Why did higher education tuitions rise so fast at private colleges in US?
In: Economics
Theres at least 4 main reasons, not to exclude other smaller ones
1) Many students aren’t paying full price tuition — So despite tuition looking high, many students (its highly variable, but at least half or so) don’t actually pay the full tuition at these schools and pay something much smaller. The higher tuition helps cover the costs of these lower paying students
2) Competition for amenities – schools continually are one-upping each other offering more and more amenities, both educational and not for students at their universities. This just keep getting more expensive and more competitive
3) Ease of access to loans and/or lack of options – Generally the price of tuition isn’t that relevant to many students who are either not paying full price anyways, they can afford it (via parents), they can very easily take out loans for the amount, or they simply have little choice, they may want to go to a specific school for some reasons so they simply must pay the cost–this last item is especially important for many smaller no-name private schools which are often religiously affiliated and will basically take anyone of any skill level as long as you are able to pay
4) High quality professors are expensive — so many teachers make shit pay, but top level professors in masters and PhD teaching, especially at better schools can make fantastic money in salaries and this just adds more and more cost if you want top talent, and of course you do want it
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