> College tuition? It's up 2-5X in the past 20 years. This isn't going to be a popular take, and I have no love lost for Academia (see my post history). But...

> College tuition? It's up 2-5X in the past 20 years. This isn't going to be a popular take, and I have no love lost for Academia (see my post history). But... College tuition has the same effect as vehicles: they've gotten more expensive over time, but the quality of the product has massively improved from a consumer's perspective. 1. Education: students have way more support now than they did 20 years ago, or especially 40 years ago. It's quite hard to over-state how much more support students are given today. This is especially true at places with higher tuition, such as LACs or elite universities. It's REALLY HARD to not make it through a four year degree these days, and failure modes typically involve some sort of violent crime or substance abuse disorder. And that's true even for canonically hard fields. With a small handful of exceptions, "weeder courses" don't really exist anymore. And even where they do, there's considerable hand-holding. 2. Housing: dorms these days are still way over-priced relative to what you can get in the private market, but quite nice compared to what was available 30+ years ago. 3. Amenities. This is probably the largest. Students have access to world-class gym facilities -- the type that you can't even buy outside of large cities. Rock walls, huge pools, full weight lifting gyms, yoga studios, squash courts, tennis courts, cheap/free fitness classes, etc. all within a 5 minute walk of your bed. A lot of the increase in the price of college is attributable to the product becoming much "better" -- it's never been easier to get a degree and dorm list has never been more comfortable.