[mrangle]

Education is a unique product, which I'd argue warrants favorable loan terms. Ignoring the inability to declare bankruptcy.

Even in non-scam programs, there's sometimes a massive amount of unknowable hazard on the path to a degree. And whether or not the degree is attained, the debt is still due.

In terms of hazard, I don't mean grades. Assume perfect grades. Especially in graduate programs, interpersonal politics can permanently wreck students who then have no effective recourse.

Examples and intricacies of what I'm trying to imply, aside, consider that education is a unique product that costs a lot of money but, in the process of attaining the product, you aren't treated as a customer but as if your position is precarious. Grades aside. Whatever specifics you might imagine, as they would vary, assume that the system is set up to protect the school that is collecting money. Not the person paying it.

Coming back around to my ultimate point about loan terms and risk.

[dml2135]

Add “a global pandemic turning your university experience into Zoom-school with no reduction in tuition” to the list of possible hazards there.

[Sjeiti]

I don't know how intentional your choice of words was, but describing education as a 'product' is a sad reminder of the current state of the world. It's as if every action and experience in life must be translated into money.

[mrangle]

Thank you. I see your point.

Colleges, let alone Universities, used to be much fewer in number.

It used to be more widely known that the better Colleges, that is mostly the Ivy League and the top Liberal Arts colleges, were the only educational institutions that mattered in terms of imparting the vaguer yet more elite type of education of which you are likely thinking.

That is, the institutions who reliably facilitate the fuzzy process of becoming an educated person who can think like one. In the elite sense of these things.

What we've lost to an extent, in the multi-decade long taxpayer funded college degree bonanza, is that it is these elite institutions which are still seen as the only colleges that matter in the sense that I think that you are implying.

Other colleges are not truly valuable in this sense. So what are they good for? They are good for work training and certification pathways.

Universities have no problem charging obscene rates, which is hard cash, for something that they too would like to be only distastefully associated with money when debating the merits.

If it isn't translatable to money, then make it cheaper. Or keep the value firm and high, but also let's talk about what is being sold.