The Real Reason Why College Costs So Much

Students are back at school — either on campus or online. The debate for accessible or free tuition has increased while the United States weathers through a pandemic and economic crisis. But why is college just so expensive in the United States, especially when the country spends more on college per student than every other country — except Luxembourg? Well, it’s built that way.

#StudentDebt #CollegeTuition

Host & Senior Producer: Sana Saeed
Producer & Editor: Nicholas Garbaty
Executive Producer: Sarah Nasr
Finishing Editor: Corinna Wollmann
Animator: Rachid Mkansi

[professorthread]

That fact that I say I came out of school with "*only* $25 thousand dollars of debt" is disturbing.

[arizonawide]

“Hi Im Sana and Im still in debt” IS LITERALLY THE BEST SENTENCE IN THIS VIDEO

[yoleeisbored]

There's should be no shame with going to a Community college. Community Colleges are amazing. Alot of them also have trade programs, help connect students to get internships, friendly counselors can help find nearby temporary housing, have food pantries for lower income students, and the advisors are well connected to alot of nearby state universities

[ronkirk]

I avoided student debt by attending a community college for my first 2 years which in CA was basically free (back in the day) while living in my camper van and parking at night at a park 'n ride or on the street. No health insurance, of course. I transferred to U.C. Davis and continued my low cost lifestyle living in my van. Not a great college experience, but I earned an engineering degree in 4 years for under $25, 000. which I had in savings so I was debt free at graduation.

[ChillStreamsLive]

The real reason why colleges have not gotten rid of the tuition system: it keeps the poor and lower middle class out of a chance for a degree, which makes the job market LESS competitive and predominantly middle class and upper class white students.

[teresagutierrez]

I think college should be affordable for everyone.

[GIANCARLOCHICA]

That last part where she said “ raise your hand if you wanna get a masters but have to go I to more debt bcuz of it” like OMGGG ME TOOO GIRLL. I wish I so assertive as you 😩😭😭😭 you got it tho 🙏

[dbsk]

Lol I dodged a bullet 😊🙈 graduated from an Ivy with zero debt

What do you expect from a country that doesn’t believe healthcare is a human right 😂😂😂😂

[alve]

There has been a long campaign against blue collar work and vocational education. There are millions of jobs available but the idea of blue collar work to Americans is not attractive. The idea of success is so singular that opportunities in other fields of work are left unexplored. I regret not taking advantage of PAID apprenticeships in high school. I could have had a healthy income after graduating high school and a debt free education.

[Crazea]

Why would anyone even want a second masters degree?

[Morgenstund]

I’m Danish and we have tuition-free colleges and universities. Of course we do, I’m tempted to say. Let me tell you it is great and the US would benefit from it.
One thing I have noticed in the American debate over ‘free college’ is that the opponents seem to think that it means that everyone must go to college. Make sure you don’t let the debate derail.
And while you are at it, implement socialized health care. Maybe, one day, you can be as happy as we are!

[GVvoltaire]

I am smart but I could be smarter, but I refused to be a part of the college cliche. Student loan debt.

[sugarland]

The real reason why college isn't free is because it compete with military enlistment.

[void]

Aid was invented to help low income people get into college, but this in turn meant that there was another revenue stream available for colleges, so they increased prices to capture this money, resulting in overall higher prices than before. Then banks stepped in to profit from these elevated prices by helping people with the remaining personal payments, which elevated them more as yet another revenue source was added. If you look at the actual immediate out of pocket cost of college it has gone down, but the total cost is way up, because that is the way for everyone involved to get as much money per student as possible.

That's "free market capitalism": prices converge to the maximum PROFIT for the service, not the best price for the consumer. Almost no one will charge less than they possibility can for something, and many who do run into trouble as there is a legal requirement to make the most money possible in most cases. The law not only does not take into account public or consumer good, it actively forbids considering it on pain of legal penalty.

It's the capacity paradox: if you make more of something to try to ease a burden, more of that burden will appear. As with roads, if you make more to try to decrees traffic congestion, you increase traffic on these roads and don't end up lowering overall congestion. If you provide more ways to acquire money to make something more affordable, fees will increase to capture as much of the extra money available as possible. Subsides cannot control inflation, as prices will always increase to absorb the subsidies.

[dr.kaustubhsingh]

My Med school costs me 82$ a year here in India 😂😂

[BKFan]

Thousands of dollars are added onto the cost of annual tuition by hiring admins that don't really add any value to a university education or don't justify the extra thousands of dollars per year increase.

[thatcoolkidjoey]

Or you could just go to a community college the Community College next to me cost $3, 600 a year

[randallbelstra]

Personally, I would rather see universities being subsidized to require far more affordable tuitions. If a student can pay their own way into college with summer jobs and part time jobs during the school year, then that would be a more viable option. I would rather see a student with skin in the game by working at the university library or cafeteria, than being fully subsidized and not caring whether they pass or not.

[james_r_clay]

You need to to do better research. The cost of college was close to inflation until about 1992. What happened in 1992 that caused the price of college to begin to skyrocket??? The Higher Education Act of 1992 which created FAFSA was enacted. This basically guaranteed that ANYONE could get a college loan and, of course, colleges realized right away what that meant to them. It meant that they could charge whatever the hell they wanted and the govt would hand out the money to pay for it. There was absolutely no risk to the universities and they could even lower their standards for admission and make a fortune. The government pretty much screws up everything they put their hands on, education, health care, you name it.

[sharkfinn]

[cries in sympathy and free college tuition in my country]