had fewer resources to help him than O'Reilley's did.
Costs at KU have risen to the point where an in-state student pays about $10,000 per term When my son went here (1998-2002), it was $1100 per term. When I went (1972 graduate), it was about $300 per term.
,
Also, when I went, any credits above the 12-credit "full time" fee came with no extra cost. I would take 22 to 28 credits per semester for the same tuition fee as someone taking just 12 credits! Now a student must pay about $300+ for every single credit. That means one extra 3-credt course adds about $900-$1000 to the price of a semester.
Because I could pile on the free credits, I graduated in fewer terms. Also, during my final semester, I took my last 22 credits as an undergraduate, plus I enrolled simultaneously in graduate school and took 6 credits toward my master's degree, thus reducing by one semester the number of terms I would have to spend in grad school. That semester of grad school did not add a single penny to the $300 cost of my 22-credit final term as an undergrad, which would have cost an added $300 if I had had to pay even the low $30 per credit rate for the 10 extra undergrad credits, plus another $180 for the 6 credits of grad school.
Now, $480 seems cheap, and relatively speaking it is, but $480 was worth a LOT more in 1972 than it is today, so it would be like tacking at least a couple of thousand, or perhaps a few thousand, extra onto the cost of college today.
My son graduated in December of 2002. He had a 50% scholarship, so his tuition costs were just $550 per year. Now, just 11 academic years later, his 50% obligation would be 10 times as much, at $5000+. If he bragged to a graduate of KU 10 years younger than himself about not needing to borrow money to pay for school, I would smack him upside the head, because if we had needed to come up with $5000 instead of $500 each year, we would have had to borrow it. And most kids are not getting 50% scholarships, because those are so rare in this country for people who are just excellent students. He got one because in addition to being an academic superstar, he was the son of 2 KU faculty members and the stepson of a third, and KU's commercial deal with the Coca Cola company included such scholarships for high achieving children of faculty members.
Bizarrely, in our country good athletes (in revenue sports mostly) get full-ride scholarships even if they are functionally illiterate and have no desire to attend college. For them, college serves as the minor leagues to get them into the pro sport of their choice. When my brilliant daughter was given a FULL scholarship to college, it was such a fluke for her to get such funding just for her extraordinary academic and extracurricular record that we all teased her that she was attending college on a "football scholarship."
Her achievements as an undergrad and also in med school, in both of her residencies, as a Fullbright Fellow, and as a double-boarded physician with TWO master's degrees (in public health and in social policy), as well as fluency in two foreign languages and high-level skills as a musician (4 instruments), a vocalist, and an artist (in several different media) would make most countries throw funding her way to take full advantage of her talents and her desire to contribute to society.
But despite graduating from her undergrad college with no debt at all, she now owes well over a quarter MILLION in loans for medical school. So instead of spending weekends working in clinics to provide care for those who cannot usually aafford decent medical care, which is what she *wants* to do, she spends them working 12-hour ER shifts to earn money to pay down her loans so that maybe she can someday afford to buy a house and have a family. At 32, her biological clock is ticking, so she needs to pay the loans down within just a few years to have any hope of having time to get pregnant with the 2 kids she'd like to have.
Other countries subsidize talented students who major in fields that their society needs. For example, I have international students on full scholarship from their countries who are majoring in various engineering fields, as well as many who are going into medical and health care fields--not just future doctors, but also nurses, respiratory therapists, geriatric care specialists, etc. Their societies know they need these smart students' talents and skills, so they subsidize their training to ensure that the students will be free to work for their country, not forced to work only for money to pay down enormous debts.
People complain about doctors' salaries, but they get out of med school with such huge debts that it takes years of working constantly, including moonlighting as my daughter does, to pay off those loans.
My daughter's day job is as the flight surgeon for Virgin Galactic. She earns a nice looking salary. But by the time she pays her taxes and the approximately $4000/month she must pay on her student loans, she has to budget carefully to get by, just like those of us who earn well under the $44,000 national mean (which skews high anyway because of ridiculous CEO and banker salaries, as well as the salaries of entertainment and sports stars).
= new reply since forum marked as read
and then your last two years at an instate university to save money. But even then, I don't think you can pay for your college entirely with a minimum wage (must lower than when he was a young adult adjusted for inflation) side job. And even then, its nearly impossible for a 18-22 to get a job in many areas. The unemployment rate at that age, especially for people of color, is insane. Comments like this prove O'reilly just doesn't get it. I don't see how anyone goes to college today without grants - loans - tax payer assistance, unless they have family support.
