no icon tact: /engineering degree for under $10K, priceless
//$9436.32 in 1994 USD

degree paid for itself first year out of school

Well, tuition at the large publics is still 5-6k$ a year, depending on the school, but local housing usually doubles or triples that since a lot of the big publics are in heavily urban areas.

It's not unreasonable to work summers full-time and/or do a bit of part-time during the semester and still come out with a new car's worth of debt or so (20k$). Anyone with 100k$+ is still either an idiot or way the hell overconfident, but it's much harder to come out with no debt than it was a while back.

It's sort of a symptom of faltering federal support for state programs. Not so much that direct federal support is decreasing (that's mostly research grants and they've only been cut a relatively small amount), but when the feds "cut costs" by repeatedly shifting the burden to the states and half of any given state budget is education funding, that's not going to end well.

//Especially given all the programs to shove everyone and their little dog into undergrad-- increased enrollment + losing money on every undergrad = fail.

wombatsrus: Colleges and universities are the ones the students in OWS should be marching on. Its not the banks and wall street that has put them in debt, it is the colleges and universities who brainwash them into thinking all degrees are equal, do not prepare them for the real world, increase tuition/fees/board way above the inflation rate, force them to buy overpriced course books every year, and have no accountability for loans or the value of the degree. What the University of Charleston has done is a start, I hope others follow - but I'm not holding my breath.

That would be a great idea if OWS wasn't about getting money out of politics.

The outrage is how the 1% are grossly overrepresented in a society that is obstensibly a democratic republic.

One example was how banks facing imminent failure were given a swift bailout but severely indebted young people have no relief.

If a rich person such as Steven Seagall drives a tank through someone's home he is fined. If an OWS protestor looks at a police officer funny they are jailed

Nishu: I'm not sure how people can afford to pay 20K a year to go to school.

I think (I hope) that we will begin to see more of this as people start to realize how ridiculously overpriced college is.

University of Charleston has a great Broadcasting & Digital Communications program. It's a steal!

Tyrone Biggums: I wonder if higher education is the next "bubble".

Oh, HELL YES!!!

My daughter works for Phoenix, where hundreds if not thousands of her coworkers have been fired. The entire for-profit post-secondary education industry is imploding, and I think it's fair to say, the non-profit private sector (like U. Charleston) will be next.

no icon tact: /engineering degree for under $10K, priceless
//$9436.32 in 1994 USD

degree paid for itself first year out of school

Word. My first year of state university cost $910 complete, and I got three undergrad degrees (at once) for under $6000...and about $3000 in loans. And then I grossed more my first year out of school than four years at uni had cost.

Public university FTW.

Jim_Callahan: no icon tact: /engineering degree for under $10K, priceless
//$9436.32 in 1994 USD

degree paid for itself first year out of school

Well, tuition at the large publics is still 5-6k$ a year, depending on the school, but local housing usually doubles or triples that since a lot of the big publics are in heavily urban areas.

That's where the 8 guys crammed into un-airconditioned, no cable tv cinder block apt fit the bill. I owned no car at the time, lived 1/8 m from campus. Spent many nights in computer lab to do the days homework and sleep sitting up. I think rent was about $80/person/month. Pizza specials, raman noodles, pasta in 100 diff varieties filled out the story.

Nishu: I'm not sure how people can afford to pay 20K a year to go to school. I think (I hope) that we will begin to see more of this as people start to realize how ridiculously overpriced college is.

You don't afford it. You go into debt on a gamble. Like any other gamble, your only control over the odds is weighing the numbers. Dive in like it's a farking lottery and you're doomed.

I actually went to school for $30k/year, and this was well over ten years ago. But it was a top-20 university and I got my degree. I even threw my electives at useful courses like economics and computer science. After I graduated I worked like crazy to pay down my debts. I basically didn't have a life for most of my 20's. While my former classmates in HS were farking each other, traveling, partying and seeing the world, I was studying and working. Now I'm doing quite well and they're hurting now, but sometimes I wonder if the trade-off was worth it. I don't know. It's trade-off, and I made my choice. I am happily married now and don't regret that part one bit but I gotta be honest; the twenties are a rather precious decade to give up.

Does this make me a bitter, spiteful Fark Independent^TM that thinks others need to get more bootstrappy? NO. We are not effin' cogs. I was socially awkward to begin with so I honestly didn't give up as much as I'd like to believe, but even I wonder if it was worth it. I do NOT think of myself as a farking success story or example of the American dream. I think of myself as everything that's WRONG with it. It's not the work I did, but why I did it. Working hard is fine. I worked because I had unforgivable debts to pay off.

