Strike against tuition!

Started by Waldo2012
Get help with your application

Use all the free resources available to you from SDN: articles, guides, expert advising, forums discussions, and school research.

Browse articles Compare schools My application plan Read Interview Feedback
Practice for interviews Ask an Advisor
Waldo2012

Waldo2012

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Just think about it, we could have a national strike day, get all the current dental students to go to the administration and say they will drop out if tuition is not lowered for the following year. If the schools got no tuition, they would have nothing! If students could actually organize and follow through with this, it could actually work! I don't see it really happening because everyone would have to be committed to it. Cool idea though, eh?
 
Waldo2012 said:
Just think about it, we could have a national strike day, get all the current dental students to go to the administration and say they will drop out if tuition is not lowered for the following year. If the schools got no tuition, they would have nothing! If students could actually organize and follow through with this, it could actually work! I don't see it really happening because everyone would have to be committed to it. Cool idea though, eh?
Click to expand...

"In Theory, Communism works."
-Homer Simpson
 
Waldo2012 said:
Just think about it, we could have a national strike day, get all the current dental students to go to the administration and say they will drop out if tuition is not lowered for the following year. If the schools got no tuition, they would have nothing! If students could actually organize and follow through with this, it could actually work! I don't see it really happening because everyone would have to be committed to it. Cool idea though, eh?
Click to expand...

LOL!!!

Do you know how many are in line behind you waiting for your spot??

Tuition is not 'high enough' until schools are having trouble filling spots. Until that day, you can threaten until you're blue in the face, but the school will fill your seat.
 
Well, that may be true for D1s, but they may have a problem finding 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year students to fill the open spots. Not like people with that level of education are just walking around. Obviously this is all in theory, but one year of zero tuition income for a dental school would be a significant issue.
 
MiamiDent said:
Well, that may be true for D1s, but they may have a problem finding 2nd, 3rd, and 4th year students to fill the open spots. Not like people with that level of education are just walking around. Obviously this is all in theory, but one year of zero tuition income for a dental school would be a significant issue.
Click to expand...

^^ +1 for clever thought
 
Montrealer said:
We in Quebec did exactly that, and it worked:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...ee-hikes-first-day-on-the-job/article4558135/

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/edit...ebec-students-hail-their-movement-s-victories

We have the lowest dental school tuition in North America: $2,168 a year for residents.

I don't know why US dental students accept such outrageous tuition fees.
Click to expand...

So cool to see another quebecois in the place!
D1, paid 2.2k for the semester, 8k for the year material
Still need to pay 2k next semester and thats it for my first year, excluding books tho
 
Waldo2012 said:
Just think about it, we could have a national strike day, get all the current dental students to go to the administration and say they will drop out if tuition is not lowered for the following year. If the schools got no tuition, they would have nothing! If students could actually organize and follow through with this, it could actually work! I don't see it really happening because everyone would have to be committed to it. Cool idea though, eh?
Click to expand...

The reason my tuition is so high is b/c my state funds 5% of my state school's operating budget. Since they just built a $55 million dental clinics facility, a strike wouldn't solve **** and would jeopardize the future of dental education in my state. Some schools aren't out to exploit their students; they simply don't have the resources to make tuition cheaper.
 
It may jeopardize your school but it would definitely make dental schools in general rethink how they use their budget. I would personally be much happier saving 100-200k and going to a school with not as up-to-date stuff. How much is that really going to hold me back if I am going to work for an associate and could catch up on all that fairly easily anyway. I know there are students that would choose otherwise but I think a very large portion would make that same choice.
 
txaggie03 said:
How much are your taxes again?
Click to expand...
Quebec (and most of Canada) has higher taxes than most places in the US. But it definitely is not 20X the US rate, which is the only way the tuition to tax ratio works out. Now obviously Texas is cheaper than most places, but it's hard to argue that most US dental schools are doing something wrong when tuition at many places is over 40k per year. Of course, we know why they do it: because they can.
 
Waldo2012 said:
It may jeopardize your school but it would definitely make dental schools in general rethink how they use their budget.
Click to expand...

When a state-funded institution only receives 5% of its operating budget from state funding, I don't think they have much leeway in how they use their budget, chief. Just be thankful your school isn't as expensive as mine or many others. Rather than spouting off ignorant nonsense in a dental forum, if you want to do something about public tuition then perhaps give your representatives a call?
 
The reason my tuition is so high is b/c my state funds 5% of my state school's operating budget. Since they just built a $55 million dental clinics facility, a strike wouldn't solve **** and would jeopardize the future of dental education in my state. Some schools aren't out to exploit their students; they simply don't have the resources to make tuition cheaper.
Click to expand...

diasIItema said:
When a state-funded institution only receives 5% of its operating budget from state funding, I don't think they have much leeway in how they use their budget, chief. Just be thankful your school isn't as expensive as mine or many others. Rather than spouting off ignorant nonsense in a dental forum, if you want to do something about public tuition then perhaps give your representatives a call?
Click to expand...

