Why don't wealthy students protest tuition hikes?

nick_scheu
Sat, 19 Nov 2011 19:35:18 +0000

That’s really irrelevant to the point I’m making. If I had listed $1 million in cash and investments, that wouldn’t have made the cost at either the private or public universities any different.

The point of the exercise was to compare UC with private universities, whose tuition is set by the market. Both currently and under my proposal, even the wealthiest students receive a significant discount from the market price. Affordability is built-in to that market price, which is why I use it as a benchmark. If no one can afford a certain price, and therefore chooses not to pay it, the price will drop.

That said, you make good points on the major-based pricing issue. I’m not married to the idea; I just thought it was worth exploring. Based on what you’ve shown I agree that using the demand for a particular major as an element in determining the cost of tuition could not be practically implemented.