Speaking of expensive college...

[M A V I C]

I know Boeing does "tuition reimbursement" since they're a huge company and they can deduct the cost. But I don't get that luxury.

[$tevie]

Speedy wrote:
[quote=$tevie]
[quote=Speedy]
I paid $4.50/quarter credit hour. Plus fees, etc. At State U in 1968.

And take home pay was like $53 a week for a student working a summer job and earning minimum wage. It's all relative.
I worked construction during the summer and saved well over $1k which was enough to pay tuition and room and board. I don't remember my hourly wage...
It's just that pulling a figure out of the air with no context seems rather pointless. Ground beef was 39 cents a pound when I was in college, but that number by itself is kind of a so what. You need to compare cost per credit with income of the era, in which case we would see that college credit costs have skyrocketed. Otherwise we're just old fartts discussing the days of yore.

[JoeH]

M A V I C wrote:
[quote=freeradical]

Paid for by employers...

So what you're saying is, they can charge that much because people who usually take the class get their employers to pay for it?
University continuing and professional education divisions are major profit centers for them. Most are set up to be semi-independent from the university organization, and in most states any tuition and fees collected for these courses stay with the school. So they will charge whatever the market will bear, usually at tuition rates that have no subsidy from the state and are similar to out-of-state rates. Additional money is made by hiring graduate TA's or adjunct faculty to teach the courses, many regular faculty are not interested in the low amount of additional pay they would get for teaching one.

The income these courses bring to a university makes them very attractive to administrators, enough so that it influences the decision making. I have seen that happen here, this school had a ranking under 300 for both in-state and out-of-state students in the 2011 ROI listings mentioned in an earlier topic. The out-of-state rating has slipped to above 300 for the 2013 version.

[rz]

I've taken a few certifications classes through work. I had to take a Security+ Bootcamp, and a Windows 7 Certified Deployer Bootcamp (or something like that). Both were 4 day classes, lasting about 8 hours each day, minus breaks and lunch. On the 5th day, we took the certification exam. Everything was paid for by my employer. When I took the Win7 exam at the company's HQ, I picked up a brochure. They charge something like $2,500 for these courses! No way would I take any of these courses if they weren't paid for.

I also got my entire Engineering Masters paid for by my employer. Only thing I had to pay for was books.

[Buzz]

$tevie wrote:
[quote=Speedy]
[quote=$tevie]
[quote=Speedy]
I paid $4.50/quarter credit hour. Plus fees, etc. At State U in 1968.

And take home pay was like $53 a week for a student working a summer job and earning minimum wage. It's all relative.
I worked construction during the summer and saved well over $1k which was enough to pay tuition and room and board. I don't remember my hourly wage...
It's just that pulling a figure out of the air with no context seems rather pointless. Ground beef was 39 cents a pound when I was in college, but that number by itself is kind of a so what. You need to compare cost per credit with income of the era, in which case we would see that college credit costs have skyrocketed. Otherwise we're just old fartts discussing the days of yore.
$6.25/quarter credit hour similar vintage at perennial NCAA basketball champion... first "college" job at Mickey D's was $1.75/hr to start... moved up to book bagger at student bookstore for $2.35/hr... by mid 70's while working on masters, tuition had doubled, but by then had scored best student job in rec services for about $6.00/hr... base was $4.83/hr, and I always worked Sundays which was time and half, usually a ten or eleven hour shift, w/ the overage above eight hours at double time, so that helped boost the weekly average. Tuition doubled, student job wages more than tripled. I did have non-student jobs throughout that paid more during yore, but that's the out of context comparison. Yore was good while it lasted. Skyrocket's red glare is no joke; Baby Buzz's hoity toity high school tuition is more in a month than the first five of my nearly seven years of college totaled (month after month after month). His pending college is even downright scarier. Old fartdom, having days of yore to discuss, seems to merely be a reflection on yore's advantages...

///

[M A V I C]

JoeH wrote:
[quote=M A V I C]
[quote=freeradical]

Paid for by employers...

