That makes it worse honestly. You can go hundreds of thousands of dollars into debt getting a BA in the humanities from a university whose tuition is increasing at 2x inflation, but society encourages that choice by giving the BA outsized value in unlocking professions like "salesman" and "firefighter." Meanwhile people are so under the weight of their debt that addressing it is a political issue at the national level, but so far the leading proposal is a one-time debt forgiveness package, which does nothing to address the structural issue.
Here we have a new college that is expressly trying to reduce costs substantially, while offering practical skills in in-demand trades. That sounds like a welcome correction to me. The idea that it is a "grift" only makes sense in an environment where society has made "accredited BA" the arbitrary entrance criteria into the professional class.
The whole thing feels either like something is wrong or it is a sting by ICE. I remember them running one outside Detroit in the past couple years.
If they grift harder than Northwestern, and leave students in 2x more debt than a decent school, well, then I guess it's maybe a grift.
I would take their statements at face value.
I suggest they are absolutely trying to do what they state they are trying to do.
That said ... it's obviously a bit of a risk.
You very often get something that has little to no value in itself, along with a crushing pile of debt.
Aside from a few elite universities, do you? What’s a Bachelors of Arts from Directional State worth?
A poor kid who wants to be successful is much more valuable than some legacy admission.
If they do a decent liberal arts portion of the Catholic studies the students would gain a good grasp on reading, writing, and history with some philosophy too.
Their mission page actually has some interesting parts about their view of the dignity of manual trades and labor: https://www.collegeofstjoseph.com/mission-and-vision
To be honest many employers will also see “BA” and “college” and not look further since they don’t actually care; it’s just a filtering mechanism.
I'm interested, and I already have a career. If I pay for a course to join like minded people and have interesting discussions, where's the grift?
The regular state university I attended that left me with a pile of debt and did nothing to get me a career was the grift.. but I figured that out when I was young and dropped out, because it WAS promising a marketable skill, which I taught myself, and wasn't giving me the interesting discussion or insightful reading or anything else I wanted from a general education...
... Which is why I'm interested in the University of Austin...
Eg
University of San Francisco (USF) San Francisco State University (SFSU) University of California San Francisco (UCSF)
Same exact pattern in San Diego too. Probably going to see this pattern permutations across several towns in the future. I think Seattle and towns in Florida May have a similar pattern too. Kind of makes a schools named after individuals a bit more distinctive come to think about it.