<story><title>Harvard Quietly Amasses California Vineyards and the Water Underneath</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/harvard-quietly-amasses-california-vineyardsand-the-water-underneath-1544456396</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ordinaryradical</author><text>I honestly think I wouldn&amp;#x27;t have a problem with this if they zeroed out tuition for students. That is the glaring absurdity of the Ivy Leagues.&lt;p&gt;I was in a program that more or less guaranteed some portion of its graduates to be perpetually in debt because the skills imparted, while taught by some of the most brilliant practitioners in the world, did not translate into real world earnings. I hate the idea of college being purely an exchange of money for future earning potential, but programs like mine I think are unethical at cost even as they are virtuous in learning.&lt;p&gt;Our culture needs non-STEM genius, that keeps the republic alive. Forcing people into a cauldron of debt for it is reprehensible.</text></item><item><author>kylec</author><text>Financially, Harvard is a hedge fund that also happens to own a university</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>runako</author><text>According to Harvard (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.harvard.edu&amp;#x2F;about-harvard&amp;#x2F;harvard-glance&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.harvard.edu&amp;#x2F;about-harvard&amp;#x2F;harvard-glance&lt;/a&gt;):&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;The Harvard College financial aid program requires no contribution from Harvard families with annual incomes below $65,000; asks from 0 to 10% of income for those with incomes up to $150,000; and expects proportionally more from families with incomes above $150,000.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;If your family makes &amp;lt;$150k, it sounds like Harvard costs up to about as much as the (public) University of Minnesota charges in-state residents. (Depending on your situation, Harvard may cost substantially less.) If you borrowed half of the $15k annually (the max 10% of $150k income), that&amp;#x27;s not an insane burden when paid over 30 years.&lt;p&gt;This seems fairly balanced. Granted they could zero out fees for families further up the income scale, but on the other hand &amp;quot;rich kids go to Harvard free&amp;quot; is maybe not the best use of the money.</text></comment>
<story><title>Harvard Quietly Amasses California Vineyards and the Water Underneath</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/harvard-quietly-amasses-california-vineyardsand-the-water-underneath-1544456396</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ordinaryradical</author><text>I honestly think I wouldn&amp;#x27;t have a problem with this if they zeroed out tuition for students. That is the glaring absurdity of the Ivy Leagues.&lt;p&gt;I was in a program that more or less guaranteed some portion of its graduates to be perpetually in debt because the skills imparted, while taught by some of the most brilliant practitioners in the world, did not translate into real world earnings. I hate the idea of college being purely an exchange of money for future earning potential, but programs like mine I think are unethical at cost even as they are virtuous in learning.&lt;p&gt;Our culture needs non-STEM genius, that keeps the republic alive. Forcing people into a cauldron of debt for it is reprehensible.</text></item><item><author>kylec</author><text>Financially, Harvard is a hedge fund that also happens to own a university</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>whitepoplar</author><text>I think we need to rethink the concept of a university from first principles: How much does it actually cost to provide the best education in the world? A sizable library, an old building with empty rooms, and professors? I&amp;#x27;d bet you could make instruction 5x better with 5x lower costs than we have today. The real problem isn&amp;#x27;t building&amp;#x2F;finding a campus, though, it&amp;#x27;s figuring out how to make the cheap version of Harvard more prestigious than Harvard itself. Universities run on prestige and people pay vast amounts of money for social signaling (to others and even themselves).</text></comment>