Is this surprising to anyone? Colleges battle each other to provide amenities, loans are easy to come by, and the colleges have nothing to lose when the students default.
I remember my first day of college (in 1993!) and remember part of registering was signing all of these forms where my options were a) take out loans and go to school or b) don't take out loans and don't go to school. I had no idea what it meant to carry debt. As it turns out, I was fortunate to only have $30k of debt and interest rates that eventually went down to 2%. Between then and now, the "all-in" cost of attending my college has increased 200%.
Yes. Most people here who actually post in US college cost discussions seem to think the federal government is still only in the business of guaranteeing loans. As this article indicates, when the federal government is making these loans and owning them from start to finish it changes the dynamics considerably.
> I remember my first day of college (in 1993!) ... I was fortunate to only have $30k of debt
Where did you go? The on-campus sticker price on my state universities (Florida International and Florida Atlantic) was only about $35k (all-in) for the period of 1998-2002 (I didn't have to pay any of it).
Ironically, my state's University ended up being my most expensive option since it was the only school I was accepted to that offered zero scholarships.
Good guess! One has to look at the actual cost of anywhere you go, which will take into account any financial aid. Regardless, that does become part of figuring out if you're getting your money's worth out of your education.
Also students are not yet used to thinking about debt, or how things are paid for really, which means that the whole practice is predatory. Those perks are paid for from imaginary money as far as they're concerned.
I know some trade schools have attempted instead to do a risk sharing model where they are entitled to some fraction of your income for n years after graduation, but I don't think people are comfortable with that, especially at that age. They still imagine they will be millionaires by 32 and that means the school may get several times what you would owe with just normal loans.
Also you'd probably see more people getting paid under the table.
That's kind of surprising. Bachelors, Masters or Phony-Doctor?
"Among borrowers of all ages [1/3 of adults under 30] with outstanding student loan debt, the median self-reported amount owed among those with less than a bachelor’s degree was $10,000 in 2016. Bachelor’s degree holders owed a median of $25,000, while those with a postgraduate degree owed a median of $45,000."
I remember my first day of college (in 1993!) and remember part of registering was signing all of these forms where my options were a) take out loans and go to school or b) don't take out loans and don't go to school. I had no idea what it meant to carry debt. As it turns out, I was fortunate to only have $30k of debt and interest rates that eventually went down to 2%. Between then and now, the "all-in" cost of attending my college has increased 200%.