digest
Short Summary
Main recommendation: The video argues that despite its high and rising cost, college is still one of the best financial investments a person can make. The video explains that tuition has tripled since 1980, driven mainly by faculty and staff salaries, underused but expensive buildings, falling per-student public funding, and a growing administration responding to students' demand for amenities.
Key Points
- Adjusted for inflation, the average one-year tuition at a four-year private college rose from $10,200 (2016 dollars) in 1980 to about $32,000 today.
- Salaries and benefits account for roughly $24,000 of the $32,000 tuition, with staff beyond faculty (coaches, dorm staff, IT, security, administrators) adding significantly to that total.
- Classrooms are used only about 23% of the time, yet colleges still pay for the space the other 77%.
- Federal and state funding has reached record highs, but enrollment grew about 50% in 20 years, so per-student funding has hit an all-time low.
- Administrator positions grew 60% from 1993 to 2009, roughly ten times faster than tenured professor positions, per the US Department of Education as cited in the video.
- Per the video, 85% of full-time degree-seeking students at four-year universities receive financial aid, with an average grant of about $15,500.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions: The video gives no step-by-step guidance for paying for college; it simply concludes that college is worth the cost, citing financial aid statistics as context.
- Building costs cited: The average is $115 to $215 per square foot, while U-Mass Amherst's Commonwealth Honors College cost $354, U-Mass Boston's General Academic Building No. 1 cost $594, and Berkeley's Lower Sproul Building cost $659 per square foot.
- Student-to-faculty ratio is 18 to 1, and the average private-college professor earns $126,981 per year (the video's figures).
- Per the video, Ohio State's share of its budget paid by government money fell from 25% in 1990 to 7% in 2012.
- Per the video, the earnings premium for college graduates over high school graduates rose from about 40% 35 years ago to 98% per hour today, citing William Strauss and Neil Howe's generational work on millennials.
- The video's "true cost" argument claims skipping college forfeits about $500,000 in lifetime earnings. This is the speaker's estimate, not independently verified here.
Bottom Line
The video frames college's high price as a product of labor costs, underused facilities, shrinking public subsidies, and administrative growth, but argues that the lifetime earnings premium makes attending still worthwhile.
