No. Tuition only covers a portion of a student's cost to a university. I think it's around 30% at mine.

1) If a class is way over your head the university is wasting money having you there.

2) Having stragglers in the class that are far behind slows down the whole class.

3) Every seat that is filled with a student who is not ready for the class is a seat that can't be filled with a student who could actually pass it.

> Tuition only covers a portion of a student's cost to a university. I think it's around 30% at mine.

Where are you getting that from? Are you just dividing the tuition revenue by the university's budget? Because the university is there for a lot more than educating undergrads.

Most universities aren't primarily focused on research.[1] They are there to educate students. Research does occur at every university, but looking at their research budget as a fraction of their whole budget will show what sort of institution it is.

Even if you subtract the research budget out first you will still arrive at a figure less than 50% for most universities.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnegie_Classification_of_Ins...

edit:

https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=75

> Most universities aren't primarily focused on research.

Where are you getting "many" (rather than "some")? The page you link to discusses colleges in addition to universities, and it's well known that colleges exist primarily to educate students.

> Even if you subtract the research budget out first you will still arrive at a figure less than 50% for most universities.

Where is that numbers coming form?

Universities are composed of colleges in USA. You seem to have more of a 'Canadian' definition, where college means something like "community college" in USA.

I am not using such a definition. I am an American, and I am thinking of American places like Kenyon College, Hamilton College, Harvey Mudd College, Union College, Claremont College, etc., etc.

> Universities are composed of colleges in USA.

This is pretty rare terminology in the US, being mostly found in Ivy league or other old schools. Most "colleges" in the US are independent institutions.

https://studyusa.com/en/a/107/what-is-the-difference-between...

Sorry here is a better source: https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=75

You continue to not back up your claim. That link talks about "all post secondary institutions", not universities. Why don't you just edit your original comment to remove the claim?

I am using statistics that I know to be true about my university (University of Alaska Anchorage). As far as I know UAA is typical for state run universities.

I am having a hard time finding aggregate data online that supports (or contradicts) my claims on a national level beyond what I have already provided. Unfortunately the edit timer has already expired for my comments so I can't delete or alter them. If you can find reliable data that contradicts my claims reply to my root post and I'll be happy to upvote it.

At my university, they would usually let students sit in on any lecture classes they wanted. But students taking classes they aren't qualified for isn't the most efficient use of educational resources

Exactly!