College Graduation: Is the debt worth the party?

Nobody should complain at a party: rejoice with those who rejoice. I love graduations and never understood those who dreaded them. What could be better than seeing students celebrating alma mater and teachers?

Graduation is golden. If you get to go, enjoy. Older schools like Rice here in Texas have beautiful ceremonies.

Here is hoping that your graduation is not dominated by the educrats. In too many places, even Christian schools, the planning and ceremony are dominated by those who did not teach classes. The school is resold with the hope that the party will produce a lasting positive feel in the students graduating.

A good graduation ties the past to the present. A great graduation celebrates education, research, and teaching.

A bad graduation is about the educrat.

Is the administration on display or the teachers? At many smaller schools, graduation is built around the ego of the senior executives instead of the hard working teachers who educated students. Is education and the heritage of the school on display or the present regime?

If graduates got an education, then they should be thankful. However, if they are in a school where only one-third of spending goes to academics and financial aid is built around substantial loans, then the good feelings deflate as fast as a Mylar balloon from Kroeger when the bill comes due.

Thirty years.

Payments larger than for the car.

Many students pay for thirty years so that for four:

1. They could get swankier accommodations.
2. Fancier buildings with no bearing on educational quality.
3. Study in a department with fewer full time professors than their school has vice-presidents.
4. Cuts to the core of education, an increase in part-time professors, and an increase in junkets for administrators.

All to keep a growth machine going. Which means younger siblings should pause before you commit.

Ask your school about the graduates and programs of ten years ago. Ask about what happens after the party:

1. How many graduates became givers after the graduation party? If relatively few, you have learned something. The hangover lasted longer than the party.
2.  How many are still in debt?
3. What has happened with the pre-planned “discount rate?” Has it been going up? If so, beware: this is a tip off to old ways in new times. What is a “discount rate?” Few schools budget on students paying the sticker price. They inflate the price so they can give prizes. Ask what this “discount rate” is. If they will not tell you, do not go. If you are not getting more than the discount rate, your “scholarship”  is fake. It’s just a way of wooing you. Consider other options.  If you are getting less, do not go.
4. What is the growth of administrators at your school compared to full time professors over that decade? If they will not tell you, or do not know, do not go.
5. Did your school raise tuition while cutting core courses over the last decade? If so, then “helping” students came at the very high price of gutting your education. The research shows this is not good for even practical careers, but it is a great way to appear to save students money and look responsive to the “market.” Here is a way to be responsive to the market: cut administrators, invest in professors and not fancy buildings, cut non-educational programs to the bone, increase the size and quality of core requirements.

Don’t borrow any money to go to school, unless the school is a top tier school (top quartile in the US). You do not have to do so. You can transfer units from less expensive options to your dream school. The final diploma will look the same, but you will save thousands. Go part-time and work more. Read some Alex Chediak. If your ideal class size is one-on-one and you hate debt, there is an option.

Never forget that at many schools almost as many people did not graduate as those who did. Those folk borrowed money to get a degree, costs inflated by adminstrative bloat, infrastructure madness, and growth as goal and never got the degree. They sit with tens of thousands of debt and no relief: even bankruptcy does not expunge college debt, only death.

Some schools admit students they can predict have less than a ten percent chance of graduation, spend relatively little to support those students, and then blame the students when they fail. After all, next year there will be new candidates to force into the funnel.

We can do better. Use the money you save being debt free and buy a house, go to Europe, give to charity, or have a huge graduation party. 

Let’s party, but vow that next year tuition will be slashed, part-time professors will become full-time, and education will take up at least half the budget.