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<p>Even if they completed well short of the degree, they still presumably completed much of it. If somebody completed 75% of the degree, why can’t they approach employers now and claim that they completed most of the degree and should therefore be “mostly” eligible for their jobs? Yet like it or not, that strategy usually does not fly. </p>
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<p>And similarly, one would think that employers would have caught on to the fact that plenty of college students are doing next to nothing, but rather are choosing creampuff majors where they can enjoy little more than a 4-year social experience. It’s not as if the Playboy list of top Party Colleges are secret, or that many colleges have raucous party environments and hordes of unmotivated and academically uninclined students. This is all public information that employers can easily deduce. </p>
<p>Let’s face it - employers either are not very smart, or (more likely) they simply don’t care. But since they don’t care anyway, I’m not sure they would care about the fact that they could obtain a “97%” graduate for a lower cost. </p>
<p>For example, let’s face it, somebody who completed 3 years of engineering with a 1.9 GPA (and therefore flunked out) nevertheless almost certainly worked harder and is more intellectually capable than somebody who graduated with a 2.1 GPA in Leisure Studies. But the latter person has a degree. He is eligible to compete for many entry-level degree-requiring jobs that the former person will be denied. Yet employers don’t seem to care about that. All they care about is that the guy has a degree. </p>
<p>Now to be clear, I am not saying that I consider my proposal of charging all tuition at the very moment of graduation to be a perfect proposal. I agree that introducing such a strong discontinuity at one particular point probably will introduce some distortions in the market. I am therefore open to a proposal along the lines of spurster to smooth the payout schedule.</p>
<p>But the bottom line remains that, right now, other than the very best ones (who have to worry about selectivity and graduation ratings), most colleges have little incentive to be careful about who they admit. Those who are admitted who are poorly prepared, poorly motivated, and therefore quit or flunk out have to pay tuition anyway, so the schools don’t really care. They have no incentive to care.</p>
<p>If you don’t like my proposal, fair enough, then put up one of your own. If you don’t do that, then you’re left defending the status quo, which seems to be a difficult battle to win.</p>