So what you're saying is, they can charge that much because people who usually take the class get their employers to pay for it?
University continuing and professional education divisions are major profit centers for them. Most are set up to be semi-independent from the university organization, and in most states any tuition and fees collected for these courses stay with the school. So they will charge whatever the market will bear, usually at tuition rates that have no subsidy from the state and are similar to out-of-state rates. Additional money is made by hiring graduate TA's or adjunct faculty to teach the courses, many regular faculty are not interested in the low amount of additional pay they would get for teaching one.

The income these courses bring to a university makes them very attractive to administrators, enough so that it influences the decision making. I have seen that happen here, this school had a ranking under 300 for both in-state and out-of-state students in the 2011 ROI listings mentioned in an earlier topic. The out-of-state rating has slipped to above 300 for the 2013 version.
Thanks for the details. I had no idea. Kinda actually hoped it would be like night school for the little guy. Sucks for those who don't have big corporations bankrolling them.

[JoeH]

Some of those "night school for the little guy" operations still exist, but they are getting rare. You might find some associated with junior colleges or community colleges, but it takes hunting around to find them.

[Speedy]

$tevie wrote:
[quote=Speedy]
[quote=$tevie]
[quote=Speedy]
I paid $4.50/quarter credit hour. Plus fees, etc. At State U in 1968.

And take home pay was like $53 a week for a student working a summer job and earning minimum wage. It's all relative.
I worked construction during the summer and saved well over $1k which was enough to pay tuition and room and board. I don't remember my hourly wage...
It's just that pulling a figure out of the air with no context seems rather pointless. Ground beef was 39 cents a pound when I was in college, but that number by itself is kind of a so what. You need to compare cost per credit with income of the era, in which case we would see that college credit costs have skyrocketed. Otherwise we're just old fartts discussing the days of yore.
Well, my first full time permanent job in 1970 paid about $4/hour. No doubt tuition had climbed to $5/quarter credit hour or $7.50/semester credit hour. That's $120 per 16 semester credits, fees and books add another $80 or so. I could make that $200 in fifty hours of work before taxes. (Plus about $500 for room and board.) That $30/hour job will get you $1500 in the same amount of time but it surely will not pay your tuition. Government has chosen not to prioritize the funding of higher education.

[Racer X]

guitarist wrote:
Only 150 of America's 3,500 colleges are worth it. That's about 4%.

A lot has been written about the ballooning tuition bubble.

On the other hand, being President of a University isn't a bad job these days. Averaging half a million $ a year, the pay is quite good!

Highest paid Washington State state employee is Dean of the University of Washington. I think 2 more of the top 5 are Dean of Medicine at UW Hospital, and Head Coach of the football team.

Complete bovine p00p

[Speedy]

Ok, I just looked up my annual pay working a summer job:

1967 $1,7xx (the summer between my junior and senior year of high school, working construction as a union laborer running a No. 2 shovel, a pick and a 6 foot bar.) I saved most of this money.
1968 $2,6xx (same job, lots of overtime)
1969 $1,9xx

I made enough to self-pay for my tuition, fees, books, and room and board to attend Mankato State College as an entering freshman in fall of 1968 ($4.50/quarter credit hour, $300 for room and board/quarter). With money left over for plenty of other things. I lived at home when college was not in session and paid no room and board to my parents.

My state supported higher education back then.

Speedy wrote:
[quote=$tevie]
[quote=Speedy]
[quote=$tevie]
[quote=Speedy]
I paid $4.50/quarter credit hour. Plus fees, etc. At State U in 1968.

And take home pay was like $53 a week for a student working a summer job and earning minimum wage. It's all relative.
I worked construction during the summer and saved well over $1k which was enough to pay tuition and room and board. I don't remember my hourly wage...
It's just that pulling a figure out of the air with no context seems rather pointless. Ground beef was 39 cents a pound when I was in college, but that number by itself is kind of a so what. You need to compare cost per credit with income of the era, in which case we would see that college credit costs have skyrocketed. Otherwise we're just old fartts discussing the days of yore.
Well, my first full time permanent job in 1970 paid about $4/hour. No doubt tuition had climbed to $5/quarter credit hour or $7.50/semester credit hour. That's $120 per 16 semester credits, fees and books add another $80 or so. I could make that $200 in fifty hours of work before taxes. (Plus about $500 for room and board.) That $30/hour job will get you $1500 in the same amount of time but it surely will not pay your tuition. Government has chosen not to prioritize the funding of higher education.