<p>Since a few decades ago?</p>
<p>The simple answer is the availability of easy money. </p>
<p>Your parents can take a parent plus loan with a simple credit check.</p>
<p>This is pure speculation, but I think part of the issue is that so many colleges offer merit scholarships, and the way they fund these is by charging a higher rate so that the full pay kids are partially funding the scholarships.</p>
<p>Flyme, why just merit? Wouldn’t that also apply to FA?</p>
<p>Yes, Erin’s Dad, thanks for correcting me! This is my scatter brained time of the day. ;)</p>
<p>You can go online and look at the financials of most state schools and private schools. The reports I have looked at suggest wages, salaries and benefits of professors, teachers etc… and the increase of managers have combined to create a current fixed cost that has far outstripped inflation.</p>
<p>I can see a few reasons:</p>
<p>Easy availability of loans (federal guarantees and inability to discharge in bankruptcy make them easy for people to get, whether or not they’re qualified).</p>
<p>Increased demand (a lot of students who would not have gone to college a couple decades ago are going today)</p>
<p>Enhanced facilities (there are dorms, rec centers, etc. the likes of which we didn’t see when I went to school)</p>
<p>Increase in “list” price accompanied by “discounts” through merit or need-based aid. (i.e., those who are paying full price are subsidizing many who aren’t).</p>
<p>I think it’s the high demand for:</p>
<p>great looking campuses - the grounds, the interiors, the exteriors, etc. </p>
<p>wonderful student centers, gyms, dorms, etc</p>
<p>high tech EVERYTHING…everything is SMART these days!! :)</p>
<p>add’l security - more campus police, more cameras, more high-tech monitoring, etc</p>
<p>College is all about supply and demand. There are fewer spots than applicants which allows for an increased cost. Many consider college to be very important, almost required, were years ago it was an option to go. I have heard some people say the college degree is the new high school degree. </p>
<p>Also a major cost of college is room and board. Why can a school charge so much for it? They can create rules for you to have to live in it.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Consumer demand. Very few would attend a school with no services beyond academic classes. Tutors, counselors, athletic teams, nice residence halls, activity programming, campus shuttles. . . . All cost money.</p></li>
<li><p>Reduction of state funding. Read an article in the chronicle about increasing dependence on tuition in state schools.</p></li>
<li><p>Perception of prestige. People pay way too much for what they perceive as prestigious.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Suppose you have a stand with watermelons that you normally sell at $5 each. Today the market has 10x the regular number of customers, but no more stands. You normally sell almost all of your watermelons at $5 to 1/10 as many people. Wouldn’t you raise the price too?</p>
<p>I don’t think the overall cost of tuition has gone up as much as most people think it has. It’s just that students and families are bearing a larger portion of that cost than they did in the past. it wasn’t so long ago that state subsidies were 2/3 of the total (subsidy + student paid) tuition. Now in a lot of states those subsidies have been reduced to 1/4 to 1/3 of the total cost. The reduction in state subsidies alone accounts for a doubling (or more) of tuition–the student paid portion of overall cost.</p>
<p>Supply and Demand??. Since when was college like a business??, that’s a lousy excuse on why tuition has gone through the roof.</p>
<p>I also hate how the government tells us that everyone needs to go college when it’s not true, not everyone needs a degree and less people will be going to college in the future, this goes to show how untrustworthy the crooks are that are serving in office.</p>
<p>Tuition has gone through the roof because taxpayers are paying less of the cost. It’s that simple.</p>
<p>The reduction in government subsidies for state schools doesn’t explain the increase in private school tuition (unless you’re saying that the increase in public school tuition gives the privates the ability to raise their tuitions as well). At the private college from which I graduated in 1980 I paid roughly $1600 in tuition and $1600 for room and board. The COA at same school is currently in excess of $50,000.</p>
<p>Everything has gone up.
Are they even still minting the penny?</p>
<p>~ what the market will bear.</p>
<p>Price of college has risen due to the increase of the internet over the past few decades.</p>
<p>During my college experience I watched my tuition go up the state maximum of 41 percent a year for the last two years of college. Unbelievable! It is my understanding that tuition has gone up so much because of the sheer number of students trying to attend college these days. Because supply stays constant the price goes up</p>