11/29/2005

Possible Increase in Tuition Costs?

Some colleges are beginning to place an 'excess credit' surcharge to students that take over 135 credits for a bachelor’s degree. The reason this is happening, with I have experienced first hand is stated to be the fact that many freshman students do not enter into college with a degree in mind. So many students change majors 2 to 3 time’s through out their college experience. The other factor is people whom transfer from one institution to another are loosing credits and having to fulfill different requirements. Personally, I feel the education system should have one standard no matter the state or the facility therefore following the same requirements. Theses all lead to an increased amount of classes that students have to complete. If believe that if students had more guidance upon entering college they wouldn’t have this problem, I know that if I would have had some direction I would be a semester closer than I am now.

3 comments:

Dr. Tufte said...

-1 on Tyler's post for spelling errors.

-1 on Nate's comment for punctuation errors.

To give you some inside perspective on this, excess credit charges exist for the same reason that there are deductibles on insurance - it makes you stop and think before proceeding. Advisors can tell you lots of stories about students taking extra credits because they didn't seek or listen to advice.

Nate's point is well taken. But because state schools are subsidized, they are essentially offering college educations at 80% off the list price. Sales like that cause people to buy a lot of dumb stuff, and that shows up in colleges that are bloated with students who linger for too long.

Matthew said...

Dr. Tufte said that sales (a college education at 80% off) cause people to buy dumb stuff, but isn't an education one of the best investments one can make?

Dr. Tufte said...

Ummm ... no. The returns on college education are routinely overrated. It's not a bad thing to do, but we do do too much of it.