In a fair world, someone who wasn't as dedicated to studying and working should have a lower standard of living than me. But they do already, so why the fark should I be spiteful? Instead, I believe they shouldn't have to suffer the indignity of either working like a dog or face the fear of unemployment and desperate poverty. The most productive people I've met work because they want to work. It may not be fun, but it's possible to make it rewarding. Only sociopathic idiots want to force people to work; it succeeds in making people miserable but they wind up working as little as possible anyway. I'm willing to pay my share if it leads to a job market that isn't all-or-nothing.

It's not a solution, but it's a step in the right direction.

I'm proud to say that while tuition is up to $9,000 a year in England, it's still free in Scotland

dragonchild: Nishu: I'm not sure how people can afford to pay 20K a year to go to school. I think (I hope) that we will begin to see more of this as people start to realize how ridiculously overpriced college is.

You don't afford it. You go into debt on a gamble. Like any other gamble, your only control over the odds is weighing the numbers. Dive in like it's a farking lottery and you're doomed.

I actually went to school for $30k/year, and this was well over ten years ago. But it was a top-20 university and I got my degree. I even threw my electives at useful courses like economics and computer science. After I graduated I worked like crazy to pay down my debts. I basically didn't have a life for most of my 20's. While my former classmates in HS were farking each other, traveling, partying and seeing the world, I was studying and working. Now I'm doing quite well and they're hurting now, but sometimes I wonder if the trade-off was worth it. I don't know. It's trade-off, and I made my choice. I am happily married now and don't regret that part one bit but I gotta be honest; the twenties are a rather precious decade to give up.

Does this make me a bitter, spiteful Fark IndependentTM that thinks others need to get more bootstrappy? NO. We are not effin' cogs. I was socially awkward to begin with so I honestly didn't give up as much as I'd like to believe, but even I wonder if it was worth it. I do NOT think of myself as a farking success story or example of the American dream. I think of myself as everything that's WRONG with it. It's not the work I did, but why I did it. Working hard is fine. I worked because I had unforgivable debts to pay off.

In a fair world, someone who wasn't as dedicated to studying and working should have a lower standard of living than me. But they do already, so why the fark should I be spiteful? Instead, I believe they shouldn't have to suffer the indignity of either working like a dog or face the fear of unemployment and desperate poverty. The most productive people I've met work because they want to work. It may not be fun, but it's possible to make it rewarding. Only sociopathic idiots want to force people to work; it succeeds in making people miserable but they wind up working as little as possible anyway. I'm willing to pay my share if it leads to a job market that isn't all-or-nothing.

THIS

I work in planning for Higher Ed and there are definitely rumblings that we're in a tuition bubble. What's keeping it going though is lack of a viable alternative. What caused the housing bubble is that people had other viable options. WIth Higher Ed, it's not quite the same. The only options are to forego higher ed, go to technical school, start out at a community college or price shop. Price shopping works to a certain extent, but it can't push down prices because all of the big players are already bursting out of their seams and turning away excellent students for lack of room. Community colleges are an excellent decision, but they can't handle the burden of all of the students trying to get in as it is. Going without school is always an option, but lets face it, very few people are going to take that path that weren't already planning on it. Tech schools are definitely a good idea, but again, very few people who want to be engineers are going to choose to be welders because of the cost.

I think we will see prices level off soon though, but not because of traditional bubble collapse forces. Instead, we'll see legislatures capping in-state tuition prices to please the electorate and everyone else having to follow suit to stay competitive, although I could see out-of-state rates rising more rapidly since they are more open to market forces. If you really want to change prices, that's where you start, with the state legislatures instead of the feds.

ParaHandy: It's not a solution, but it's a step in the right direction.

I'm proud to say that while tuition is up to $9,000 a year in England, it's still free in Scotland

Which would mean something, but Oxford and Cambridge are in jolly ol' England, the limey bastards.

senoy: Going without school is always an option, but lets face it, very few people are going to take that path that weren't already planning on it.

Huh?

Sarah Palin's Conscience: senoy: Going without school is always an option, but lets face it, very few people are going to take that path that weren't already planning on it.

Huh?