Your school had a choice whether to build a $55 million dental clinic or lower tuition. They chose to build the clinic and raise tuition (and I'm sure give the administrators a big fat raise) because they can. As long as roughly 40% of applicants gain admission tuition is not going to get any lower. But you're right, striking is an ignorant idea. Increased public funding doesn't solve the cost issue, it just shifts costs to the public instead of those that benefit from the education.
 
Montrealer said:
We in Quebec did exactly that, and it worked:

We have the lowest dental school tuition in North America: $2,168 a year for residents.

I don't know why US dental students accept such outrageous tuition fees.
Click to expand...

You only have 30 million people. We have to take care of 47% of our 300 million plus 30 million illegals and their anchor babies. Yes we're printing TRILLION $$$ as fast as we can but it's still not enough. I love Montreal!!!
 
Waldo2012 said:
Just think about it, we could have a national strike day, get all the current dental students to go to the administration and say they will drop out if tuition is not lowered for the following year. If the schools got no tuition, they would have nothing! If students could actually organize and follow through with this, it could actually work! I don't see it really happening because everyone would have to be committed to it. Cool idea though, eh?
Click to expand...

Great idea! Ever heard of Hostess?
 
A strike would work to get the attention of the legislature at the state and federal level. It is done all the time to garner attention to issues that would otherwise be overlooked. National attention is on undergrad tuition and how people can owe 160k+, but I think the general public would be shocked to know that dental students can owe 400k to 500k.
It seems like an issue that ASDA and ADEA should address.
 
txaggie03 said:
Neat.

However, this is only good if you own a corporation; something I would have to choose to participate in.

I can't choose to participate, or rather not participate, in being an individual.


So maybe I should clarify: How much are your individual taxes again?
Click to expand...

Canada tax rates:
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/fq/txrts-eng.html

Pretty similar to living in CA if you add federal and state income tax rates.

Considering all the services they get for their taxes, it doesn't seem that bad.
 
"free"


:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:






icon23.gif
 
txaggie03 said:
"free"


:laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh::laugh:






icon23.gif
Click to expand...

Ha...Ha... You know exactly what I mean't. In case you did not, what I mean't was that a nominal increase in taxes = included healthcare. Not a bad deal when insurance costs my family over $800/month and is one of the lower end insurance plans - has a high deductible.

You can keep claiming that the free market should dictate all things, but the free market also takes advantage of people, as it is kinda doing to us with dental school tuition. You could say," well, go to a cheaper school." Not everyone has that option. Someone needs to step in to prevent people from going into a huge amount of debt. Otherwise, we all will have to pay for all the loans going out. Don't believe me? Go back to 2008 and see what happened. Free markets worked so well at that time.
 
Nice try, wingman, but you can't blame a free market for a housing bubble and banking crisis caused by distortions to the market by regulation and coercion (CRA). We haven't had anything resembling a free market in a long time. How can you claim the 'free market' is taking advantage of students when the government has taken over student loans?? You have it backwards.
 
A strike would work or at least rattle the cage but it would have to be done in a calculative manner most likely with 3rd and 4 th year students.

If a dental school with 100 dental student per year and a total of 4 years

One student paying approx 50k for a year

400x50k = 2 million American dollars loss for dental school plus their dental clinics needed to be closed because of students on strike .

This is for one school : 2 million dollars

If this were to be a national strike the total monetary loss could reach 1 billion plus+ dollars for dental schools not including loss of revenue from the patients those student would of seen in third and fourth year.

And the US GOVERNMENT would SAVE a lot of money from students not taking out loans for one year maybe in the 2-3 billion dollars range


That is a big number

$2,000,000,000+ ,


which is nothing to complain about in these times of hardship for most of the US POPULATION and many government branches.

This is a topic that should be of interest for dental students, why do we have to pay so much for dental school? (Compared to other countries)

And spending 5 to 20 years of very tedious and sometimes very difficult moments ( those difficult patients or those cases that were not successful or maybe legal issues) to pay back the 200 to 500 thousand dollar loan plus interest seems not right.

Hey and if tuition is lowered maybe the cost of dental healthcare for our patients can be a bit minimized or allow leeway or let more of those "not well to do patients " afford dental care.

On the other hand

These high prices do allow the competition needed to have a small dental community which has its perks!


I say post this topic across the board in all dental communities .

This is a interesting topic.

What to do, heh?!
 
Wingman, nobody is forcing students to take loans. Just like nobody forced people to buy homes they couldnt afford. It takes both sides to tango.


You kids that think 'striking' is the answer are only fooling yourselves. Nobody cares what you do.

Stomp and throw a fit all you want, I will keep going to class and trying to make the most of my dollar spent. I worked my ass off to get into school, knowing full well what it entailed. I quit a 6 year run in engineering before doing so. The jump was not knee-jerk by any stretch of the imagination. From my perspective, this is a cheap investment in my future happiness. I couldnt find this kind of ROI anywhere else.

