Bad Data

Cost of Education

Mon Oct 26 12:48:39 2015

This post is a work in progress.

I've been wondering just how much a degree costs. I don't mean how much the university charges, but rather what it actually costs to provide a degree. So I'm gathering some numbers.

First, let's assume that a degree takes 120 credits to get. And a professor costs $150000/year. I have seen some notes implying that professors are expected to teach 24 credit hours per year. Then we have class size. I have no idea what the average class size, so I am going to assume that on average, the k-12 people have it pretty much maxed out at 25-30 students per class. This also accords with some things I have read indicating class sizes from 10 to 300 or so, and the geometric average of those is about 30. Let's call it 25. So, a professor "produces" 600 credit hours per year. Which is 5 degrees. So, the professorship cost of a degree is about $30000.

There's overhead though. A professor needs an office and a classroom. Assuming a 150 sq foot office and a classroom of 500 sq feet, that's 650 square feet of space. According to the internets, office space is $39/sq foot on average across the US. Obviously that varies. Downtown NY is about $70, indianapolis is about $30. We'll call it $50/year. So, $50 * 650 = $32500/year to produce 600 credit hours. That's $6500 for the classrooms and offices, give or take.

Let's assume here that each professor will get individual internet access with static IP addresses. I pay about $120/month for that, or $1440/year. Call it $1500, though it might be cheaper since it would be bought in bulk. In any event, that's $300 for internet access.

Computers: a reasonable computer server can be had for $5000, and should last for about 3-5 years. That's about $1250/year, and thus $250/degree. A professor will need a laptop, and perhaps some accessories. Let's assume a new set every year, for $3000. That's $600 per degree.

The total then for IT is about $1150.

So far we have:

• Professor: $30000
• Classrooms and offices: $6500
• Computers: $600

A total of $37100, the bulk of which is the actual cost of the professors. My guess is that the actual average cost of a professor is closer to $75000. At $10000

Support and overhead: The university of wisconsin has a 17% overhead. That would add about $6000 to the cost.

Posted in / econ