Private colleges appear to be a better deal
The Sunday Dispatch editorial “Affordability is best selling point” built on findings from an article in Friday’s newspaper that Ohio ranks 45th in the United States in terms of affordability of its state schools. Yet the editorial lumped in private nonprofit colleges, as if they were part of the problem, as well.
I think some clarity is in order. Ohio does have a real problem with the affordability of its state-funded schools. A quick look at the 2016 College Scorecard, produced by the U.S. Department of Education, reveals that the average debt of a student graduating from Ohio State University is $22,250. A graduate of the University of Toledo graduates with $24,994. Shockingly, the typical Central State graduate leaves with more than $39,000 in federal student-loan debt.
Now let’s compare those numbers with those of some of Ohio’s better-known private liberal arts schools: Denison, $25,000; Wooster, $25,500; and Kenyon, $18,305. That’s right, the average student attending Kenyon, where tuition is $49,220 a year, leaves with less debt than one attending Ohio State, where the tuition is $10,037. It is very easy to sensationalize the high sticker prices of private colleges; however, they are subject to market forces — not state government — and are obviously already doing their best, through need-based and merit aid, to make sure students receive a quality education while incurring a debt that is not significantly different from that of a state school.
Also, at a small, private liberal-arts school, students will work with actual professors in a small classroom environment, one that is more rigorous and rewarding. Enormous lecture courses taught by teaching assistants or indifferent faculty are the norm at large state schools. For instance, my son took a classical literature course at Ohio State that had 750 students, required no paper longer than one page and had no exams.
When he went to the professor to ask a question about his paper, the professor dismissed him by saying, “Since I can’t help everyone in the class, I am not helping you.”
My son also took an environmental science class that had 1,000 students, a class in which the grade was based almost entirely on two take-home open-book online tests. These types of classes were not worth his time at any price.
The real scandal here is that a student who attends a state university in Ohio will incur about as much debt as one who attends a private liberal-arts college, all the while taking courses that can vary wildly in quality and rigor.
Value for the dollar should certainly be considered when making the choice of a college. Given the attacks on state higher education from budget-slashing legislatures combined with the systemic failures of university administrators to control costs and prioritize quality instruction, the value of a degree from a state university in Ohio will likely continue to erode.
Kevin Griffith
Columbus