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I always genuinely wonder where does the high cost of college tuition come from? Ok, if you doing some highly technical major (medicine or technology) which inv

I always genuinely wonder where does the high cost of college tuition come from? Ok, if you doing some highly technical major (medicine or technology) which involves you working with cutting edge equipment with maintenance cost but does it really have to be that much? (~$50k pa). Doesn't scale up reduce cost? Also, what about majors like liberal arts? What are the students paying for? The only other thing that comes to mind is faculty cost but are teachers that highly paid to warrant such high tuition?

Ancalagon 7y ago
The cost comes from running the facilities, paying the likely bloated administration, and expanding campus programs and offerings to attract smarter/wealthier student tuition dollars. All of this is perpetuated by the endless mountain of cash that are Federally-backed, impossible-to-bankrupt student loans.
teddyh 7y ago
Never look to the back-end costs to explain the price of anything. The price is always set to what the market can barely tolerate. This is capitalism. If you think that margins are too high, then this could indicate a lack of competition. That’s what you should look to for a possible explanation. Why is there apparently a lack of competition between colleges?
- rdtwo 7y ago
  In a true free for all anti competitive system like college and medicine the list price is some extreme number that is discounted based on each individual ability to pay. In both cases individual discounts should not be allowed because otherwise prices cannot be competitive
- tomatotomato37 7y ago
  Margins being high isn't just caused lack of competition, it can also be caused by unwarranted prestige e.g. De Beers diamonds. You could go to an affordable community college with professors who attend because they enjoy teaching, but then you wouldn't have a sexy expensive degree from MIT/Berkely/Stanford college where the world's most esteemed professors send their TA's to teach you so they can focus on more cutting-edge research.
  - perl4ever 7y ago
    I don't understand your implication that people choose between two year and four year schools. Wouldn't people going to a two year school either be looking for an associate's degree or to transfer to a four year school?
dougmwne 7y ago
Here's a nice breakdown from 2014. http://radioopensource.org/college-budgets/ http://radioopensource.org/college-budgets/

Ancalagon 7y ago

The cost comes from running the facilities, paying the likely bloated administration, and expanding campus programs and offerings to attract smarter/wealthier student tuition dollars. All of this is perpetuated by the endless mountain of cash that are Federally-backed, impossible-to-bankrupt student loans.

teddyh 7y ago

Never look to the back-end costs to explain the price of anything. The price is always set to what the market can barely tolerate. This is capitalism. If you think that margins are too high, then this could indicate a lack of competition. That’s what you should look to for a possible explanation. Why is there apparently a lack of competition between colleges?

rdtwo 7y ago
In a true free for all anti competitive system like college and medicine the list price is some extreme number that is discounted based on each individual ability to pay. In both cases individual discounts should not be allowed because otherwise prices cannot be competitive
tomatotomato37 7y ago
Margins being high isn't just caused lack of competition, it can also be caused by unwarranted prestige e.g. De Beers diamonds. You could go to an affordable community college with professors who attend because they enjoy teaching, but then you wouldn't have a sexy expensive degree from MIT/Berkely/Stanford college where the world's most esteemed professors send their TA's to teach you so they can focus on more cutting-edge research.
- perl4ever 7y ago
  I don't understand your implication that people choose between two year and four year schools. Wouldn't people going to a two year school either be looking for an associate's degree or to transfer to a four year school?

dougmwne 7y ago

Here's a nice breakdown from 2014. http://radioopensource.org/college-budgets/ http://radioopensource.org/college-budgets/