<p>Interesting article on Bloomberg. I, for one, didn't know that private colleges spend twice as much on instruction as public colleges:</p>
<p>Private</a> Universities Outspend Publics on Teaching, Gap Widens, Report Says - Bloomberg</p>
<p>It’s interesting but I don’t know what to make of the numbers. Do they simply pay their professors more? Are they paying the administrative head honchos more? How much of the money is for equipment and facilities? </p>
<p>If you check out this link, you can compare college spending and they break it down into categories.</p>
<p>[College</a> Results Online](<a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/search1ba.aspx?institutionid=110635,170976,163286,196079,193900,166027]College”>http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/search1ba.aspx?institutionid=110635,170976,163286,196079,193900,166027)</p>
<p>Of the colleges I listed, NYU is spending more per student than the three of the four public Universities listed, but their percentage of full-time faculty is lowest. Harvard is spending an insane amount of money, but on WHAT? (besides educational excellence which surely doesn’t have to cost 127K per student…)</p>
<p>There are probably lots of reasons. I think public institutions are administrator heavy. Also privates generally have much lower faculty/student ratios as well as higher tuition. So it is not surprising they spend more per student on instruction. Publics also use more part-time faculty and teaching assistants on average.</p>
<p>How about class size? A friend’s husband teaches a marketing class at a large public university. The class has more than 1000 students. So the cost of instruction per student is very small.</p>
<p>Our older son attends a well regarded private school – and we had a lot of out reach from the First Year Office during the summer before his arrival. He has never complained to us about trouble registering for a class he wants. When we have a question or a challenge, we usually get a very quick response. </p>
<p>S2 is headed to a state university in the fall. Already I can tell that he will have to be much shrewder and “on the ball” to navigate the system. Much less hand holding. Much more “check our website and figure it out” kind of messages. Several department just flat out tell you that it may take more than four years to graduate because of the difficulty of getting into the needed classes. At the same time, I am so pleased at how welcoming the messages are – it does sound like a happy place bent on educating a lot of kids. </p>
<p>These differences should not be surprising to most. The Cost of Attendance on the two are very, very different. We know there is a difference between a Lexus and a Ford too – but, (IMHO) either one can get a kid down the road of life.</p>
<p>My two daughters will be freshman this fall, one at a private, one at a public. Guess which school sends us more mail? It’s prettier mail too and I do appreciate the phone directory they sent.</p>
<p>My kids all attended or will attend private colleges, although went to public HS. At the public school, there were some absolutely terrific teachers, one who got fired because he was new and there was a budget cut. </p>
<p>But they’ve also had terrible, terrible teachers. I was amazed that some of these teachers have stayed on, but their union would never allow otherwise. That seems to be where publics spend the money (IMO). Union, rules, tenure. </p>
<p>In HS, we paid taxes and have an excellent, well respected HS. But, my feeling is that they’d benefit from a smaller college with some hand-holding. I don’t mean they can’t handle college, but I like how they’re not just a number in college, especially because they’re so far away and the long-term benefits of having a college mentor. I just think they’ll get more out of college if the professors have some financial incentive and not just heavy-handed union rules.</p>
<p>Here’s some more illumination. According to the article, “colleges are spending a declining share of their budgets on instruction and more on administration and recreational facilities for students…”</p>
<p>and…</p>
<p>"On average, spending on instruction increased 22 percent over the decade at private research universities, about the same as tuition, but 36 percent for student services and 36 percent for institutional support, a category that includes general administration, legal services and public relations, the study said.</p>
<p>At public research universities, spending for student services rose 20 percent over the decade, compared with 10 percent for instruction.</p>
<p>Even at community colleges, with their far smaller budgets, spending on students services increased 9.5 percent, compared with 3.4 percent for instruction.</p>
<p>The study also said that the recession that began in the last months of 2008 had dramatically changed the economics of higher education, probably forever."</p>
<p>^^^that just above should all be ‘boxed’ as a quote, but I’m not sure how to do that.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/10/education/10education.html?adxnnl=1&ref=education&adxnnlx=1278727436-/VU0g6AW6Ptt4db+jG6UZg[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/10/education/10education.html?adxnnl=1&ref=education&adxnnlx=1278727436-/VU0g6AW6Ptt4db+jG6UZg</a></p>
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<p>It’s funny…my son attended a private college prep school from 2nd grade on. He had a tremendous amount of ‘hand-holding’ and instruction from highly paid teachers. These kids had every advantage (never more than 15 to a class) and all the latest technology. He will go into college much better educated than the average HS student from our area. And for that reason, I think he will benefit greatly from being in a large public university. Son was determined not to go to a small LAC. It’s funny how one’s perception is greatly influenced by one’s previous experience. A lot of my friends’ kids in our public schools are looking for the small college experience. Not many in son’s class are going that route. I guess it’s really all about having well-rounded life experiences. I think a lot of kids feel that they will benefit from having a different experience in college than they had in HS. Hard to argue with that.</p>
<p>ETA: It makes sense to me that private colleges spend twice as much as public college - they generally cost twice as much. If they weren’t spending on instructing their students, I would be very worried.</p>
<p>The much smaller class sizes, no teaching assistants, individual attention from profs who actually want to teach, mentor, and engage with students – are exactly the reasons LACs are
attractive to many. It doesn’t surprise me in the least that this would cost more.</p>
<p>But, relative to the previous poster’s analogy, I have owned a Ford and I have owned a Lexus. The Lexus is better.</p>
<p>In a private, a bad teacher (read: unreasonable, arbitrary, harsh in addition to just bad) cannot hide. Students still have some choice in courses, and students would avoid the bad one whenever possible. In a major, this could affect enrollment. In a large institution, it’s much easier for the bad one to hide and, in most cases, it won’t affect enrollment significantly.</p>