| The reality of $50,000 per year will deflate this bubble rather quickly. In reality there are only about 20 schools that will produce the vast majority of all the Rhodes, Marshalls, foreign Service officers, investment bankers, top 25 big firm lawyers, cia agents, NIH grant winners, doctors etc. These 20 schools have an important function in developing our national leadership and identifying true talent and are actually worth the price.
Beyond those 20, college becomes a commodity where one could substitute any of one hundred fifty names for any other 150. It is here that the bubble will hit since it is pure hype that is inflating the applications to this group. Amazingly, the key to the hype seems to be raising tuition to near the level of the top 20 so that anxiety prone parents think the commodity schools are worth the exhorbitant price. The extra tuition is used for a relatively small amount of merit aid which is pursued by many that further fuels the fire. Well, people are seeing thtough this now and in an era where defined benefit pensions are being eliminated and health care is going to Mars, parents, particularly the ones paying the full $45,000 freight, will just say no. This will actually be to the benefit of the public college and community college systems as they are on the cusp of an era of vast improvement. |