Demand For American Degrees Has Already Hit Covid-Era Lows (economist.com) 203
International interest in American higher education has plummeted to levels not seen since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new data tracking prospective student behavior online. Studyportals, which operates a global directory of degree programs, reports that clicks on American university courses have reached their lowest point since the early pandemic period.
Weekly page views of US university courses halved between January 5th and the end of April. First-quarter traffic to American undergraduate and master's degree programs fell more than 20% compared to the same period last year, while interest in PhD programs dropped by one-third. India, which supplies nearly a third of America's international students, showed the steepest decline at 40%. The data suggests British universities would be the primary beneficiaries of students looking elsewhere.
The sharp drop in interest follows the Trump administration's escalating restrictions on international students, including stripping Harvard University of its enrollment authority on May 22nd and suspending all new student visa interviews on May 27th. International students contributed $43.8 billion to the American economy during the 2023-24 academic year, with about three-quarters of international PhD students indicating they plan to remain in the country after graduation.
Weekly page views of US university courses halved between January 5th and the end of April. First-quarter traffic to American undergraduate and master's degree programs fell more than 20% compared to the same period last year, while interest in PhD programs dropped by one-third. India, which supplies nearly a third of America's international students, showed the steepest decline at 40%. The data suggests British universities would be the primary beneficiaries of students looking elsewhere.
The sharp drop in interest follows the Trump administration's escalating restrictions on international students, including stripping Harvard University of its enrollment authority on May 22nd and suspending all new student visa interviews on May 27th. International students contributed $43.8 billion to the American economy during the 2023-24 academic year, with about three-quarters of international PhD students indicating they plan to remain in the country after graduation.
We are seeing the death of an empire (Score:5, Insightful)
This is just one more indicator. An all ot took was greed and stupidity.
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When the active hostility is gone, the enrollment will increase again. The gross value of the system still exists.
The sky is not falling. Stop being stupid.
Re:We are seeing the death of an empire (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, the system may become less hostile in the future, but I don't know that the rebound will be as fast as you imply. Universities are currently shutting down research labs as their grants are pulled. Professors, researchers, and scientists may have to look elsewhere for work and that may include either Industry or other countries that are willing to still invest in science and research. Without those STEM professionals, the desire to study at a University under their mentorship decreases. When we suddenly become "friendly" again to foreign students and researchers, will there be attractive opportunities for them to seek out at those universities?
There was a time where the United States was actively trying to recruit bright and creative STEM individuals from all over the world to do work here. Now we're actively fostering a climate that pushes them elsewhere...are we really going to wonder then in 5 years why China, or France, or India is making scientific or technological advancements that we're missing out on?
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The rebound might not happen as well. Those professors may have decided to make a new life less affected by the whims of the government - they may leave the country. Canada, for example is attracting many of those students and professors and other professionals. The EU is trying to attract same as well.
Those people may not return to the US once they move - either too much trouble, or the recovery isn't happening fast enough and they're going to hang around for a bit.
Once those grants are lost, re-instating
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Now we're actively fostering a climate that pushes them elsewhere...are we really going to wonder then in 5 years why China, or France, or India is making scientific or technological advancements that we're missing out on?
Going to take them a lot more than 5 years to surpass our momentum.
But like I said- the gross value of the system remains.
Part of the value of the system will return and part is gone forever. The funding and programs will likely return. However, there will forever be a lingering doubt about the return of anti-immigrant policies, and that will impact some people as they consider their future.
There has always been anti-non-white racism in the US even before Trump, but much of that has been latent. It took 50 years since Woodrow Wilson embraced white supremacy for the effects to begin to be peeled back.
Re:We are seeing the death of an empire (Score:4, Interesting)
Part of the value of the system will return and part is gone forever. The funding and programs will likely return. However, there will forever be a lingering doubt about the return of anti-immigrant policies, and that will impact some people as they consider their future.
Nonsense. There is no historical precedent for this, whatsoever.
There has always been anti-non-white racism in the US even before Trump, but much of that has been latent. It took 50 years since Woodrow Wilson embraced white supremacy for the effects to begin to be peeled back.
Latent?
Do I need to make a list of exclusion acts and other anti-immigrant laws in the US on a timeline?
We are so much better than we ever have been- that is true. However, our success isn't some kind of new thing that happened since the significant reduction in systemic racism.
