Soaring College Prices Unfairly Contributed To The “Entitled” Millennial Stereotype
Why Placing A Limit On Student Loans Would Help Future Generations
Why has college gotten so expensive?
For some reason, our society simply accepts that the cost of college increases faster than everything else, but why is that? The course material hasn’t changed much and college faculty salaries have not increased dramatically. For example, from 1994 to 2019, Massachusetts faculty salaries increased 20.1% after adjusting for inflation. This was the 3rd highest in the nation, and in fact, the bottom 5 states had negative real wage growth. During the same time frame, the cost of attendance for my alma mater, the University of Massachusetts Amherst increased 74.1% in real terms.
If faculty salaries went up 20.1% and the cost of attendance increased 74.1%, where did the cost increases go if not to the actual education?
When I was attending UMass Amherst in the mid to late ’90s, I can say from personal experience that the food was terrible. But 20+ years later, UMass Amherst ranked #1 in Campus dining. In college, I wasn’t even aware there were rankings for campus dining. These days, they have rankings for the “best lazy river” waterparks. In addition to education, the college experience has become a lifestyle. While college rankings and post-graduate job opportunities are still important factors for recruiting top students, a nice campus with great amenities will also go a long way as schools are selling a lifestyle for the next 4 years. However, this lifestyle is often being funded by future earnings with student loans and has gotten out of control. In fact, from 2003–2020 the total amount of outstanding student debt increased more than 4 times to $1.7 trillion.
How did we get into this mess?
The government doesn’t place a limit on how much they lend to students so colleges can continue increasing the cost of attendance knowing they can get the money. The schools then put the money into fancier dorms, gyms, and other facilities to attract more students. The problem is after graduating, students begin working at an entry-level job that pays less than the lifestyle they enjoyed in college. In addition, they are often saddled with monthly student loan payments that eat into their paychecks.
What does the “entitled” millennial stereotype have to do with this?
The chart below shows the inflation-adjusted tuition and fee increases over the past 30 years. You’ll notice that around 2003, tuition and fees increased substantially for a few years and skyrocketed again around 2009 for several more years. This period coincides with when the millennials graduated, between 2003 and 2018. Millennials were the first generation to go through this period of hyper-tuition increase that funded the luxury college campuses.
Millennials became stereotyped as the “entitled” generation. Older generations complained that they expected a high-paying job straight out of college. I believe that the 2003–2015 period of steep tuition and fee increases that were used to turn college campuses into a 4-year quasi-country club experience, were in some part responsible for millennials graduating with this sense of entitlement. This experience gave millennials unfair lifestyle expectations upon graduation and was in large part paid for through student loans.
This was not the fault of the millennials as college campuses are not supposed to be a place with a high standard of living. If college students want that lifestyle, they study hard and focus on building a career so they can one day afford it. Unfortunately, a college is still a business that must be competitive to stay in business, even if it means building a lazy river to attract students.
The bottom line: From 2003–2015, I think colleges did future generations of students a disservice. They raised tuitions and fees drastically, spent money on campus amenities, and sold a 4-year lifestyle that most students unknowingly couldn’t afford to maintain post-graduation. Additionally, many were left saddled with student loans that will follow them for decades.
The only way to fix the student loan problem is if students have a limit on the amount they can borrow for tuition and fees. If the government were to cap student borrowing, colleges would no longer be able to raise their costs. This would prevent schools from adding additional amenities and force them to make budget cuts accordingly. A college education would become more affordable, give opportunities to those who could not otherwise afford it, and lower the student debt problem.
