<p>newmass, I think it’s true that for kids of a certain ability level or certain socioeconomic class, tuition is not very “price elastic” at all. Research among our admitted students shows that students tend to choose quality (or perceived quality) over price. And our applicant pool tends to be somewhat affluent and academically solid. </p>
<p>I know there are students who are much more price sensitive, but financial aid and scholarships softens that tendency. So overall, I think we have a big college-going pool that is not scared away by tuition hikes if it means going to a great college or the college of their dreams. </p>
<p>If colleges saw a mass exodus to cheaper alternatives, they may have a bigger incentive to really address price. But right now, that incentive isn’t really there. Families complain, but they still enroll (or, at least, enough of them do).</p>
<p>This raises a worry about a sort of “underclass” of students who for whatever reason are more price-sensitive, and are being pushed out of the nation’s better institutions by price. They might succeed at (and deserve to be at) much more rigorous or prestigious institutions than where they end up–but because they do care about price (and financial aid doesn’t make enough of a difference) they can’t go there. Some of that is personal choice and sense of priorities, of course, but I worry about the people who truly feel they don’t have college choices, and about people who are sufficiently ignorant about financial aid that they wrongly let tuition prices scare them away.</p>