I'm not here to argue that there weren't societal costs to white supremacy, but the US was a global economic superpower and educational superpower long before significant momentum against peeling back white supremacy even occurred.
Seriously, I feel where you're coming from. But it's divorced from history.
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Re:We are seeing the death of an empire (Score:5, Informative)
Your are currently fucked already. And while Trumpism is so obviouly (at least now) a bad idea, and likely will not last, un-fucking the US will take decades and may be impossible.
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Considering the far larger captive markets, the higher availability of capital, fewer regulations and an abundance of natural resources, it is telling that the USA outperformed Germany merely by a relatively small margin even at the best of times. And this is the reason why your reaction is so angry - denial is not just a river in Egypt.
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it is telling that the USA outperformed Germany merely by a relatively small margin even at the best of times.
52% on a per-capita basis is a relatively small margin?
denial is not just a river in Egypt.
Couldn't have said it better myself, lol.
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Rather, you're in a dark place because of where we're at- and I don't blame you for that- but you're letting it impact your ability to reason, and that's unfortunate.
Let's address your points, though.
1) The US was the leading economic and educational power in the world before the USD became the "Global reserve currency".
2) The US' status as the "Global reserve currency" isn't seriously in threat any time soon, simply numerically s
Re:We are seeing the death of an empire (Score:5, Insightful)
However, start reading about economic shocks of the 20th century, and you'll see we don't have a whole hell of a lot to worry about,
Tell that to the British "empire". The problems the United States face are not "economic shocks". They are the problems of a fading empire that is focused on its past glory instead of the future. Our ruling elite isn't focused on building a better world, its focused on keeping what its got. China is the 19th century version of the United States and the United States is the 20th century version of Britain. If you 20 years old and are looking to build your future, which one do you want to ally yourself with.
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Tell that to the British "empire".
The British Empire was an empire. The United States is not.
The United States is the third most populous country on the planet.
The British Empire was always outliving its capacity. It required its colonial holdings to make itself wealthy. The United States was wealthier than the British Empire nearly half a century before it collapsed.
China is the 17th century version of the United States. The United States is the never-comparable-to-Britain Britain, because Britain was never a world economic superpower
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if Trumpism survives- ya, we're fucked. But no, I do not think it will.
Half the American people support it. I don't expect it will disappear any time soon.
I think a large part of the value of an American degree was the relationships built with a powerful empire. Those relationships translated into real value even if one didn't remain in the United States. As the leader of the European west, the United States gave people access to power and influence around the globe. BUt the place of European culture in the world is diminishing.
Instead we are seeing the rise of Southeast Asia
Re: We are seeing the death of an empire (Score:2)
They would only give up power to the next elite, the Cardassians. With a K.
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"When the active hostility is gone, the enrollment will increase again. The gross value of the system still exists.
The sky is not falling."
Sounds like the sky falling to me. If we had some shortage of students or labor and each of these students didn't represent someone taking one of the limited domestic roles it might be different but that is exactly the case. The schools get wealthy offering fast track masters programs as a VISA entry scam to dilute the STEM market domestically. There is far more economic
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If yes, fuck off. I like money, and I don't give a fuck about racial or cultural purity. You're the sky that is falling, you fascist fuck.
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If STEM sector growth were limited by birthrate we wouldn't have 11 million STEM graduates who can't get jobs with their degrees and the luxury of agism against everyone who hits 40. But we do because it isn't. Screw racial and cultural purity but YES, I am on team USA and that doesn't mean the political entity but the interests of US citizens. If you aren't, then screw you too.
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STEM as a field is limited by the amount of people they can get. There will always be a percentage of people with degrees that suck. This happens for international, and domestic people.
Posted jobs outpace graduates by 4 orders of magnitude.
Trying to further limit the growth to remove ageism might be a good policy for people who are aging out (I'm in my 40s now, so I'm highly cognizant of this) but it's obviously not a good policy for
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"Trying to further limit the growth to remove ageism"
Limiting the growth OF THE LABOR POOL, not technology. Paying proven and experienced staff rather than importing a fresh batch of nimwits whose only commonality is daddy could buy their way into tech via university backdoor fastrack visa scams is not good for the advancement of STEM/TECH even if it is beneficial to industry. It certainly isn't good for the United States.
