|
I just recently graduated with a degree in Civil Engineering from a state school. I have a few observations.
1) We spend way too much money on items which have no real value. College campuses are beautiful. Why? Does it really contribute anything to your education? Sure it is nice, but if you were given am itemized bill for your tuition and there was a line for "Grounds Maintenance and Improvements" for say $1200 a semester, would you feel like scratching it out?
2) Professors are often instructing classes well below their value. I was fortunate to have several well educated Professors who also had a great amount of real world experience to share. This is great for conversation and it does enable them to answer just about any question you may have, but is the University using them best when they are instructing a freshman math or physics class? Would it not be better to have them instruct once per week and have a grad student the remainder of the time? Or even a 'lesser' Professor teach the entire course? It was beneficial to have such great Professors, but I think base level courses could be taught by someone less expensive.
3) Gym/Activities. The activities fee for school was something like $1500 a semester. I would have loved to just eliminate that. I didnt have time for them anyway. I did see the gym once. It was great. On par with the nicest gym you would find out in the real world.
4) Textbooks. Why do Professors insist on a new edition every year? I spent close to $400 a semester on required books (even through Amazon rather than the bookstore) Most of the time the only info that changed was the practice questions in the back. It seemed like they rotated questions every other or every third edition. There is no need for new editions every year. None. Unless you are a PhD student studying the very latest something. At that point, I imagine you would be reading journals and papers instead.
5) New buildings. Wow. I cant believe how many new or newly renovated buildings we had on campus. They were beautiful. Way beyond 'necessary' in my opinion. Im not saying we need concrete buildings with no ac and minimal lighting, but there were definitely areas that could be cut for cost.
6) Cafeteria. Have you been to a campus Cafe lately? Ponderosa on steroids. Anything you want they pretty much had. Most of it was not necessary. Very nice, but not necessary.
So theres my point of view. As far as students not feeling it was fair to pay it back because they didnt have a job? Tough. You didnt understand how much debt you were going to rack up? Really?
|