Northeastern dismissed 11 students the other day for violating COVID-19 social distancing rules.  The university dismissed them but kept their $36,500 tuition.  The elephant is the room is how did private university come to cost $50k/year (tuition plus other expenses)?  That’s a discussion in and of itself but, given that the cost is what it is, is it worth it following COVID-related changes, i.e., on-line learning, reduced interaction and limited access to campus facilities, etc.?

I occasionally take Coursera classes. Class material has been derived from courses at Stanford, Michigan, Chicago, i.e., high quality sources. It’s self-directed learning but there’s community support as well “TA” support if you want or need it. The most expense course I’ve taken was $50 per month. What does an on-line university class get me that Coursera doesn’t? Even if I consider Coursera to be subsidized by universities, how do you justify >$1000/month for 4 simultanous classes? My 10 years of undergrad plus grad school got me to the point where I’m comfortable with self-directed learning. Would on-line classes have gotten me that point? I don’t think they would have. For me at least, personal interactions were incredibly important.  Universities may need to charge $50k/year for their “business model” but be viable but I’m not seeing how they can justify that with the changes they’ve made to adapt to COVID.