You guys think all this stuff should just be handed to you. Welcome to the real world. Nobody cares.
 
txaggie03 said:
Wingman, nobody is forcing students to take loans. Just like nobody forced people to buy homes they couldnt afford. It takes both sides to tango.


You kids that think 'striking' is the answer are only fooling yourselves. Nobody cares what you do.

Stomp and throw a fit all you want, I will keep going to class and trying to make the most of my dollar spent. I worked my ass off to get into school, knowing full well what it entailed. I quit a 6 year run in engineering before doing so. The jump was not knee-jerk by any stretch of the imagination. From my perspective, this is a cheap investment in my future happiness. I couldnt find this kind of ROI anywhere else.

You guys think all this stuff should just be handed to you. Welcome to the real world. Nobody cares.
Click to expand...

First off, I am not for striking - it won't resolve anything. The problem is with so much money being available to students. Who in their right minds would lend someone with no credit $400,000? I am certain no bank would. They did previously, but only with a guarantee from the government. Yet our government is giving away all this money to students. Many people, unlike yourself, go into school not really considering how much their total cost will be. This is similar to how banks were lending money to people for homes that they couldn't afford. This will just end bad for normal tax payer who will have to bail out all of the people with student loans, which I don't want to happen.

While there already is an existing limit on loans being made available to students, it is not enough. If the government puts hard caps - none of this grad plus crap, then these institutions would have to get their **** together and charge less or close up like they did in the 80's. However, with almost unlimited cash coming from the government, why wouldn't a school just milk as much money from the student as possible?
 
Last edited:
cwoodds said:
Nice try, wingman, but you can't blame a free market for a housing bubble and banking crisis caused by distortions to the market by regulation and coercion (CRA). We haven't had anything resembling a free market in a long time. How can you claim the 'free market' is taking advantage of students when the government has taken over student loans?? You have it backwards.
Click to expand...

The government is acting like a credit card the student uses. The transaction is taking place between the school and the student. What is so backwards about that? In fact, free markets have been working for a VERY long time. Businesses try to maximize profits by influencing government. Now, if you are referring to anarcho-capitalism, then yes, it has not existed. However, I don't think any sane person would promote anarcho-capitalism.
 
txaggie03 said:
Wingman, nobody is forcing students to take loans. Just like nobody forced people to buy homes they couldnt afford. It takes both sides to tango.


You kids that think 'striking' is the answer are only fooling yourselves. Nobody cares what you do.

Stomp and throw a fit all you want, I will keep going to class and trying to make the most of my dollar spent. I worked my ass off to get into school, knowing full well what it entailed. I quit a 6 year run in engineering before doing so. The jump was not knee-jerk by any stretch of the imagination. From my perspective, this is a cheap investment in my future happiness. I couldnt find this kind of ROI anywhere else.

You guys think all this stuff should just be handed to you. Welcome to the real world. Nobody cares.
Click to expand...

Being a CRNA will give you a much better ROI.
 
thewingman said:
First off, I am not for striking - it won't resolve anything. The problem is with so much money being available to students. Who in their right minds would lend someone with no credit $400,000? I am certain no bank would. They did previously, but only with a guarantee from the government. Yet our government is giving away all this money to students. Many people, unlike yourself, go into school not really considering how much their total cost will be. This is similar to how banks were lending money to people for homes that they couldn't afford. This will just end bad for normal tax payer who will have to bail out all of the people with student loans, which I don't want to happen.

While there already is an existing limit on loans being made available to students, it is not enough. If the government puts hard caps - none of this grad plus crap, then these institutions would have to get their **** together and charge less or close up like they did in the 80's. However, with almost unlimited cash coming from the government, why wouldn't a school just milk as much money from the student as possible?
Click to expand...

There is plethora of objects, services, and opportunities that are available to anyone looking. Just because you can, doesnt mean you should. And you are more than correct in having the tax payer bail them out; that should end, and if it doesnt I predict bad times ahead.

Caps will not happen. The elected do no care to control anything other than its constituency.
 
thewingman said:
The government is acting like a credit card the student uses. The transaction is taking place between the school and the student. What is so backwards about that? In fact, free markets have been working for a VERY long time. Businesses try to maximize profits by influencing government. Now, if you are referring to anarcho-capitalism, then yes, it has not existed. However, I don't think any sane person would promote anarcho-capitalism.
Click to expand...
What's backwards is who you are blaming. The banks were operating within the system to maximize their profits and minimize their risk by bundling bad loans that they never would have made without the government guarantee. Schools charge higher and higher tuition because the government is giving out loans that no bank would freely give. A free market is one that operates with free individuals conducting transactions under an established set of laws; that's not anarcho-capitalism, it's free market capitalism. A system where the government is involved directly in every transaction and regulations change the rules of the road at every politicians' whim is not a free market by any definition.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.