One of the cornerstones of American culture is the view that You Get What You Pay For. In 2008, I wrote Free Lunch about free activities in New York City that defy aphorisms such as There’s No Free Lunch or You Get What You Pay For. I do empathize with those who use price as a measuring device. It does simplify life to sort by cost and thereby arrive at what must be best and worst in everything that has a price tag, be it medical care, electronics, food, clothing, homes, or education.

So, where does the quality of college education stand in regards to cost?
For most, this question is irrelevant. Something as important as a college education is not the time to be testing popular adages. Who wants to when the I Told You So refrain will be waiting to haunt for a lifetime those who have gambled and lost?

A good test of the price-to-value hypothesis is Hunter, a senior college of the City University of New York (CUNY). Tuition in 2009 runs $9000 (New York State residents) against, say, NYU’s $42,000. These are very significant differences. College tuition today is a very serious matter. It has outstripped inflation and appears to be immune to economic laws – up appears to be the only way it goes. Many graduates of a liberal arts school will find themselves saddled with enormous outstanding debt and facing employment at basic living wages.

If you look at surveys, articles, and reviews on American colleges/universities, you will find Hunter College in many lists such as Best Value Colleges for 2009, America’s Best Colleges, Best Universities-Master’s, Best Northeastern Colleges, etc. Reviews by students range the gamut, as might be expected. One constant I found interesting, however: all appeared to think highly of the faculty. The criticisms were typically about some of the physical maintenance and particularly the bureaucracy, registration, and other administrative horrors.

Hunter College, founded in 1870 as Normal College, is located at 68th Street and Lexington Avenue on the Upper East Side. The urban college occupies 4 buildings all interconnected by skywalks – a very unique feature, providing not only some campus character for a school located in the heart of Manhattan but also sheltered travel between buildings.
One of the four buildings, Thomas Hunter Hall, is a remarkable structure. This is the turreted structure in today’s photo. You can read about it here in an article by Christopher Gray of the New York Times.

It is possible to get a good education at Hunter. Graduates have been admitted to the best grad schools in the USA. Many graduate programs are highly regarded. The alumni roster also has numerous notable individuals, including two women who were Noble Laureates in medicine. In the end, I see Hunter College as a good example that it’s not so much “you get what you pay for” as “you get what you put into it”…

The Al-Madinah School at 383 3rd Avenue in Brooklyn is in one of the most uninviting locations I can imagine: on a major thoroughfare, Brooklyn’s 3rd Avenue, abutting a Uhaul parking lot, and across the street from the Gowanus Canal – once a busy cargo waterway, now a polluted body mired with environmental concerns.

In New York City, we make use of what space is available, and one can never judge by a place’s exterior. So I decided to do some reading about this private school. In reading about it, I came across a startling range of opinions in online reviews:

The quality of academic programs is very good. The teachers are very much involved and enthusiastic about teaching the children.

Al- Madinah school is the best school. My children first were in public school for six years and then are transferred to Al-madinah school. And I can tell the difference. now they are more behave and responsible and much much much better in Arabic, Quraan and islamic studies, and That all I need …

Horrible!! never expected an islamic school to be like this..the islamic studies,quraan and arabic are good but other than that no!! this school is best for K-6 ! the students are very rude, mean,spoiled,careless, etc, some students if your lucky are nice! i dont reccomend any1 there..waste of money!
Al-Madinah school is just not up to New York state standards. The ebviromenft for learning is filthy and tacky.

The academic level is wary below standard, and the school should be for religioun only.

Its very clean and Im glad that halal food is prepared on premises. Wonderful

Al-Madinah is good in the islamic studies, arabic, quran course but it does not supply much in the academic course. I talk from 3 years of experience and I do not think this school is not so great nor good either.

One thing that has puzzled me for as long as I can remember is how much human opinion can vary. I once remember a university professor asking us to consider for our next class the question, “If someone disagrees with you, do you feel they are wrong or have a different opinion?” This question goes to the heart of tolerance, moral relativism, and absolutism – ideas of enormous consequence, fueling nearly every debate, argument, or war.

Some years ago, I occasionally spent time watching a fundamentalist Christian who used to proselytize on Sundays in the park. He posed the same type of question routinely: whether the individuals there considered themselves relativists or absolutists. Specifically, did they believe that there existed moral imperatives that were absolute and crossed all cultures? His belief was that most people claim to be moral relativists but in reality are absolutists. He would pose specific examples, and arguments would often flare up, even between couples.

With the Al-Madinah School in Brooklyn, religious opinion of what is good, bad, right, and wrong is part of the curriculum. Outside their walls, the same opinions are made about the school itself. I leave you with a quote from Mark Twain: “The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.”

Note about Al-Madinah: The school occupies a 5-story, 9000-square foot facility (part of it seen in the photo). You can see more, along with information about the school, here at their website. They offer education from preschool through high school.

Want to feel special? Be the focus of a school field trip with 28 kids. Judy, a previous employee who has gone on to become a school teacher, came to visit me yesterday with her class of 2nd graders from elementary school PS 124 in Chinatown.

This was a real eye opener for me, and I quickly saw the rewards and joys of teaching children. Certainly a handful of work, of course, but I had it good, like a grandparent. Judy and her associates did all the work of managing the kids; I had all the fun.

There were squeals, giggles, and screams at every opportunity. And I was the center of attraction as they toured my facility, attentive to my every word and demonstration. They asked questions of me and vice versa. Every one of our staff was quite charmed.

What is particularly interesting is how kids absorb things. I was asked if I still juggle, and I responded that I enjoyed many aspects of the business but that I was a little burnt out after 33 years. I proceeded to explain what “burnt out” meant. I thought it would be over their heads. I later learned that one of the kids said to the principal of the school, in response to a comment she made, that perhaps she was burnt out and should consider retiring 🙂

That back-to-school feeling is in the air, and one can certainly see and feel it at NYU, the country’s largest private university with over 40,000 students (click on any of the six links for previous postings involving NYU: Grad Alley, Cloud Appreciation, Light on Bobst, Waterworld, Offerings, and A Tale of Two Colors). New students and their parents are being welcomed and oriented. There’s the unloading of belongings from cars in front of dormitories. For most of us, regardless of age or whether one is a student or has children, this time of year brings back feelings of getting back to business – summer and summer vacations are over. Labor Day is seen here as summer’s last hurrah.

In France, where education is a national fever, this time of year is referred to as La Rentrée, “a phrase which alludes to the end of vacations, the return to normal discipline, and a certain obligation to demonstrate that everybody still means business” (from the expatica website) (click here to read more about this French phenomenon). The first day of school is actually referred to as “J” (for “jour”); there is a countdown of days before school, which starts at J-10 (ten days before).

Of course, there as here, feeling about school’s start is mixed – a time of celebration or one of dread. In NYC, the weather has cooled, the sun is setting earlier, and the march towards fall semester is unmistakable…

Note: The photo was taken at NYU’s Helen and Martin Kimmel Center for University Life.