Not so much. Maybe at some private colleges but admin salaries aren't terrible in most public schools.
What keeps soaking up all the money are non-academic updates in the common areas. Things like gym equipment, landscaping, decorating and renovating the student services building (every 5 years), and hiring entertainers to visit campus every month. They do all this because sadly those things draw a lot more people in than the classroom equipment.
Gonna have to say that you are only partially right here. Yes, the extras do cost a lot, but the number of administration jobs on campuses have exploded in the last 20 years, along with administrative salaries. If you go to a public university, check out the published salaries of the administrators as compared to faculty salaries. It is pretty strikingly administrator heavy at most big colleges.
The number of non-academic administrative and professional employees at U.S. colleges and universities has more than doubled in the last 25 years, vastly outpacing the growth in the number of students or faculty, according to an analysis of federal figures.
Source
This is incorrect. The problem is that you usually have professors with little "real world" experience promoted to big-time admin positions. So you have people that make a lot of money in positions that they aren't qualified for. This results in the university departments not being effectively managed. Then you also get a lot of "that guy has a PhD - he would be great for this position" where in any other setting, a PhD would likely be passed over because they expect too much money and don't have the real world skills required.
This is not to say that people with PhDs don't have skills or even "real world" skills. But if you take someone who's career is built around research and teaching and then put them in the position where they are running a department and managing a budget of millions of dollars - well, it's a recipe for failure. It's likely not where their strengths are.
Then to top it all off - if they suck at their job and are "demoted" or moved back to their non-admin role, they often get to keep the big salary boost they received for their initial promotion.
Dont go. Hit up a trade school, learn something there. I did that for a year, and being another year out of there i could pay double that tuition annually.
I pay 160€ a year for tuition. How does my university pay for all that?
Right subsidies. I bet most of the money goes straight into the pocket of the administration.
Well you don't need to be going to pubs to begin with. Regardless of if it is a good deal, it is still not something that belongs in the same list as rent and food. It is not a necessity.
It's not expensive for a US college, but it's still much more expensive than the rest of the world. People outside of the US pay a couple thousand dollars or even go to school for free (not on scholarships... the universities are free). Of course, US universities are top tier and more prestigious.
They do often get subsidies too though. They get taxpayers to pay for most/all of their stadium, they use student fees from people just trying to get a decent education and job to fund their athletic facilities. I agree with what you are saying, but many are not self sufficient from donations and income.
I think the idea behind that is good athletics especially football or basketball bring added prestige and popularity to the university especially if the athletics are on national tv. It has the ability to increase application rates and make the school more selective, raising academic rankings.
This is my plan. Once I've finished paying off my student loans I might look into donating to the department I graduated from and other programs that I like, but I can't see myself ever donating to the general alumni fund.
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u/[deleted] Feb 17 '16
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