If you think of these entities as plain ol businesses instead of “prestigious colleges”. Then nothing will surprise you.
College used to be very affordable. Before the massive injection of funds from the “student loan bubble”, you could take on a minimum wage summer job and pay for a semester of college and living expenses.
Now, college tuition has far outpaced the cost of living. And subsequent entities (ie, book publishers) are increase the cost of the books part of the courses. A parasite on top of a parasite. I remember older editions of introductory course textbooks cost 10X than the latest edition.
What changed between the latest and oldest? The publisher moved the chapters around. The worst part of it is that the author doesn’t even get paid.
It was at that point, I began pirating every textbook I was forced to buy and shared it with all the classmates at the start of every semester.
Also, college today is less of an institution for learning and more of a 4-yr “experience”. Colleges (private and public) have amenities such as “lazy rivers”, “luxury” dorms, zoos to attract victims to their ~~~scam~~~ institution.
I feel society has oversold the idea of college and looked down upon trades colleges. We honestly need more trades people rather than STEM, doctors, and (especially) lawyers.
If I had to start over, I would probably be an electrician. Maybe plumber. Maybe architect with an emphasis on green/sustainable housing and building practices.
When I was teaching university I made it a point to put all class materials on two-hour reserve at the library, and promised my classes that if those were oversubscribed that I would deposit more copies. (I also made oblique references to alternate methods of acquisition: "ask your nerdiest friend what that means".) That may have contravened the college's contract with Barnes and Noble (I mean, the parenthetical bit definitely did), but fuck them. I served my students' best interests, never anyone else's.
College used to be very affordable. Before the massive injection of funds from the “student loan bubble”, you could take on a minimum wage summer job and pay for a semester of college and living expenses.
Now, college tuition has far outpaced the cost of living. And subsequent entities (ie, book publishers) are increase the cost of the books part of the courses. A parasite on top of a parasite. I remember older editions of introductory course textbooks cost 10X than the latest edition.
What changed between the latest and oldest? The publisher moved the chapters around. The worst part of it is that the author doesn’t even get paid.
It was at that point, I began pirating every textbook I was forced to buy and shared it with all the classmates at the start of every semester.
Also, college today is less of an institution for learning and more of a 4-yr “experience”. Colleges (private and public) have amenities such as “lazy rivers”, “luxury” dorms, zoos to attract victims to their ~~~scam~~~ institution.
I feel society has oversold the idea of college and looked down upon trades colleges. We honestly need more trades people rather than STEM, doctors, and (especially) lawyers.
If I had to start over, I would probably be an electrician. Maybe plumber. Maybe architect with an emphasis on green/sustainable housing and building practices.