Sad but true. Mt. Holyoke at one time tried to contain costs and hold to lower tuitions and fees, trying to offer a relative bargain to entice more applicants. But applications dropped off even further. The solution? They raised tuition! Applications went up, selectivity went up, ratings went up!</p>
<p>Not only does the federal financial aid system fuel unchecked tuition increases, but now colleges hold up the Mt. Holyoke case as the way to move up in the USNews list.</p>
<p>"Mt. Holyoke at one time tried to contain costs and hold to lower tuitions and fees, trying to offer a relative bargain to entice more applicants. But applications dropped off even further. The solution? They raised tuition! Applications went up, selectivity went up, ratings went up!"</p>
<p>Actually, the originators of this "experiment" were NYU, Georgetown, and George Washington. Especially Georgetown, where, as late as the early 1980s, they paid Jesuit professors less than half the going rate, and made huge profits by operating a night school for low-level foreign diplomats. Hardly a way to earn "prestige". Patrick Ewing helped!</p>
<p>"looked into rising college cost a few years ago, costs rising at twice or three times the rate of inflation by the way, and found just what you suggest.</p>
<p>Over the past two decades, college list-prices at prestige colleges have closely tracked (actually have risen slightly more slowly than) income/assets of their full-paying customers. </p>
<p>If it were pure supply and demand, prestige colleges would be charging $10-$20k MORE than they do today, or at least enough to cut their applicant pool in half. (Though it might have the Veblenesque effect, and actually increase the applicant pool.)</p>
<p>the room and board thing is simple... Hawaii's dorms are complete crap. But I am wondering why college costs dont vary much by region especially considering that income does.</p>
<p>Being an ignoramus I had to look up the "Wobbliness effect". For the rest of you great unwashed out there, near as I can tell, it is simply paying more for prestige to gain.. the prestige associated with.. guess what.. paying more. I think what helped Mount Holyoke was US News and World Reports ranking and the fact that thier degree of selectivity dropped. Mount Holyoke admits 50% of those who apply. They also give generous merit aid. MH is a good match for unsuccessful Ivy and Baby Ivy applicants or those who can't afford the "no merit aid" Ivy League. Plus the campus is beautiful, the area is lovely, and the acceptance to grad schools for MH grads is nearly 100%. Their marketing has been excellent in that they downplay the single sex thing by reminding applicants, who may want coed, of the proximity to Amherst, UMass, and a host of other coed schools a short (and free) bus ride away, with whom MH shares facilities.</p>
<p>I don't believe that housing, room & board are big profit centers for most colleges.</p>
<p>At some large places, housing is an auxiliary unit meaning that tuition and other monies are not mingled with housing/board dollars. These units have to be self-funding. The fact that their costs are not that far different from colleges & Universities that don't treat housing an an auxiliary unit suggests that it more likely works out to be a break-even enterprise than a big profit-making one. </p>
<p>If some colleges are making money hand over fist on student rent, I'd suppose that money is helping to offset the gap between the cost of instruction and the tuition actually paid. Whatever you want to say about spiraling costs, confusing accounting, and the need for congressional oversight, it's a generally-accepted fact that tuition revenues do not cover the costs of the undergraduate education. I'm not saying there aren't problems, mind you, or that college isn't godawful expensive. But most colleges aren't overcharging relative to their costs in providing what they offer.</p>
<p>".. .it's a generally-accepted fact that tuition revenues do not cover the costs of the undergraduate education."</p>
<p>Is it a generally accepted fact ... because THAT"S what the colleges tell us! If a Congressional oversight commitee can't make sense of thier accounting practices and if the certain cost are not directly attributable to certain expenditures how does ANYONE know what those expenditures are. And, moreover, whether or not they are inflated! Didn't ENRON get in trouble for similiar accounting practices? l Why is it people are so willing to believe the oil companies are gouging us but not the colleges. Some football and basketball coaches at DIV 1 colleges make millions per year.. isn't the college paying those salaries?</p>
<p>"But most colleges aren't overcharging relative to their costs in providing what they offer." </p>
<p>Again the oil companies are telling us the same thing and relatively speaking colleges costs have risen more over the past ten years than the cost of a gallon of gasoline or heating oil. Simply because people are willing to pay it does not make it right. At stake is the affordability of a college education and not just for the wealthy. If a rising tide of college costs lifts all boats how much longer before inner city kids can't afford a community college. Is the government going to be able to continue to help after having spent a half-a-trillion on the "war on terror"?</p>
<p>Listen to myself? I listen to myself all day long! I love the sound of my own voice; I hardly need the encouragement of kind acquaintances on the internet. Just ask my spouse. LOL</p>
<p>You don't have to take my word for it on college costs. There have been decent (and interesting) studies on college costs, and on university finance and budgets. I am not a member of congress and cannot speak for why they find it confounding. Sure, some things are tangled but many aspects of higher ed finance are reasonably straightforward. </p>
<p>For starters....If you're worried about basketball coach salaries, do a little more looking into athletics budgets and whether or not they are operated as auxiliary units as well. Chances are, at the institutions you're worried about, your tuition dollars aren't paying the coaches.</p>