<p>What's the coincidence?? You are paying for the school itself (especially if it is a private university) - not for the location.</p>
<p>I meant to ask - Why is it clearly not a coincidence?</p>
<p>...it's not a coincidence that schools located in a number of different states are all so close in tuition costs. It's like the airlines...I'm sure they are all looking closely at what other universities are charging in setting their tuitions each year. You would expect the differences in cost of living at different locations would show up. But in the case where one had a lower tuition, it had a higher room and board cost and amazingly they all ended up at the same total.</p>
<p>In this group. nobody probably wants to be perceived as the 'cheaper' school. Of course, these days with so many students chasing the same schools they have absolutely no incentive to reduce their prices.</p>
<p>But this isn't a surprising fact - were you surprised by this info? Are you stating this because you are curious as to why Notre Dame's costs are similar to Cornell's costs - that cost of living should be less in South Bend than in Ithaca, New York? Once again, you are paying for the University itself - not the location (meaning not as much as you seem to place importance on it in regards to the tuition).</p>