"Posted jobs outpace graduates by 4 orders of magnitude."
Domestic hires of US citizens
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Domestic hires of US citizens don't keep pace with layoffs
This is a lie.
STEM employment growth occurs at double, or near double digit rates. Around a third of them are immigrants.
You're trying to pull some 1+1=3 bullshit, right here.
You're also conflating STEM education with necessary skills.
A STEM education does not guarantee that you have the skills an employer requires.
You seem to think we exist in a world where STEM employees are hired for their piece of paper, and nothing else. As someone who hires in this field, I assure you- nothing could be further
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You have set global and domestic records on disapproval, lol.
Maybe you guys can try again in another 100 years.
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When the active hostility is gone, the enrollment will increase again.
German universities were once the world leaders in physics research and social sciences. Then the Nazis happened, and the German university system never recovered.
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Nobody is anywhere close to competing with us for research funding. Were that not the case, I'd expect a different outcome.
It will take a lot more than a single presidency to destroy the system enough to bring it down to the level of its competitors.
Right now, people aren't enrolling, because they don't want to be fucking arrested on campus and
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Nobody is anywhere close to competing with us for research funding. Were that not the case, I'd expect a different outcome.
The US government spends about $60 billion on academic research, and China spends almost $40 billion. So China is definitely close to the US already, and that is before Trump and DOGE trying hard to close the gap even further.
Right now, people aren't enrolling, because they don't want to be fucking arrested on campus and deported. Hard to blame them.
But they still want to. They still want to so much that there hasn't even been a large reduction in enrollment- i.e., crazy bastards are still taking the risk.
These students want to come to study in the US mostly due to the possibility of staying afterwards to hopefully prosper in the US economic system. There are other reputable universities in the world, but none have the allure of the American dream. Trump is destroying the dream in the m
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The US government spends about $60 billion on academic research, and China spends almost $40 billion. So China is definitely close to the US already, and that is before Trump and DOGE trying hard to close the gap even further.
You seemed to have turned a comparison of education systems (which are nearly entirely divorced from the US federal government) into a comparison of Government research spending?
55% of Academic Research in the US is funded by the Government- so they matter- for sure. But only about half.
These students want to come to study in the US mostly due to the possibility of staying afterwards to hopefully prosper in the US economic system. There are other reputable universities in the world, but none have the allure of the American dream. Trump is destroying the dream in the minds of many of these young people. It remains to be seen how lingering the Trump destruction is the dream will be.
Of course!
It's the other part of the equation.
Not only leading the world in academic research, we lead the world in post-graduate research as well, and by a simply silly margin. And that research prefers US degrees.
It remains to be seen how lingering the Trump destruction is the dream will be.
It do
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Yes, Cambridge and Oxford have a reputation equal to that of the top US universities, and obviously the UK also has the Anglophone thing going on, and the time zone differences are a bit better for quite a lot of the world. The UK hasn’t been able to match the US for economic potential in the past, but it’s not bad. So the competition is pretty real. (The history and architecture are quite helpful too. Being at Clare and going through Old Court every day or walking over the Bridge of Sighs at Jo
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I'd say that Oxford does offer stiff competition in the face of current US problems, but ultimately, you guys lose on the scale factor, as nature demands you must.
Oxford can't outcompete the US. Where you have a couple of highly rated schools, we have.... well, most of the list.
And I don't mean this as any kind of criticism of the UK, even
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Your understanding of the top global universities is only backed by one of the four most highly regarded rankings (USNWR):
https://www.topuniversities.co... [topuniversities.com]
https://www.timeshighereducati... [timeshighereducation.com]
https://www.shanghairanking.co... [shanghairanking.com]
https://www.usnews.com/educati... [usnews.com]
Cambridge and Imperial are right up there with Oxford, Harvard, MIT and Princeton.
The scale point is true, but unimportant for each institution in itself, and in some ways an advantage for the UK as a whole in this situation. From our perspective, just a net
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The point scale was just a technicality, even here in the US, we don't really draw a "prestige" distinction between say, Harvard, and Oxford.
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Nobody is anywhere close to competing with us for research funding.
Well yes. As long as you can pay people to be students you will find people to hire. The quality of those "students" is a different question. And as the money flows to China, it will catch up on the pay scale. But why would anyone continue to fund research in the United States when they can get better students for less money elsewhere?
