Require applicants to be 25 to take out a FAFSA loan.
25 is when the average brain is fully developed, including the prefrontal cortex, which if I remember right is what measures risk.
Colleges would have to cut costs, which is good because they have become far more expensive than they need to be precisely because they encourage 18yo to take on risky debt b/c then the university is given the money no matter what happens to the kid. University tuition has grown faster than inflation and yet the quality of education has declined significantly. Part of the rising costs is the explosion of administrative employees that simply aren't needed at most universities.
Would likely lead to employers not requiring a college degree with an entry-level job, so kids could go work for a bit in their field before committing four years studying something that 50% of them never go work in.
Also, important graph for everyone to know about. Probably the most important graph anyone could know about.
My point is that by making this change, universities would go back to the days where they were affordable with a summer full-time job. The reason so many of us had to take out loans is because college has become way too expensive precisely because of the federal student loan program — it's guaranteed income that comes at no risk to the university.
Even if they would tie grants to specific study areas (they wouldn't, and it could likely face some court rulings), you'll still have the problems associated with central planning.
If they make grants available to something like engineering majors, you end up with:
- More engineers than there are engineering jobs for, so people will be underemployed
- The value of an engineer's salary will decline because there are more of them
- We will lack people trained in other needed areas. Sure, you could offer grants for some of those too, but then you end up with the bullwhip effect, where government tries to predict what the market needs (something it has always been bad at doing)