<p>I was thinking about itt… would it be bad or good?</p>
<p>before we can evaluate this hypothetical system of yours, where is the funding coming from? If martains land down and give us a stack of bills (and some magical device creating enough additional productivity to offset inflation) then sure, free college is good. If the money is made up in taxes, then the outcome is debatable. And if the money is not made up, then the schools are going to suck.</p>
<p>I don’t think that where the money comes from is an important aspect in the hypothesis. The OP is probably more asking about the admissions process, quality of education etc.</p>
<p>As to answering the OP’s question, I have no idea</p>
<p>Service Academies.</p>
<p>They have free college tuition in France, seems to work good. Some complain about overcrowding and underfunding in some schools though</p>
<p>More people would apply, and the colleges would become more crowded. Rich students would free-ride on the taxes imposed on the working poor. There are international examples to demonstrate all these effects of tuition-free colleges. The broadest availability of good, well funded colleges to the broadest number of students of all socioeconomic levels comes in countries in which many colleges are privately operated and most are tuition-charging.</p>
<p>Only people who were qualified for college would go rather than everyone with enough money to pay for it. It’s no wonder other countries are getting ahead of us in certain fields because only the cream of the crop are getting into jobs that require college education.</p>
<p>Colleges would become just like public high schools.</p>
<p>School vouchers.</p>
<p>College is free in Germany as well.</p>
<p>The drawback: the smallest classes have 30 students (=> seminars!), the largest classes more than 1000 (in two lecture halls with only one professor; in one room you can see the professor, in the other one you can only hear him through speakers).</p>
<p>even though the colleges would be free, would they not keep their standards? certain GPA level, extra curriculars, etc. it would be great for people like me, who can’t afford college!</p>
<p>and also people who choose not to go to a college because of the price tag. I am not one of those people, because no matter how much it costs, either $5,000 or $45,000 I want a good education.</p>
<p>I’m with tokenadult.
In countries where college is free to everyone, schools are underfunded and undervalued by students, who take forever to graduate. The historic institutions of Germany and France, for example, should trump Yale and Columbia, but they don’t.
The US system is an odd combination of free market forces, with many competitive private institutions, and a Robin Hood financing system, where the poor pay little or nothing and the rich pony up plenty. Without a grand design, the US post-secondary education “system” is the envy of the world. IMO, of course.</p>
<p>In some countries where college, is free, the colleges are grossly overcrowded. </p>
<p>In others, college education is strictly rationed.</p>
<p>They have free colleges in Argentina and Uruguay, from what I’ve seen…and they don’t seem run-down either. The gov’t is doing an excellent job in that and I find it amazing how it even exists.</p>
<p>And of course the world knows of those fine Argentinian and Uruguayan institutions.</p>
<p>definitely be a good thing. more people would attend college, and where they want to go because money is not an issue.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, where the money comes from matters. Look at the quality of our public elementarty and HS in general and in big cities or very rural areas. It is free, but not everyone wants to attend and many don’t get an education if they do.</p>
<p>No. As much as college would be great if it was free, it’s not worth it for the government to do something like that. Look at all the people who don’t do anything in college and drop out. Do you want your taxes subsidizing that?</p>
<p>If anything, the government should have a threshold. There’s a reason why people in the top schools simply don’t drop out.</p>
<p>I think an applicable modification of this question would be what if top colleges were free. Colleges that have the funds and endowments that allow them to pay for everyone’s tuition.
That could very easily happen for many institutions</p>