Another Funding Cut

SoapyCy

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I'm absolutely convinced there are a large percentage of people that wind up worse off financially having gone to college.

let's not go overboard here. quantify "large percentage". Because, by and large, getting a degree is a huge stepping-stone for the vast majority of people to having a more fruitful financial life. Even after accounting for student loans, the average wages of grads vs non-grads over a lifetime is staggering. The intangible of being able to apply for more jobs is just another benefit. Sure, some kids probably shouldn't have gone to college - but overall a degree is still the one thing that, on average, guarantees a better career.
 

carvers4math

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The cash cow student is my out of state nephew. He will be going into next fall for his sixth year on a four year degree. It isn't difficulty getting into classes, it is having to drop and retake them because it is just hard to find time to study in between video games.
 

3TrueFans

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The cash cow student is my out of state nephew. He will be going into next fall for his sixth year on a four year degree. It isn't difficulty getting into classes, it is having to drop and retake them because it is just hard to find time to study in between video games.
This is a real concern, there's so many good video games out now!
 

cyIclSoneU

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the state of iowa has zero reciprocity with neighboring states

This is correct. However when I was familiar with the process (about five years ago) there were scholarships available to students from surrounding states (Illinois and Minnesota, at least) that made the cost of attendance equal or maybe even somewhat less than what they would pay to go to the big in-state school in Champaign-Urbana or the Twin Cities.

This really made Iowa State competitive and led to it becoming a major destination for Minnesota students in particular.

Full rate for a non-resident at ISU this year is $20,462. The in-state rate at Minnesota is $14,224 and at Illinois it varies but around $16,000. (FYI, Iowa State in-state rate is extremely good here at $7100 for underclassmen. If you are a patient person, it would be smart to move to Iowa after high school and work for a year to establish residency before beginning school at the in-state rate 14-15 months after graduating high school - this could save you as much as $50,000 over four years.) So $4-6K scholarships for these students can instantly make Iowa State not only competitive, but maybe even a better option.
 

cyclone87

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Of the three regent universities, Iowa State has to cut the most, where Iowa, while just a slightly smaller number, is a smaller percent of their overall budget.

Yep ISU definitely getting hit the hardest of the three with the latest proposed cut.
 

Clonefan32

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let's not go overboard here. quantify "large percentage". Because, by and large, getting a degree is a huge stepping-stone for the vast majority of people to having a more fruitful financial life. Even after accounting for student loans, the average wages of grads vs non-grads over a lifetime is staggering. The intangible of being able to apply for more jobs is just another benefit. Sure, some kids probably shouldn't have gone to college - but overall a degree is still the one thing that, on average, guarantees a better career.

I would stop short of saying majority, but I think there are a large number. I know people personally with tens-of-thousands in student loan debt working jobs where they probably didn't even need a degree. They wont make enough money in a lifetime to justify the cost of their degree. I think the growing number of people going to graduate school exacerbates that figure. I know people I went to graduate school with making less than 50K a year, and that's with substantial student loan debt.
 

cyclone87

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The cuts to higher education seem to be a disproportionately high compared to the rest of the state budget. http://www.iowafiscal.org/2012research/120308-IFP-regents.html

120308-Ed-Fig1w.jpg


120308-Ed-Fig3Rw.jpg

Does the Iowa not understand the value the state universities have to the state in terms of both education and the economy? Lots of research and technology transfers to the private market happening at ISU and UI. New business startups in the Research Park enterprises. They are also one of the few things that brings out-of-staters and internationals into the state where they spend money and potentially put down roots.
 
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MeowingCows

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Out of state tuition waivers were very common when I was in school for surrounding states. Has this changed? If not we are not doing as well with OOS students as one might believe
I think that international students are not technically "the same" as out-of-state, so they play by different rules. According to the tuition site, international undergrad tuition costs about $4,000 more per year than out-of-state.

Some say it's stereotypical, but at the same time, this is very frequently observable: Foreign Asian students are often from very, very wealthy families in their home countries. Those students either didn't want to go or couldn't get into universities where they're from, so they pay to come over to U.S. ones instead. (I'm not making this up.)

We also do really well with OOS kids. Example, ISU pulls in a lot of kids from Illinois, because in-state tuition costs the same or even more there than OOS + scholarships does here. Meaning, tuition in Illinois is f***ing unbelievably outrageous. I shared my job with 2 IL kids that explained all of this in great detail to me. I worked with another from MN who was able to establish residency here to help his situation make financial sense.
 
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cyIclSoneU

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I am from MN and did not get any of these scholarships. My five years was about 125k total w room/board. I will not to donate to Iowa State because I lived here 12 months/year during school (so 60 straight months as a "non-resident"), paid income taxes here, got a driver's license here, voted here, worked here, yet somehow wasn't a resident? I bought a house here like 6 months after I graduated and built my family in this state but you're telling me I wasn't a resident. Somehow the minute I got my diploma from ISU I suddenly became a resident? Please.

You have to be in Iowa for 12 months, working at least 20 hours a week, to establish residency. And if your reason for being in Iowa is primarily for educational purposes, you cannot establish residency.

Also I do not know exactly who the MN/IL scholarships are available for but obviously not every applicant. I do know that they are available more than most merit scholarships though, but those are already not very widespread.
 

