A $10,000 Stanford Degree
by Sanjay Saraf
Several months ago Republican presidential contender Rick Perry made a startling suggestion to state administrators: “I’m challenging our institutions of higher education to develop bachelor’s degrees that cost no more than $10,000.” At Stanford we pay about that much for housing in a year, but before we hastily dismiss the idea, let’s examine the possibilities.
The benefits of a seemingly mythical $10,000 education are obvious. Currently American unemployment numbers are around 9.2% — 14 million people are young enough to work but don’t have jobs, often because they are educated in a field that no longer needs workers. College attendance is also embarrassingly low — 68% of high school students matriculated in 2008. Imagine then, what a cheap college degree would allow us to do; structurally unemployed workers could spend a few years at relatively low cost reeducating themselves. High school students of all socioeconomic backgrounds would be able to attend college.
Monetary considerations are a significant factor for most students at Stanford- roughly 75 percent of you are on financial aid of some sort. Most students in this country aren’t as lucky as we are with aid. If they get accepted to college, they pay up and attend, or they stay at home. Our most precious national resources are the talented students rising through our education system, and we are forgoing the leaders, scientists, and entrepreneurs that they could transform into.
Usually this line of reasoning leads to a very popular argument about why financial aid should be more generous at all schools. After all, the price of college has risen much faster than inflation. But the central issue isn’t how much the student is paying, but rather why college costs so much in the first place.
I’ll put it this way: a Stanford University education should not cost $216,000. That isn’t how much I’m paying, but it is how much Stanford believes my degree is worth, regardless of the aid I’m receiving. There have been several studies suggesting precisely why education has become unreasonably expensive. Perhaps the third parties who actually pay most of the tuition prevent consumers from being conscious of cost, or perhaps the value of a degree isn’t tied enough to tuition. But I suspect that many Stanford students would defend the price of attendance. They would say that the quality of education, the beautiful architecture, the proximity to Silicon Valley, is all worth the price tag.
My answer is this: maybe for you. But Stanford’s price tag is not worth it for the vast majority of students in the USA. When someone spends a quarter of a million dollars for a degree that makes few guarantees about career opportunities, it’s a horrible financial choice. Stanford and similar universities who are educational leaders have become symbols for waste — bundling top-notch education with luxury living.
