(07-31-2014 09:28 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(07-31-2014 08:37 PM)mikeinsec127 Wrote:  

(07-31-2014 04:53 PM)FuzzyHasek Wrote:  

(07-31-2014 03:26 PM)mikeinsec127 Wrote:  The true paradigm shift in higher education is still to come. Look out over the horizon and see the numbers of students enrolling at for profit and on-line schools. Years ago traditional colleges scoffed at these alternative institutions. Now that they have become accepted in the main stream, brick and mortar institutions are scrambling to get a piece of the expanding market.

Enrolling yes, graduating not so much

What I've noticed lately is that a good percentage of traditional colleges are reporting graduation rates based on SIX year cycles. Six years to get a four year degree and still you would be shocked to see how low the graduation rates are for some schools.

"Six years to get a four year degree" because even public universities cost a helluva lot more than they did "back in the day" and students have to work more part-time hours, or take a couple of semesters off to work full-time and make more money, etc. And, "back in the day", more students could rely on more help from their parents, but today fewer parents are working at full-time jobs with good salaries and many of them are working part-time or trying to make ends meet with multiple jobs.

No doubt. You have HS courses that are of poorer overall quality today than they were decades ago, you have universities having to create remedial courses that add semesters to students time there because they are ignorant of the minimum requirements and you have less means to pay today than you did decades ago due to skyrocketing costs and lower real wage growth as you pointed out.