Re: Are you rich?
 

Most can't, and no one tries in every department. Still, schools like to build at least one or two departments where they have recognized quality. But they always face the danger that if a prof or a department breaks into the top tier (of researchers, grant-earners, etc.) then that prof or department becomes ripe for the plucking by Harvard, Yale, or one of a handful of other schools with huge endowments. So, the less-well-funded school isn't trying to compete with Harvard at all levels or in all departments, but rather trying to retain the people who they have allowed and enabled to develop into stars.




This is just not accurate. Every university transfers some amount of its endowment to operating expenses every year. The amount varies -- universities aren't subject to the 5% spending rule like private foundations, and that's been a big issue in the Senate in the past few years. But, they do spend the money on operating, and more important they have the resources to provide recruitment funds when they want to get an up-and-coming star from another school.

What do you think the schools with huge endowments do with that money? If you think they use it on capital expenses, think again. Schools with huge endowments are very good at raising money (though fundraising now accounts for less of their wealth than investment returns....until this year, anyway). And capital projects are the easiest thing to raise money for. Lots of rich people want their name on a building. Raising money for operating costs is harder.


Right -- that's what I meant by saying Harvard will not let their tuition be lower than UMass, or whatever. (Though Harvard would say that their new financial aid policies make up for this.)

Re: Are you rich?
 

True. Retail is for suckers, and very few people pay retail at Harvard etc.

Re: Are you rich?
 

Cornell is a quasi-state university. Depends on the school you're in. The Ag, Human Ecology, Vet, and ILR schools have a contract with the state and operate like state schools (in state/out of state tuition, get SUNY appropriations). The rest of the University operates like a private university.

Re: Are you rich?
 

1. Huh? How are the deficits of the last 7 years screwing us now?

and

2. It sure would be fun to be trying to scramble to pass a consitutional amendment to allow for stimulus spending today. Or to allow for the post-9/11 recovery packages.

Granted, we probably would not have had the Bush tax cuts, which would have helped some.

Re: Are you rich?
 

Say a kid's pretty smart, tenacious, can read people and generally has a good mind for numbers, critical thinking, etc... But he's not a good enough student to get a scholarship. What's his option? Take out a fuckload of loans or go to a lesser state school and have less opportunities. We can do better for those people, but we never focus on them.

Re: Are you rich?
 

You're using "talented' more restrictively than I did.

That's a joke, right?

Re: Are you rich?
 

Interesting. I didn't know anyone in my part of upstate (mid-Hudson valley, some in the finger lakes) who went to Syracuse, but, like I said, one or two per class per town to Cornell. Course, some of those went to Cornell Ag or Engineering.

And I really have no idea about those big mid-western schools. My concept of state school is admittedly defined by New England and the mid-Atlantic. I lead a sheltered life.

Re: Are you rich?
 

And Harvard and its immediate competitors being the only private institutions in this country, you are more than mainly correct.

Re: Are you rich?
 

You really asked that question? If the national debt on 7/1/08 were $5T (or less) rather than almost $10T, do you think that it would be easier to spend w/o worrying about the inflationary aspects of said spending, the impact on future obligations of additional borrowing or anyone would be talking about the US defaulting on its debt?

I've begun to think that the Bush spending orgy was actually (sort of) well thought-out to put future administrations administrations in a real bind--either they cut "non-essential" spending or they cut entitlement programs and thereby lose elections. It's a "fatten the beast 'til it's so big that it starves" strategy that will take a long time to play out. It's just stupid and short-sighted enough that it may have been their plan.

Re: Are you rich?
 

The "have a good mind for numbers, critical thinking, etc." and
"not a good enough student" conflict is the part I'm not processing. If he's got a good mind for numbers, he ought to be at least a respectable student in some areas.

I do think the place our schools fall down is in the middle, and that our best solutions today are state schools. I'm not sure those should be our best solutions.

Re: Are you rich?
 

Start selling bonds (or start a business) without a college degree. For a kid like that, college is a waste of time. College ain't for everyone nor should it be. The money we'd spend trying to get that kid a meaningless piece of paper would be better spent funding start-up loans or something. Everyone I know like that either doesn't care about college prestige or uses their chip about prestige as additional motivation.

Re: Are you rich?
 

One or two per class is not state school numbers. I'd guess that about 15-20 in my class went to SU. Not sure if anyone went to Cornell (valedictorian went to Stanford, which he picked over Harvard, other people from the top of the class went to a sort of random assortment of schools that I don't recall including any Ivies, which I admit is odd). There were also a fair number that ended up at SUNY Albany because that was the local school. I'm just saying that SUNY Albany is no [insert name of state school that gets 80% of the funding in a given state here]. There were about 4-6 of us that ended up at my small upstate private school (ah, hell, it was U of R). Well for the first year or so at least. I think 2 of us graduated from there.

Re: Are you rich?
 

I disagree. I think corporations need those kids desperately. And those kids aren't going into corporations without college degrees because the HR filter will never let that happen.*

I have attempted to manage employees for the past two years (in some regards successfully, in some, not so successfully). The balanced ones tend to produce the most. The problem is, they also learn too quickly, and if bore them or you let them get cynical, they'll find the sweet spot in the system where they can cruise. It's hard to keep them incentivized, but when they work, you get a hell of a benefit. Just some anecdotal shit. YMMV.

*BTW, we should fire all HR people, across the board. No offense to anyone in HR, but really? What the fuck is with that field? How can one sector of our economy be filled with so many useless robots? And then we wonder, 'How did a stunning incompetent like Sebby get hired?'

Two words - Human Resources.

Re: Are you rich?
 

Respectable isn't getting anyone a scholarship.

Re: Are you rich?
 

I do student interviews for the small elite college I went to for undergrad (not one that GGG mentioned above, but close enough; student faculty ratio 8:1, tuition now $35,000, room and board $12,200), and they're at the point that they only accept 15% of the kids that apply. Finding kids to fill the seats isn't a problem, at all. There isn't room for more kids at my college. It has maybe 100 more kids than it did when I was there, but expansion isn't exactly part of the mission.

I just filled out an interview report form for one kid that really, really wants to go there, and I don't think she's going to get in. She's smart, she's got lots of extracurriculars, she's personable, but her grades aren't quite perfect enough. And these days, there are so many applicants to my school that perfect grades are almost not good enough.

I'm not sure, after interviewing all these really smart kids, that I would have gotten in if I'd applied now, instead of 18 years ago.

One thing I did notice, though, interviewing her is that her elite private high school is relatively new. She's in the first graduating class that started out as a freshman, and they've already elevated to the point that they're sending kids to the really great places. I know at my own elite private high school, legacy status doesn't matter anymore, because there are too many legacys that want to send their kids there. There are just more good kids than there are spaces to put them. But someone out there is noticing that, and they're building more elite schools to accomodate demand. The Universities don't seem to be doing the same thing, though.

On a similar note, there are a shit ton of good faculty out there looking for tenure track positions. I know quite a few of them. There just aren't that many tenure track jobs.

So if there are more kids who want to go than can be put in the good schools, and there are enough people out there to teach them, doesn't it make sense to start building more schools that they want to go to?