I guess that it is like asking “is paying $300 for a top-notch sushi dinner worth more than a $200 filet mignon, a $50 lobster in a shack in Maine, a $20 shrimp shack dinner in Hawaii, or grilling the trout you freshly caught for $1 in bait and $5 in charcoal?”
Every single one of those food experiences is something amazing and special, and every one has people for whom these are the best meals they’ve ever had, and every single one of the people would be 100% correct.
A $280,000 liberal arts college education can be amazing, as can be a $80,000 education at a state flagship. A person studying at the state flagship has opted for a “lesser” education, just because it costs less, nor is a person attending an expensive LAC “overpaying” for their education.
That being said, even if a LAC is the best possible choice for a person, a $200,000 debt would cause more emotional and mental issues than attending a college which is not the absolutely best match. You may really love sushi, but don’t starve yourself for a week to pay that much.
PS. If you do some research, you can always get the same quality raw fish for a lot less…
@cptofthehouse It is not always true that education at a private colleges is not affordable for most students, What is true is that education at a private colleges, which they deem to be ranked high enough, is too expensive. A kid who is accepted to Amherst can attend Beloit for a lot less, since they will get a good chunk of merit aid. A kid whose family is in the 70th-90th percentile or so whose parents have not saved a lot of money, who has been accepted to Yale, likely cannot afford it. However, there is a very good chance that the same student would get a good chunk of merit funding at CWRU, for example. So there are private colleges which they could afford, just not the ones which they consider to be their “dream schools”.
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Of course, it’s not true that education at a private college is not affordable to students. However, for the vast vast majority of students , it’s not the choice of an affordable Beloit over Amherst. We are talking Beloit over commuting two years to a directional, satellite or community public college. Parents will not pay what the financial aid formulas generate as their expected contributions. Maybe they cannot pay. But, what it means that a student who could do a lot better at a small private school, is going to commute to a large public system with an adverse home environment. I see this scenario a lot.