SoapyCy

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I would stop short of saying majority, but I think there are a large number. I know people personally with tens-of-thousands in student loan debt working jobs where they probably didn't even need a degree. They wont make enough money in a lifetime to justify the cost of their degree. I think the growing number of people going to graduate school exacerbates that figure. I know people I went to graduate school with making less than 50K a year, and that's with substantial student loan debt.

The BLS found that weekly median annual earnings were $652 for a high school grad and $1,066 for a college grad with a bachelor’s degree. Take that times 52 weeks and the annual earnings for a high school grad was $33,904 and $55,432 for a college graduate. Over a lifetime of work that's nearly a million dollar difference. That's the average. Of course there are people making less and more than the average, but no other investment will yield such great returns, on average.

Let's take my 125k of 5 year tuition and room/board (because I was in no rush to graduate). Let's say from day one after HS I made the non-grad average of $33,900. So $33,900 x 5 = $169,500 + $125,000 I spent on tuition and I'm $294k in the hole before my first day of work. Let's also say I make the grad average on day one with no raises and no inflation. $55,400 x 40 years = 2.2million. $33,900 x 40 years (remember we already counted those first five years working) = 1.35 million. 1.35 million + 294 in sunk costs = 1.64 million. So, even with my most basic math, using averages, I'm already over half million more income over a lifetime - and we haven't included things like jobs with better benefits, the ability to relocated easier, etc. It's still a slam-dunk on average.
 

cyIclSoneU

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I would stop short of saying majority, but I think there are a large number. I know people personally with tens-of-thousands in student loan debt working jobs where they probably didn't even need a degree. They wont make enough money in a lifetime to justify the cost of their degree. I think the growing number of people going to graduate school exacerbates that figure. I know people I went to graduate school with making less than 50K a year, and that's with substantial student loan debt.

For many or even most 18-year olds, college is as much about a major life stage that is socially expected as it is about job training.

There are also liberal arts ideas about college being for personal development not linked to job training that some students would subscribe to (though I think the "life stage" idea is more prevalent).

There is just a tremendous amount of social pressure in America for high school graduates to go to college. Maybe this varies in some communities, I don't know. But when I was in high school (in a pretty high socio-economic status school), you were absolutely expected to go to college directly from high school and you would certainly be looked down upon if you did not. The social pressure to attend college is to the level of the pressure to get married. It is an expectation and you are viewed as strange if you don't do it.
 

Judoka

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The cuts to higher education seem to be a disproportionately high compared to the rest of the state budget. http://www.iowafiscal.org/2012research/120308-IFP-regents.html

120308-Ed-Fig1w.jpg


120308-Ed-Fig3Rw.jpg

Does the state not understand the value the state universities have to the state in terms of both education and the economy? Lots of research and technology transfers to the private market happening at ISU and UI. New business startups in the Research Park enterprises. They are also one of the few things that brings out-of-staters and internationals into the state where they spend money and potentially put down roots.

At the risk of caving this, the people in power in the statehouse would rather give individual companies tens of millions of tax breaks than fund higher ed.
 

carvers4math

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I also wonder how the proposed federal budget cuts will affect research funding. It could be a very difficult time for the new ISU president.
 
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carvers4math

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My video gaming out of state nephew pays out of state tuition but did get something equivalent to the same scholarship they give Iowa students with good grades and ACTs, I think it's the presidential scholarship?
 

cyclone87

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International students pay the most and get less aid (no subsidy), while in-state tuition is partially subsidized (due to being state tax payers). If less and less funding is coming from the state should in-state tuition continue to be held artificially low/subsidized?
 

mdk2isu

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The BLS found that weekly median annual earnings were $652 for a high school grad and $1,066 for a college grad with a bachelor’s degree. Take that times 52 weeks and the annual earnings for a high school grad was $33,904 and $55,432 for a college graduate. Over a lifetime of work that's nearly a million dollar difference. That's the average. Of course there are people making less and more than the average, but no other investment will yield such great returns, on average.

Let's take my 125k of 5 year tuition and room/board (because I was in no rush to graduate). Let's say from day one after HS I made the non-grad average of $33,900. So $33,900 x 5 = $169,500 + $125,000 I spent on tuition and I'm $294k in the hole before my first day of work. Let's also say I make the grad average on day one with no raises and no inflation. $55,400 x 40 years = 2.2million. $33,900 x 40 years (remember we already counted those first five years working) = 1.35 million. 1.35 million + 294 in sunk costs = 1.64 million. So, even with my most basic math, using averages, I'm already over half million more income over a lifetime - and we haven't included things like jobs with better benefits, the ability to relocated easier, etc. It's still a slam-dunk on average.

You aren't including the extra 5 years of experience the person not going to college and the raises that come with that. Not to mention the opportunity to start investing in retirement sooner based on wages. I don't think the gap is as big as you want to believe it is.

That's not even getting into the fact that the average starting salary in the DM area for college graduates is less than $30k. (source - friend that works in staffing)
 

carvers4math

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At the risk of caving this, the people in power in the statehouse would rather give individual companies tens of millions of tax breaks than fund higher ed.

Or do things like staff prisons. They haven't been fully staffed for years and it continues to get worse. By the time they gut their benefits, not sure why anyone would even take a job there, the less staffing, the greater chance of being assaulted.