...the model of paying, per year, $40K tuition... plus room and board to be taught by professors chosen on the basis of research rather than teaching prowess, in large lecture classes, is a system designed for the professors, not the students. The teaching done by graduate students and non-tenure-track faculty is underpaid relative to the teaching done by the tenure-track faculty. Universities exploit this cheap labor but pass on little of the savings to students. There should be a way around the university toll collectors.
"Underpaid" is something of an understatement there.
Public universities in California, including UCLA and UC Berkeley, used to charge no tuition and then charged very little for a long time. Now the UC schools cost over $30,000 per year (in state). Sure, that's less than $60,000 for Yale, but it's still ridiculously overpriced. And it doesn't include giant class sizes and the high probability of needing to 1) do the five-year-plan because some once-a-year course you need for your major is oversubscribed and last year's students have priority or 2) take classes over the summer for the same reasons (thereby decreasing summer earning potential).
