Yeah and to a captive market too. College textbook sales is one of the most insane rackets I've ever witnessed... "milking the students" is no exaggeration.
I absolutely agree. The whole “college experience” from overpriced textbooks to overpriced dorms is a huge racket. The covid pandemic might really shake things up though if there’s no school starting in the fall though.
I've advised a couple of people looking to go to school to take a gap-year to hedge risk of the schools having their stuff together.
If there's anything I've noticed about higher education after working in/with it, its that they're constantly behind the curve in just about everything that's not sports/research related.
I would be very scared of having a second-rate experience due to a college (and professors) not being prepared for this to the point I would sit a year out and crank out gen-eds at home in already established online programs.
Take this all with a grain of salt... Maybe I'm paranoid, but I just don't see schools being ready for this and having a solid experience ready for new students by fall unless they've already practiced remote learning/class programs.
When I was a sophomore in my undergrad degree one of the professors was habitually late. As we were only meeting 2-3 times a week I calculated the dollar value of that lateness as a part of our tuition. People were not happy.
Hopefully at the end of all this we realize that community colleges can teach the majority of a 4yr degree and even have labs already set up.