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But why would anyone continue to fund research in the United States when they can get better students for less money elsewhere?
Because the overwhelming majority of US research funding comes from within the US. Next dumb question.
We're the third most populous, and richest country on the planet.
China is decades out from being able to match us on domestic research funding, and frankly- the rest of the world isn't going to divert their investment dollars there, because they're not insane. They're going to divert them inward, because they're smart. The US will remain on top for this reason, until China eventually eclipses us, and then
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Easily observed reality begs to differ.
Also: denouncing genocide != support for terrorists. You fucking bootlicker.
Re: We are seeing the death of an empire (Score:2)
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The German university stystem is actually pretty good and basically recovered. But it took half a century.
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It, however, cannot come close to competing with the endowments of the US system.
If you're looking to do science, you come to the US.
That will continue to be the case until Germany's research expenditures expand by oh, 700% or so.
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The German university stystem is actually pretty good and basically recovered. But it took half a century.
The German universities, students, and professors are very good. In one sense they have recovered on an absolute level. However, they have never come close to recovering their worldwide stature as the leading universities in the world.
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However, they have never come close to recovering their worldwide stature as the leading universities in the world.
That's because they're not- and that has nothing to do with what happened in the 30s and 40s, except that they stopped being a world economic and educational leader in terms of spending and focus.
Other countries surpassed them.
The US is not at risk of being surpassed at this juncture. We will, of course, be eclipsed by China at some point, and this will undoubtedly speed that up, but it's still decades out at best, regardless of this blip.
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The university popularity is a self-reinforcing effect, but if you interrupt it, it can just disappear.
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What we're seeing is a predictable drop in foreign enrollment in a system that is currently actively hostile to foreign enrollment. When the active hostility is gone, the enrollment will increase again. The gross value of the system still exists. The sky is not falling. Stop being stupid.
The sky may not be falling, but from a foreign perspective, the support system that's held the sky in place for as long as can be remembered is now shaky and unreliable, because it's been shown, for the first time, to be able to be yank away at a whim. This is not a short-term blip we're witnessing. The repercussions will reverberate for more than the time it takes to replace the current administration. If the assumption is that we're going to see-saw between reliable and unpredictably chaotic, we're going
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The sky may not be falling, but from a foreign perspective, the support system that's held the sky in place for as long as can be remembered is now shaky and unreliable, because it's been shown, for the first time, to be able to be yank away at a whim.
Not the first time by any means.
This is not a short-term blip we're witnessing. The repercussions will reverberate for more than the time it takes to replace the current administration.
No, it won't. The world doesn't work that way. Never has.
If the assumption is that we're going to see-saw between reliable and unpredictably chaotic, we're going to lose interest from the rest of the world.
LOL. Were even that true, the world would be a better place. But it's not.
Not just when it comes to education, but also with business partnerships.
It took a matter of weeks for capitalism to adapt to Trump's chaos and make money off of it. We even have a new name for a type of stock trade: A TACO trade.
Businesses are in it to make money. They don't walk away for ideological reasons.
The very minute the wall fell, money *flooded* into Russia. The minute the new wall falls, it will again.
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What we're seeing is a predictable drop in foreign enrollment in a system that is currently actively hostile to foreign enrollment.
When the active hostility is gone, the enrollment will increase again.
Hahaha, no. That drop in enrollment is very likely permanent and will get worse. You overlook that people that want to study in the US do so because if its reputation (now down the drains), the good economic numbers (a thing of the past) and recomendations by others that have done it (now not applicable anymore because the situation has changed). Once the emporer has seen to be nude, that little problem cannot easily be unseen anymore.
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You have this erotic fantasy of the collapse of the US, and you're doing your best to manifest it as real in your headspace. It is, however, entirely divorced from reality.
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When the active hostility is gone, the enrollment will increase again
Other countries are actively building their own colleges & universities and many now rival the quality of the top universities in the U.S. Even if the hostility decreases and some $$ returns, the U.S. will never again see the same number of international students. Which is a net negative for the U.S., as in the past it meant many of the world's brightest and hardest working came to college in the U.S. and then stayed here to have great careers. Without college as the attraction, they'll never come.
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That research in the US prefers US degrees.
