> Pure research... is expensive and that cost gets offloaded to incoming students Do you have evidence for this? I have never been privy to the financials of

> Pure research... is expensive and that cost gets offloaded to incoming students Do you have evidence for this? I have never been privy to the financials of a university, college, or even department where tuition money subsidizes research staff, including professors. > The "phony administrative positions", lawns, and student facilties you dismiss as pork are the school's way of competing for the piles of grant money replacement known as undergrads. Believe me, we'd see this dynamic regardless of whether your hypothesis re: research funding were true. For evidence, look toward small liberal arts colleges. Most have never received anything more than token amounts of federal grant money, and yet their tuition increases match those of research universities. >...Georgia Tech... is an extreme outlier in terms of quality for cost. Also, that $12k is only tuition. The actual cost, assuming you can't find free room/board in Atlanta, is 2x before interest on inevitable loans.