Your post definitely helps the thread move in the direction you intended. Yes, I think people continuing to pay is part of the problem. There are a couple Christian colleges in the region that are around $40,000 but still not cheap by any definition. I’m referring to Azusa and Grand Canyon. Haven’t looked at them lately to know exact costs.
One problem is obvious when you go on a campus tour. The tour guide hypes it up like it’s Disneyland- they focus on the beautiful recreational facilities, the amazing rock wall and swimming pool, brand-new sparkly dorms, and the awesome dining hall. Colleges without these “frills” generally cost less, but people don’t get as excited about them.
Additionally, to get a high US News Ranking, colleges need to aim for a rock-bottom acceptance rate. So they pester high school students with frequent email and snail-mail reminding them to apply. More applicants=lower acceptance rate. All this communication isn’t free. Increasing cost of recruiting students is a growing part of a college’s budget.
Finally, colleges are supposed to do more than just educate students. They are an extended babysitting/life coaching facility designed to help students blossom into adults. They have many counselors hired for the purpose of helping students find internships, choose a major, work through anxiety and depression, and get a job lined up before graduation.
Not only that, but some upper/upper-middle class parents are sometimes outraged as they feel their students are entitled to such amenities despite the fact they are a factor in the rising costs.
It’s how we get situations like High Point U offering weekly steak dinners in their fancy dining halls, free ice cream treats on campus, and concierge service in their dorms.
One can even see a bit of that here on CC in other threads as some posters considered dorms/amenities which I and previous generations of parents/students felt were decent/good as “dumps”.
It’s certainly a far cry from the dorm expectations of most parents of college bound students 2+ decades ago. And certainly more than my father’s experience in his country of origin in which he was packed in with 7 other roommates into a room the size of a small American double and served dorm food which was so monotonous and bad that even '50s era US issued C-Rations he had while completing his 2 year service obligation afterwards was a substantial improvement on the culinary front.
I think some of the schools that are in lower cost of living areas do have COA at closer to $40k than $50k, but some costs are just fixed and they aren’t going to be cheaper if you are in Appleton, WI or in San Diego.
My daughter’s tuition has gone up a steady $2000 each year, including the first year (so we started at $2k more than when we looked at the school). Everyone wants a raise every year, professors want to make more, have more research paid for, more grad student helpers, more travel to conferences, etc. Someone’s got to pay, and at schools without big endowments, it’s tuition that pays those bills.
The “average colleges”, on average, don’t charge anywhere near list price on net because they tend to be generous with discounts (merit scholarships to a large extent, but also possibly fin aid). But merit money would be more likely to go to applicants in the top quarter or half.
Their business model is to charge higher-stats/more desirable kids less to get them so that they appear respectable in the rankings and subsidize with kids with lesser stats/desirability paying more for the privilege of studying there.
If expenditures are a concern, CC is a cheaper and well-trodden path in CA to UC publics.
@cobrat: I appreciate the post. My wife actually did her elementary schooling in Nicaragua, which is significantly different than what I undertook, too. I’m not raising my kids in nearly the challenging situation you mention and certainly not satisfied that anyone has to live like that. Best to you.
I don’t know if parents are to blame but there is certainly one category of people you can’t blame: the students. Money talks and students don’t have that kind of money. If “they” do, it’s their parents’ money.
And honestly, I’ve never actually met a student who wants a rock wall or whatever. But maybe that’s selection bias since I went to public universities.
All those high-end amenities are a form of marketing to the parents and to a lesser extent…students by private schools in a manner little different from how vacation resorts/hotels market their services.
Just checked - my son’s lowly public university does have a fancy rock climbing wall while my daughter’s fancy private does not have such a wall. Go figure.
Don’t forget that schools like LMU offer merit aid. Indeed, approximately 25% of the students in last years class received some. 147 students had their financial need fully met. Average grant was $20k.
So, not everyone pays sticker.
We can’t let students off the hook. Now it’s not all students or all parents but how many threads do we read on here from student’s complaining their parents will only pay for State U and not NYU, etc.?
A lot of people want rock walls. And nicer dorms and marching bands and cafeterias that have sushi stations. They’d go to Yale or Harvard without running water, but not Beloit or Centre or FSU. They are lining up to go to UCLA with ‘forced triples’ (which are now just common) but complain if that’s the assignment at U of Maine or U of Delaware.
My daughter could have lived in a traditional dorm (double, shared hall bathroom) for about $2000 less than the suite style one in the freshman village. She wanted to live with her friends and I think it was a little safer since freshmen tended to have the same schedule and could walk back and forth to meals and classes together. If the only way we could have afford the school was to live in the cheaper dorm, she would have done that but I was willing to pay for the more expensive one because that’s what she wanted. Over 90% of freshmen live in the village, so I’m not the only parent willing to pay extra. $2000 here, $3000 there and pretty soon we’re to $60k.
She also has a fancy pool that I don’t really care about but the swim team does, and the absolute best/biggest/most wonderful telescope in the entire world (we were told that a million times on the tours so I’m sure it is true), and she can watch the eclipse from there. She won’t, but she can. And I have to pay for that magnificent telescope whether she uses it or not.
Well, hell, a telescope! Where do I sign?
I guess, now that I have the better part of 1/2 a bottle of good Cab in me, and considering how I AM actually looking at extraordinary colleges/universities that I should not be complaining. Still, Lexus vs. Toyota…
You can’t fight what you are actively pursuing. Why tour expensive schools if you hate the price? Or don’t know how merit aid will reduce costs? I can’t be the only one who sees the irony here. Seems many here want those high cost schools.
We firmly kept to affordable schools. We told D1 no college is a dream school if the net cost is too high. Today, you can run the NPC.
We never toured anyplace that had a rock wall.
I empathize. But be proactive.
As for complaints about how desperately hard kids need to work for a college admit, it ignores the vast range of very good/less competitive colleges.
But most the schools I’m looking at don’t have a rock wall! Why are they charging the same as those that do?
The post was intended to be somewhat ironic and tongue in cheek but there’s a definite core of obvious truth here. I am perfectly willing to pay a fair price for a fair deal. They are NOT providing a fair deal. Why? If it’s “We” who are creating the problem, then We should also be able to object and fix the problem, right? You have to at least complain about it to get some traction. So, YES, you can certainly fight what you are pursuing. It’s called negotiating (though in a kind of weak and admittedly non-effective manner, lol.)
Did I just say “…I’m looking at…?” Hmmm, gotta think about that. But S18 actually is involved in the process so please forgive the slip. :">
As Horace Greeley said, Go west young man!
I don’t think I’ve toured a school in the west that didn’t have a rock/climbing wall, even if there are rocks to climb right outside campus. You have to learn somewhere.
Are these cruise ships or colleges???
The other day Dave Berry posted an article about how tuition would go down if only the colleges could discuss tuition and how they set it. They can’t because that would violate antitrust laws. I didn’t buy it. They know what other colleges are charging, or at least they know what they charged last year before they set next year’s tuition.
It is somewhat regional if they are trying to attract regional students. The COA at the public universities in Florida are fairly low, so a lot of the private schools are too. If the privates (save U of Miami) started charging $50-60k, the parents would say “forget it, just go to one of the public schools.” Many parents have Florida Prepaid, which they have been paying into since their kids were babies so they are weighing ‘free’ at a public v. $$ at a private, and they don’t want that $$ to rise to $$$$. The private schools have to compete with ‘free’ and they can’t do it at $60k+.
Hmmm, the only place we toured with a rock wall ( and a great pool ) was Mizzou. It is very generous with merit aid and also makes obtaining in state tuition easier than almost any other place.