Too little is known about whether money spent on higher education is worth it

Re:Too little is known about whether money spent on higher e... by vacri on Thursday March 26, 2015 @07:29PM (#9273844)

So, here's the crazy thing. Back-of-the-envelope, but it gives a picture. Harvard has 20,000 students, give or take. Plucking a number from the air, let's say that one year of study is $50,000. Across 20,000 students, that's $1B in tuition fees. Harvard's endownment is $36B.

For less than 3% of their endowment, they could give 'free education'. Obviously the whole picture is a little more complex, but it does add some context around funding.

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Re:Too little is known about whether money spent on higher e... by Thriptic on Thursday March 26, 2015 @07:39PM (#9273891)

I can't speak for Harvard, but MIT for example insures that all students who come from families making < 75K attend tuition free.

http://web.mit.edu/facts/tuition.html

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Re:Too little is known about whether money spent on higher e... by guyzero on Thursday March 26, 2015 @07:50PM (#9273932)

I think on a few levels, MIT is not the source of problems in the US university system.

People do not tend to graduate MIT in deep debt and without job prospects.

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Re:Too little is known about whether money spent on higher e... by dollaaron on Thursday March 26, 2015 @07:53PM (#9273943)

Harvard and Princeton both offer no-loan financial aid.

http://admission.princeton.edu/financialaid

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Re:Too little is known about whether money spent on higher e... by vacri on Thursday March 26, 2015 @08:31PM (#9274099)

Interesting. I imagine there's some devil in the details, but taking it on faith, 60% of the students there get no debt. Thanks for the info.

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Re:Too little is known about whether money spent on higher e... by dollaaron on Thursday March 26, 2015 @09:21PM (#9274261)

As a student at Princeton, I know I'd never have been able to attend if it were not for their extremely generous financial aid. Princeton's aid package lowered the total cost to well below the other schools I applied to (mostly New Jersey state schools).

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Re:Too little is known about whether money spent on higher e... by avn2109 on Thursday March 26, 2015 @11:31PM (#9274618)

Harvard (and most of its peer institutions) give ~free education to anyone who can get in and comes from the ~middle class.

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