It really is just that simple.
Meaning,
Even if the hostility decreases and some $$ returns, the U.S. will never again see the same number of international students.
Yes, it will.
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International student numbers were already substantially down, particularly from China, and that was even before COVID (which was a big hit and there's been some recovery but still below pre-COVID numbers),
Don't know about "from China", however, that statement without that caveat is flatly false.
F1 visas issued hit pre-COVID levels by 2022, and that was even with a record rejection rate of 34%.
i.e., the demand is there.
I'm not arguing that great institutions don't exist in everyone's country- I'm not an ethnocentrist or a racist. But it is a simple fact that there are far, far more research dollars here, and most of the globally highest rated universities.
No one ever "needed" the US. They want the US, a
Re: We are seeing the death of an empire (Score:2)
"When the active hostility is gone, the enrollment will increase again. The gross value of the system still exists."
No, some of that value has been destroyed by our making it clear that this nation does not work by rule of law. Justice delayed is justice denied, the delay is apparently months to years or longer, and no one wants to spend that time in a foreign gulag.
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No, some of that value has been destroyed by our making it clear that this nation does not work by rule of law. Justice delayed is justice denied, the delay is apparently months to years or longer, and no one wants to spend that time in a foreign gulag.
If so, it would be the first time in the history of the world that such a thing happened.
My money is on it not. Money simply isn't that scrupulous. It's happy to forgive.
You act like this is our first foray into anti-immigrant government action and mass detainment of people who are even foreign-adjacent.
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You act like this is our first foray into anti-immigrant government action and mass detainment of people who are even foreign-adjacent.
There used to be more tolerance of that sort of thing. The last time we put people in camps without due process there was also a war going on, so one could get away with a lot more in general... things which are now explicitly illegal even in wartime pretty much everywhere, by the way.
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Especially since higher education is one place where the US economy had a giant trade surplus. Good thing we fixed that!
My country is being run by absolute morons, who are working against their own desires through ineptitude and incompetence.
Re: We are seeing the death of an empire (Score:2)
Now it's more like a 600lbs angry banker that is out to eat everyone else's lunch.
During this time I see some in the US cheer it all on because "fuck you I got mine" and "woke BS is dead"...thunderous applause?
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This is *such* a weirdo fantasy you guys have. As a reminder, people suffer violent deaths at a wildly higher rate than in the US than in the UK, because you shoot each other all the fucking time, and we don’t. As for Pakistani rape gangs. You put a rapist in charge of your country, you nasty little prick. And you have a corpse on life support for the sole purpose of giving birth to a doomed baby in furtherance of Christofascism.
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However, for all of its problems, let's not act like we're Mogadishu. Our violent death rate is 57 per million people.
While I'd prefer it were more like ~10 the UK has, it's not like the streets are filling with bodies or something.
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For sure. Where it kicks in, for me, is the obscenity that is needing to have active shooter drills. That alone rules out my ever considering a move to the US. No way I’d have subjected my kids to that.
On a vaguely related topic, this was a rather sweet and uplifting documentary about a school exchange between a rural Arkansas school and a school in South London.
https://youtu.be/NWcaIQUXIVA?s... [youtu.be]
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No way I’d have subjected my kids to that.
I agree with you entirely, here. I'm an American, and that's part of my factorization for not having kids.
Come to our American Universities (Score:5, Funny)
Beautiful campuses. Friendly border agents. Widely accepted level of gun violence. Nearly one toilet per 175 detainees in our extra-judicial detention centers.
The rest of the world (Score:5, Funny)
uses Celcius degrees.
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So do american universities.
Re:The rest of the world (Score:4, Informative)
It was just a joke on "American degrees".
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While America uses Swedish degrees?
(Checks Anders Fahrenheitâ(TM)s nationality. Daniel [wikipedia.org] was "born in Poland to a family of German extraction", "sent [him] to a four-year merchant trade apprenticeship in Amsterdam", "[] began a period of travel through the Holy Roman Empire, Sweden, and Denmark in 1707" where he started getting influence as a thermometer-maker.
A regular little hot-footed internationalist. Definitely not the sort of person the foreseeable future's American governments are going to want to
Prepare for tuitions and subsidies to skyrocket (Score:5, Insightful)
International students are how most universities balance the books.
