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Comment by code4tee | Hacker News Reader

COVID-19 will likely be a watershed moment for higher education in the US. Many colleges and universities will likely never return to what they had before. There will be immense pressure to rethink how the whole system works and the cost structures therein.

At many schools the cost increases over the last few decades have very little to do with increasing the quality of education and a lot to do with unnecessary expenses and ever growing administrative bloat. It’s going to be hard for schools to justify their cost when they’re running essentially an online school and that’s the first step towards the whole house of cards falling apart. Expect to see a lot of changes in the coming years. It will be painful but for the best in the long term in getting schools back to basics of providing education.

Schools like Harvard will be fine but outside the top tier it’s about to get real ugly.

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> unnecessary expenses and every growing administrative bloat

This is a problem, and yet, I’m unsure how “unnecessary” that administrative overhead really is. If you went to college in the 70s you didn’t have all that. But college wasn’t a requirement, it was an entitlement (loosely speaking) and the people who attended largely reflected this - they were entitled, privileged. Even at a public school they were from comfortably middle class homes, white, etc. If you were poor, non-white, you were largely excluded. If you had mental health problems, you were on your own. In fact if you had any sort of special need you were on your own, there was no support from the school - they were academic institutions!

So much of the work over the last 50 years has been to bridge these gaps. College is now practically a requirement for a comfortable middle class existence in the US. So we try to make sure everyone can go, even graduate, and this is the result. I still view schools as being pretty lean on staffing, for what they provide. All these problems with schools are symptoms of a larger societal issue in my mind.

I graduated from an expensive-but-not-elite private school (with a full scholarship). By the time I graduated it was over half international students, particularly in the MBA programs.

Not sure what they'll do now. I think these institutions have to massively change their priorities in the coming ten years to survive.

That said, a friend of mine has a cousin that's an international student from China. Apparently her school (large state school) is offering online classes in China time!

ICE's decision is going to radically impact this. In-person classes or bust. I cannot imagine the migraines that sub-50 university presidents are having today.

I certainly hope so. I have been saving education money since before my children were even conceived and it is truly disheartening to watch tuition increase by leaps and bounds. My wife and I both greatly value education, and I am certain that my children will obtain some sort of scholarship on their own merit, but I would not shed a tear if the University bubble popped before then.

My oldest is enrolled in online classes at a large state school, and will be graduating from high school in two years. At worst I have saved enough money for both of my children to attend the school of their choice. If it all falls apart, I've secured education expenses for them and their children if they choose that path.

I would love to see some sort of regulation on endowments and either taxing them or forcing Universities to spend at least a portion of them on a yearly basis.

Feel sorry for the students right now having to face all this.. but it's for the best overall.

College needs to be massively re-imagined in this country. The costs are so out of control it's insane. As a parent with 2 younger kids, trying to save to help them with college some seems monumental.

I hope you are right, this reckoning is LONG overdue.

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