Seems like there's a parallel with the rising cost of US healthcare. In both cases the consumer (student/patient) is insulated from the cost (easy and prevalent

Seems like there's a parallel with the rising cost of US healthcare. In both cases the consumer (student/patient) is insulated from the cost (easy and prevalent student loans + general belief that college is a smart investment/health insurance) of the good (college education/healthcare). I remain pretty surprised by how many American families are willing to pay twice as much for not-bad smaller private colleges over not-bad huge public universities based on vague ideas of fit and feel. I think you have to get pretty far up the rankings to get to a point where a private college honestly makes more sense than the honors program at your flagship state school.