They are not subsidized in any way - in fact international students pay 2x, 3x, sometimes 5x the tuition of domestic students.
INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS FUND UNIVERSITIES. FULL STOP.
There are only 2 possible alternatives
- Dramatically raise tuition for domestic students to cover the shortfalls
- Get more grants and government handouts from taxpayers.
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- Reduce overhead expenses.
Most colleges have far more people in non-classroom jobs than in classroom jobs. The vast majority of these jobs could go away at no reduction in student EDUCATIONAL services. We know this is true because in the 1970s and 1980s colleges operated on bureaucracies 1/10th the size of today's.
Re:Prepare for tuitions and subsidies to skyrocket (Score:5, Insightful)
How many illegal people do you think are enrolled in colleges? I’m going to wager about as many Haitians eating fido for dinner tonight.
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Tangential issue: the number of _fake_ people enrolled in colleges is at an all-time high. Professors are saying 30% of their enrollees are no-shows, and their classes are under-attended from day-one. The fake enrollees are nation-state actors scamming the system and disappearing with whatever financial aid they can gets their hands on.
Re: Prepare for tuitions and subsidies to skyrocke (Score:2)
The difference is money.
We already knew you value nothing else.
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At least fifty of the people that US sent to CECOT were here legally.
The people being deported after they went to their hearings were here legally. Then their status was arbitrarily changed, and they were arrested.
Stephen Miller doesn't give a shit about legal status, and he's the one setting the quotas.
Your sociopathic posts here on /. about shooting people in the head will not protect you or her.
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Hardly. Tuition fees and similar are between a fifth and a third of what a good school makes money from. Most money are from certifications, research and subsidies.
NO ONE WILL BELIEVE YOU, UNLESS YOU USE ALL CAPS
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Hardly. Tuition fees and similar are between a fifth and a third of what a good school makes money from. Most money are from certifications, research and subsidies.
The percentage of income from tuition varies across universities. For universities with a huge endowment, like Harvard, income from tuition is close to zero. For most other universities, the percentage is much higher. For example, for Northeastern University, tuition payments constitute around 70% of the budget.
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Yea, we can teach people how to wrench on an AI. Real growth industry there.
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If higher education is not useful, why freak out over foreigners getting it?
Re: Prepare for tuitions and subsidies to skyrocke (Score:2)
Electrician and plumber are dangerous jobs. The former could kill you quickly and the latter could kill you slowly. Also, speaking from experience here, plumbing is often fucking terrible.
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Monopolism and cartel behavior tend to drive costs way up. It's a case where corporate freedom needs to be restricted in order to ensure individual freedom (or, more directly, an individual's ability to earn a livable wage without grinding to death).
So I don't think any position of the form "it's expensive here because we are so great" really makes sense. It's expensive here because our government isn't enforcing its laws (specifically, the ones designed to bust trusts and punish anticompetitive behavior)
Monopolism and cartel behavior is real (Score:2)
The number of publicly listed companies has dropped from 5,500 in 2000 to about 4,000 in 2020. And we have about 1,000,000 fewer companies (according to IRS data) since the 1986 Tax Reform Act. The consolidation of industry is real. Consumers not only have fewer choices, but investors as well. We're on a downhill slide to total corporate hegemony.
The US government, US law enforcement, the US military, and a significant portion of our institutions serve the demands of capital and corporations. The cops don't
Re: Monopolism and cartel behavior is real (Score:2)
I enjoy the fact that you didn't use the word democracy, that shows some connection to reality.
But by the same token it's not "our" Republic. We plebes belong to it and not the other way around. It belongs to racially privileged capitalists, meaning the ones who own the investment capital. If we try to leave we have to ask permission and we still have to pay taxes even after we do. It also remains legal to enslave anyone convicted of a crime. We are not citizens. We are property.
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But hey, our gasoline is cheaper than Europe's thanks to us spending tax dollars on oil company subsidies instead of public schools. So much winning that I'm tired of it!
Tuition costs 75,000 dollars. For that money, I can buy enough of the expensive European gasoline to drive 1,000,000 kilometers (or 620,000 expensive U.S. miles). How many of you drive 620,000 kilometers in their lifetime? (And I have two children. At age 54, I have driven about 250,000 miles so far in my life. I would have to be at 600,000 miles right now to break even on oil vs. tuition cost.)
