What exactly is the reason for these ridiculous tuition prices and why is America okay with this?

Paying for College
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Colorado is a state that has an informal agreement with the state legislature. I think the number they agreed to was at least 55% instate What do the students who can’t afford (or can’t get into) CU do? They go to CSU or Northern Colo or Wyoming. They aren’t being denied an education. If CU didn’t have 40% or more students from OOS or international, the instate tuition would go way up. Even other CO schools are increasing their OOS students (Mesa, CSU) because it is good for the schools.

Some states don’t have enough of their own residents to fill the schools. Vermont is 65% OOS. Maine is begging OOS students to come north. South Dakota is cheaper for OOS than most flagships are for their own instate students. I don’t think it would be a good idea to have one rule for all states. The states set their own rules. Their citizens can vote for change if they don’t like their current system.

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@katliamom oh I know the chances are slim to none. Most of what I said is wishful thinking and just spitballing ideas. I’m not an expert by any measure but simply a concerned college student hoping something comes up to help my brother in a few years when he is college bound. And yes with increasing cost it pushes us to find smarter choices. I was lucky to find a college that gave me enough scholarships to pay all my tuition, fees, books, and supplies for my stats. One door closed means another opened for me. It is just unfortunate in my eyes that public colleges have become so expensive in my state. Even UNC, Wyoming, and CSU are not exactly cheap @twoinanddone but I agree in fairness that it’s “affordable” compared to Boulder. It’s all relative of course.

I just hope my state can do something to help the middle class and my brother going to college in 3 years. I am happy though to find the golden ticket with Alabama :slight_smile: Hopefully my brother joins me in the south if nothing good comes from Colorado legislation in the next few years. Roll Tide!

83

Whether OOS students are a net financial positive for a public university depends on how the funding model actually works, though. A full-pay OOS student pays $X, while a full-pay in-state student pays $Y. If the funding model involves a per-student allocation of public funding per in-state student of $Z (which is not the way all states do it, but many do), then if $Y+$Z>$X, a university would be foregoing money to admit an OOS student.

84

@dfbdfb , I’d love to see a state where that model still exists.

85

Didn’t I read someplace that starting now…the UCs will no longer be giving a nickel of financial aid to out of state students? Think about that. Places like UCLA,mand UCB, for example,mare very pricey for OOS students…and yet many OOS students still apply and attend, some with need based aid. It never covers the OOS differential…

Current OOS enrolled students will continue to get their aid,mbut inciming freshmen from OOS…NOTHING.

86

There has been an ongoing controversy over UCs accepting less qualified OOS students over in-state due to increased revenue.

87

Well lbr here CA isn’t doing well in really any financial area…unless you are incredibly rich. Which most aren’t. It doesn’t surprise me that this reflects itself on the public schools.

Alone the drought…

88

I really don’t think it was “people” that drove all of these colleges to add $30 million dollar field houses and yes, how many climbing walls did I see on our college tours?
I think it is the US News Rankings, and colleges trying to “compete” for applicants to increase the number of REJECTIONS they can send - this increasing their “selectivity”. I honestly believe that there are many small, LA colleges out there in rural areas (I’m looking at you, Colgate) who have overbuilt themselves into a corner. There was something incredibly Harry-Potter-ish about the ancient dining hall - did it really have candelabras? Or am I just misremembering?
The new dining hall is much more conveniently located near many of the (new) dorms, and has all the charm of a Dennys.
Is my old dorm, with the two-doubles connected to a sitting room, some with fireplaces, not considered a “good” one anymore? I spent plenty of time studying in the old library. Did we really need a new one?
The fact is, there was something of an arms-race over the last 30 years, but a school like Colgate, in the middle of absolutely nowhere NYS, is just not going be attractive to certain students, no matter how many climbing walls they build. So I would think that if they charged, say, $45,000 to Stanfords $65,000, they might be able to attract more students that way, instead of building more stuff. But no, Colgate costs MORE than Stanford. Because…um…well…

89

People keep bringing up Germany, but the systems are so different they are hardly comparable. For one, someone mentioned the lack of dorms at German universities, which is true, and extremely infeasible in the US considering problems with affordable housing all over the country and that dorms are already accepted as the status quo. Also, correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe in Germany, and in most European universities, there is no Liberal Arts curriculum. You only take classes that are directly associated with your specific course, and most programs are 3 years of specified study. There’s no switching majors, you decide when you apply. Someone did mention tracking earlier, and that is a big part as well, many students go to technical schools or internships that link directly to a job and career.

In the US as far as I know most colleges require some kind of range of study, you can’t just take classes in your major. Many people are not taking a major that directly correlates to a career, and that isn’t always a bad decision, if you’re not going into a field that needs a large knowledge base–like STEM (including things like nursing)–then what you learn in college isn’t going to be enormously applicable no matter what your major and career are. Someone did mention credentialism, and that’s basically what this all adds up to.

Having a college degree shows you have some level of intelligence and a work ethic, rather than conferring you with pieces of knowledge that will actually relate to your career. So that’s where prestige part comes in. Being admitted to a selective or prestigious college means you work hard and are probably somewhat smart, its not that the college itself is fantastic just because it’s prestigious, its that the students who go there are academically high achieving (supposedly), and that (supposedly) means they would be better than someone who went to a CC at whatever job (that doesn’t require a specific working knowledge base).

