Higher Tuition For an Engineering Degree

i_like_spam writes "The NYTimes is running a story about a new trend in tuition charges at public universities throughout the country. Differential pricing schemes are being implemented, whereby majors in engineering and business pay higher tuition rates than majors in arts and humanities. Last year, for instance, engineering majors at the University of Nebraska starting paying an extra $40 per credit hour. One argument in support of differential pricing is that professors in engineering and business are more expensive than in other fields. Officials at schools that are implementing differential pricing are aware of some of the downsides. A dean at Iowa State said he 'thought society was no longer looking at higher education as a common good but rather as a way for individuals to increase their earning power.' And a University of Kansas provost said, 'Where we have gone astray culturally is that we have focused almost exclusively on starting salary as an indicator of... the value of the particular major.'"

Comments

Re:Exactly what America needs!

[Mahtar]

In short, yeah. Engineers don't exactly produce culture, my friend.

Yes, they produce many things, nearly all of them absolutely irrelevant to a satisfying life.

Re:Exactly what America needs!

[Mahtar]

This argument is a logical fallacy; I'm sure you can figure out which one.

lib. arts majors would have kept us out of iraq

[Anonymous Coward]

engineering majors wont keep us out of things like iraq or vietnam (or afghanistan)

history majors, though, might, because they read things called 'books', that say 'oh by the way, you have made this mistake before, and also a bunch of other countries made the same mistake, it was called vietnam... you should probably think about it twice before you invade iraq. you should have a clearly defined mission and a clear exit strategy, and overwhelming support of the american population, and you should use overwhelming force and not try to do it on the cheap with as few troops as possible.

so you probably shouldnt do it.

but if you do do it, well, you should probably have a plan for after the invasion. also, you shouldnt disband a standing army full of young men right after a major conflict. thats just a bad idea all the way back to world war i, we have known that pretty well. you dont want to have millions of unemployed young angry men standing around all day on the street corners. i mean, thats basically how hitler got started. except the Iraqi army had a whole bunch of guns and weapons at their disposal so now you have a bunch of unemployed, armed men standing around on the street corner all day, being pissed off.

oh and like... you probably shouldnt take all the engineers who happened to be ba'athists and make them unemployed. thats probably not a good idea to kick everyone who knows how to run the electricity and water system and force them out of the country'.

also you probably should have enough people who understand arabic so that when you go raid houses you actually get the right house, can understand what people are saying, and dont waste 90% of your time chasing false leads down.
"

but thanks to mr bush and his MBA associates, and oil engineers, we dont need books. we just need some slogans and some warships and some ass kickin music, to totally rock baghdad!

Re:Exactly what America needs!

[Mahtar]

Which wasn't my argument?

Re:Already done in Grad Schools and Real World

[interiot]

School's have to be ... School's not only

Sorry to nitpick, but please don't put apostrophes on plurals. (examples)

Wake up and smell the cappucino.

[Inoshiro]

"...that one in 10,000 engineer/scientist that will make a huge difference in the world, will come to the US for education."

A very foolish thing to do. A non-US citizen pays a lot for tuition in the US -- more than a non-US citizen in Canada, the UK, France, or many other EU countries. Countries with universities like UBC, Waterloo, Cambridge, Oxford, or Ecole Polytechnique.

What does MIT have over these schools? Higher tuition in a politically backwards country which lacks such modern amenities as socialized health care. The US is a good 200-350 years backwards compared to the rest of the countries mentioned in social policy and foreign policy. So why would a Chinese foreign national go to a place which has hated the People's Republic of China for the majority of the 20th century, and also costs more, with more restrictive laws about research (EG: stem-cells, reverse engineering, etc)?

Oh, right, Hollywood movies. That must be it -- because those are the only places where these giant differences are glossed over for the American public.