Completely comprehensible to anyone with command of the English language, the sentence says that one can choose to forgo school entirely, but if something within you has compelled you to go, it's not likely you're just going to sit home if you weren't already planning to do so.

Also, big tits.

senoy: What caused the housing bubble is that people had other viable options. WIth Higher Ed, it's not quite the same.

People needed a place to live, this need was exploited and prices rose and rose. eventually the only way people could buy was with ever increasing amounts of debt. Eventually things got so expensive that the debt could not be serviced.... thus the crash.

The same thing can and looks like it WILL happen in education. At some point folks will say "that'
s too damn much, I can't pay it". People do it with healthcare, with gasoline, with houses and even food.

algrant33: Sarah Palin's Conscience: senoy: Going without school is always an option, but lets face it, very few people are going to take that path that weren't already planning on it.

Huh?

Completely comprehensible to anyone with command of the English language, the sentence says that one can choose to forgo school entirely, but if something within you has compelled you to go, it's not likely you're just going to sit home if you weren't already planning to do so.

Also, big tits.

I suppose maybe in the future. However, it seems to me that a lot of people are putting off higher education because it's too damn expensive.

This guy needs to change his party name and pursue another goal:

Hey I went there!

UC's also very very very great for scholarships. I finished at UC with way less in student loans than my sister will have at her particularly Prominent WV School. Not the Prominent WV School, but one of them. Though I figure that may in part be because I was a commuter student. Still, for a private school that gave me as many opportunities as it did, I consider it totally worth it. I loved how intimate and friendly my degree program was, and my advisers are still valuable sources of feedback for career moves and grad school plan-making.

Now lets hope a sudden influx of students to UC makes Charleston get interesting! :)

Sarah Palin's Conscience: I suppose maybe in the future. However, it seems to me that a lot of people are putting off higher education because it's too damn expensive.

Stupid move, as it's not getting cheaper anytime soon.

Cagey B: The initiatives include a 22% reduction in tuition for incoming freshmen and transfer students for the fall 2012 semester.

The university is guaranteeing that no undergraduate student will pay more than $19,500 for tuition next year.

$40,000 tuition per year to go to school in West Virginia?

*fires pistols in air and does sarcastic Yosemite Sam dance*

Also, DIAF for linking a press release.

Fark links aggregate of story: biatching and moaning
Fark links primary source: biatching and moaning...

If institutes of "higher learning" were held to the same standard as oil companies, banks and health care providers we would have had college and university presidents hauled before congress long ago over the rate of tuition increases.
The OWS crowd would have taken to the streets long before this.

Academia has become one of the biggest scams the tax payer has to endure. Never mind that a person can run up a debt of $35K getting a degree in puppetry why are school resources being wasted in offering such a degree?

hasty ambush: If institutes of "higher learning" were held to the same standard as oil companies, banks and health care providers we would have had college and university presidents hauled before congress long ago over the rate of tuition increases.
The OWS crowd would have taken to the streets long before this.

Academia has become one of the biggest scams the tax payer has to endure. Never mind that a person can run up a debt of $35K getting a degree in puppetry why are school resources being wasted in offering such a degree?

why all the puppet hate?

ikeelyou.jpeg

Tyrone Biggums: I wonder if higher education is the next "bubble".

Have you ever seen a (reputable) college compete on price?

So if they can still make a profit after cutting 22% off of the tuition how long have they been over charging?

Academia is (mostly) a joke. Competition between prof's egos and manipulating data to make it more publishable took all the shiny gleam off of entering that field.

MusicMakeMyHeadPound:

That would be a great idea if OWS wasn't about getting money out of politics.

The outrage is how the 1% are grossly overrepresented in a society that is obstensibly a democratic republic.

One example was how banks facing imminent failure were given a swift bailout but severely indebted young people have no relief.

If a rich person such as Steven Seagall drives a tank through someone's home he is fined. If an OWS protestor looks at a police officer funny they are jailed

From the interviews, signs, and organizations involved, only part of OWS is about getting more out of politics... it is more about getting things more fairly distributed.

The major colleges and universities are part of the 1%. And their behavior is hand in hand with money in politics. They contribute to holding down the 99% by providing a product with no accountability on their behalf and burdens the person with impossible debt. Don't think that colleges and universities aren't lobbying and supporting congress to keep things the way they are.

Folks yell about the banks deliberately putting people in debt by enticing them to take mortgages they cannot afford. Many colleges and universities do the same thing.