I’m currently reading “In the Basement of the Ivory Tower”, its written by an adjunct professor at a CC teaching night classes. I’m not with it yet, but what I’m getting so far is that the students he is teaching in Writing 101 are so barely proficient that their writing is barely readable, and he has to fail a good many of them, even though it breaks his heart. So far I think his position is that these people shouldn’t even have to be taking a college writing class that is so far out of their range, they were already seemingly failed by years of primary and secondary education, but they are struggling financially and feel they might get a leg up by getting an associates. CCs have an abysmal graduation rate, many in the 10-20% range. They are clearly failing most of the students that attend them.

Side note: Take a look at some detailed employment numbers: http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm and order the list descending in the ‘Employment’ category to get a sense of what kinds of jobs are out there and in what quantities.

90

Hornets2016,

You attended Colgate and don’t appreciate the likelihood that the freshman dining hall, hockey arena and library were no longer fit for purpose? And you attribute some nefarious arms race to Colgate’s tuition increases, while failing to reflect on or represent particular reasons for them, to Colgate’s USN&WR rankings, despite the growth in Colgate’s physical plant, course and extracurricular offerings, and endowment? What about the fact that Colgate’s financial aid budget has made Colgate MORE affordable to more applicants than ever before- as it strives towards its goal of need blind admissions for all deserving candidates?

All of which explains why Colgate is more attractive than ever before.

Clearly you have some agenda to sell and I would wish you luck. Now do the work.

Go 'gate!

91

If the remaining cost you are seeing st Northeastern is 9-13k, then that is just room and board. You can’t get around that. Boston rent is high. Employees that service the buildings and cafeterias must also be paid enough for rents. Frankly, there is a point where I think you should have to pay, and rent and food is it. These would not be part of cheap German tuition. It is strange how many kids consider that a part of college that should be free. The only time I ever lived free was at Parental Towers!!

We pay so much bc we have the idea that everyone can go to college, even tho many probably should not. If we were very selective and only allowed the top 20% of American kids to go, yes, we could probably provide 95% free. No internationals could come. And the other 80%? Sorry Charlie. Which is better? High tuition or low availability?

92

OK, I read some of the responses, but in case I missed some…the answer to the original question is…Supply and Demand. As it is the root of almost every Economics question. The question the OP seems to really want to have answered is ‘Why can I not afford BU’. The answer is the same, but the particulars may be slightly different.

Everyone cannot go to ‘elite’ schools, just like everyone cannot be President of the US. There have been less than 50 Presidents of the US in history. Apply that same logic to any ‘top job’. Either there is little need for more than one of a position, or the reason the job is considered ‘top’ (read: pays well) is that the skills/education to do said job are somewhat rare. If more people are qualified to do the job, the salary tends to weaken, especially against inflation, and we have a bunch of over-qualified people who are unhappy they cannot work in their field.

Part 2 of the question…where do they spend the money? They pump it into many programs that are not the core function of an education. It could be fancier dorms to attract students, it could be courses that are not really in demand, but are a ‘project’ for a tenured professor. It could be increasingly larger administrative departments.

My prediction is that the college bubble will eventually burst on its own. Employers are recognizing that they can get great employees from any college, not just the ‘name brands’. As consumers vote with the wallets and choose cheaper options, the costs will eventually go down. Unless, of course, someone decides to artificially pump more money into the system to make it ‘affordable’. That will be another unmitigated disaster as we fail to learn about the law of unintended consequences.

The core problem, OP, is that too few people have had adequate training in Economics and Government. Americans simply do not understand the systems well enough. Eventually it lead to this mess.

93

I could buy this if the sticker prices at only, say, the top 50 or 75 (however “top” would be defined here) were quite so high (and if the higher education market were perfectly elastic)

After all, every year there’s the list of schools that still have room going into the summer—and some of them have high sticker prices.

Also, given that you’ve got sticker prices at (to take colleges that offered my oldest’s majors of interest, and so were on the big “initial list” spreadsheet we created) the University of St Thomas above $45k and Hampshire College around $60k, respectively at USNWR rankings at the time of 112/Universities and 110/Liberal Arts, I’m thinking that there are other drivers than simply prestige translating into demand.

I’m actually rather a fan of the high sticker price/high aid model (while acknowledging its many faults)—but whatever’s going on, it’s not something that can be explained by appeals to simple economic reasoning. There’s much, much more going on.

(Edited to add a clarifying phrase.)

94

@howtogetfuturesendhelp

“UC Berkeley:
2008-2009: $4,465.75
2011-12: $7,230.25
2015-16: $32,646”

That data is completely incorrect. Tuition and fees in 2008-2009 were over $7200. In 2011-2012 they were over $12,000. This year in-state tuition and fees are $13,878.

http://ucop.edu/operating-budget/_files/fees/documents/history_fees.pdf
http://financialaid.berkeley.edu/cost-attendance-2015-16

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@twoinanddone . Excellent analogy/reality check.

96

Germany also pays their profs relative peanuts compared to what the top-end profs in the US make.

However, with a strong social welfare system (no need to pay for healthcare, education, retirement, and not as much for childcare), you don’t need to make so much to live pretty well in Germany.

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I just read this thread - too late. Wow. Northeastern at $12k a year sounded great to me. Talk to fin aid at the school & take loans. Their top-notch career office will help you get jobs/paid internships along the way & likely get you started on a real career that will prevent you from having these same issues about money with your children in the future. I think that Northeastern’s co-op program is amazing, especially if it would really only cost $12k/yr, or is that tuition only? Maybe you could live at home & commute to save $? At that cost, I would pick Northeastern over BU and your state universities! Just because their reputation has been built on helping kids get jobs. And you need more money!