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I agree with your point. But just want to note that I usually get a new car when the old one starts getting around 200k-250k miles.
Driving only 30kmiles/year for over 30 years got me past million lifetime miles. 75 mile commutes are not so unusual in this country, that's 20kmiles/year. Plus the extra miles for weekend and vacation travel.
(I intentionally used the unit "kmiles" to get a rise out of people - enjoy!)
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At age 54, I have driven about 250,000 miles so far in my life.
I have a 25 year old car I've owned since new, and it's got 220k US miles on it all by itself. I expect the engine to last until at least 375k miles. Of the five others I've owned most were around for roughly 80 - 110k each before I flipped 'em. Since pickup trucks have gotten stupid expensive, my most recent is used, and I've put about 25k miles on it in 6 years.
So I'm pushing almost 700k miles and I'm only a year or two older than you. It's about the trips you take and your regular commute. I've spent
Re: Prepare for tuitions and subsidies to skyrocke (Score:2)
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The real problem is college prices (Score:2, Interesting)
If universities would do cost reductions and actually focus on providing education instead of a lifestyle then maybe more people would engage in it. Most of the rising costs is student services and administration: https://higheredstrategy.com/a... [higheredstrategy.com]
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Foreign enrollment has been a huge driver of demand in Universities, probably second only to the ridiculously simple access to student loans making it just too easy to pay for college you can't afford. With foreign enrollment going down and the recent crackdown on student loans, that should drive demand down an
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You don't think that people choose not to go to college/university because of cost? Surely cost has nothing to do with enrollment. Any good/service has a supply demand curve.
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The problem is student loans being so simple and easy to acquire alters the buyer (the student)'s perception of cost. It seems free; I'll pay it off later once I get a good job, no big deal. As a result they cannot make a rational decision because they do not feel the effect of handing over the money; the loan is an ephemeral thing the
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If universities would do cost reductions and actually focus on providing education instead of a lifestyle then maybe more people would engage in it.
No. Students are choosing their university based on those amenities. They want the "college experience". Most don't care about the education -just about living the life, getting the degree, and moving on.
Of course, it is different for foreign students. They do not get any state or federal subsidies. They pay 2-5 times as much as domestic or in-state students. They do not qualify for federally subsidized loans. Their families are bearing the full cost of sending them to America to study. They are her
Trump University! (Score:2)
Harvard can enroll students (Score:2)
Re:Harvard can enroll students (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, FWIW, an adjudicated rapist, obvious con-man, and florid dementia patient got a plurality of the popular vote, so how good can the American education system pretend to be?
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Also, FWIW, an adjudicated rapist, obvious con-man, and florid dementia patient got a plurality of the popular vote, so how good can the American education system pretend to be?
You're assuming that Republics elect the most qualified person to lead the country. In all of the history of democracy or republics going back to Ancient Greece, that hasn't once been true.
Musk and Trump are learning... (Score:3, Informative)
MAGAts (Score:4, Insightful)
The same people saying higher education is useless, are the ones saying we shouldn't get paid to provide it to foreigners because that puts them at an advantage.
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"dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America." -Leon Musk
Bad metrics? (Score:2)
I don't know about page views and whatever but more kids than ever are applying to college and the rejection/waitlisting drama is at a fever pitch, the highest number of applicants being last year in 2024, at a level 2x of what it was 10 years before.
Thanks, Republicans (Score:5, Interesting)
It's almost as if (Score:5, Interesting)
Trump is systematically attacking the US on purpose. Everywhere US projects influence within reach of Trump is being systematically eroded. USAID, VoA, universities. It would not surprise me to learn he was being paid in memecoin to disarm the US in favor of hostile foreign interests.
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Oh really, that'll lower costs huh? hey why don't we do that with everything else? Like make cars cheaper by forbidding GM, Ford, and Tesla etc.from exporting. Same thing with GPUs, computers, pharmaceuticals. Just ban all exporting. Think of how cheap everything will be! Ban exports.
Fucking idiot.
Your hatred of foreigners which far exceeds your love of Americans has blinded you.
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Why would universities drop costs? Foreign students pay many times what domestic students pay for tuition. With less foreign students there will be a shortfall in money brought in that will result in a need to increase tuition for domestic students, not decrease.