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> What Is the Cost of Attendance? > Probably less than you think. > ... > Total Cost of Attendance $82,760 How in the world can someone write this copy with

> What Is the Cost of Attendance? > Probably less than you think. > ... > Total Cost of Attendance $82,760 How in the world can someone write this copy with a straight face?

rottencupcakes 4y ago
This answer describes what they're referring to there: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31309948 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31309948
x-shadowban 4y ago
"total", per year or for all 4 years
- ww520 4y ago
  Per year
etempleton 4y ago
A decade or so ago most families paid full price at most colleges/universities in the US. That is not the case today. You see a lot of opinion pieces talking about how high tuition prices are at colleges and how the pricing is out of control, but what isn't talked about is that most of these schools are now discounting their tuition increasingly every year. Typically it is on a sliding scale based on need. For some of the Ivy league schools tuition is free if you are anything below upper middle income. Universities do this by pulling a small percentage from their endowments each year (think of a retiree pulling 2% of investments each year while still growing the retirement nest egg by 4%). That is exactly what colleges are doing. Bigger endowments = bigger discount rate = better quality of students attending = better (hopefully) students = better reputation. At least that is how the thinking goes. Google "Boston University." On the right of it will tell you the tuition and average cost of attendance, including cost by income bracket. Cost Before Aid: $77,662 After Aid:$30,259
- pishpash 4y ago
  Total cost not that long ago (aid or not) was lower than the after-aid cost in your last sentence. What you're suggesting is to go the way of medical billing, total lack of billing transparency and fake chargemaster numbers disconnected from supply and demand just so that it can be negotiated down (if you have enough leverage).
  - etempleton 4y ago
    Tuition costs were lower a decade ago but so was overhead. What the tuition cost is telling you is how much it costs the University to educate a single person and create the BU experience, whatever you may think for that. That dollar amount is not made up. And that money is coming from somewhere. It is either coming directly from the students or endowment. And it is based on your family’s income. It is not a negotiation. It is automatic and based on a standard chart. The less you make the less you pay. Pretty straightforward.
    - pishpash 4y ago
      It doesn't matter what it costs the University to educate a person. The market dictates that the BU experience should cost exactly as much as it makes the BU experience just barely worthwhile, and almost not, for the increase in human capital in the enrollee. The piece of paper that says BU is apparently worth about $320k, which isn't entirely unbelievable. I bet it costs BU a lot less, but since the market pays that much, it can spend it on whatever and call it overhead, because why the heck not.

> What Is the Cost of Attendance? > Probably less than you think. > ... > Total Cost of Attendance $82,760 How in the world can someone write this copy with a straight face?

rottencupcakes 4y ago

This answer describes what they're referring to there: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31309948 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31309948

x-shadowban 4y ago

"total", per year or for all 4 years

ww520 4y ago
Per year

etempleton 4y ago

A decade or so ago most families paid full price at most colleges/universities in the US. That is not the case today. You see a lot of opinion pieces talking about how high tuition prices are at colleges and how the pricing is out of control, but what isn't talked about is that most of these schools are now discounting their tuition increasingly every year. Typically it is on a sliding scale based on need. For some of the Ivy league schools tuition is free if you are anything below upper middle income. Universities do this by pulling a small percentage from their endowments each year (think of a retiree pulling 2% of investments each year while still growing the retirement nest egg by 4%). That is exactly what colleges are doing. Bigger endowments = bigger discount rate = better quality of students attending = better (hopefully) students = better reputation. At least that is how the thinking goes. Google "Boston University." On the right of it will tell you the tuition and average cost of attendance, including cost by income bracket. Cost Before Aid: $77,662 After Aid:$30,259

pishpash 4y ago
Total cost not that long ago (aid or not) was lower than the after-aid cost in your last sentence. What you're suggesting is to go the way of medical billing, total lack of billing transparency and fake chargemaster numbers disconnected from supply and demand just so that it can be negotiated down (if you have enough leverage).
- etempleton 4y ago
  Tuition costs were lower a decade ago but so was overhead. What the tuition cost is telling you is how much it costs the University to educate a single person and create the BU experience, whatever you may think for that. That dollar amount is not made up. And that money is coming from somewhere. It is either coming directly from the students or endowment. And it is based on your family’s income. It is not a negotiation. It is automatic and based on a standard chart. The less you make the less you pay. Pretty straightforward.
  - pishpash 4y ago
    It doesn't matter what it costs the University to educate a person. The market dictates that the BU experience should cost exactly as much as it makes the BU experience just barely worthwhile, and almost not, for the increase in human capital in the enrollee. The piece of paper that says BU is apparently worth about $320k, which isn't entirely unbelievable. I bet it costs BU a lot less, but since the market pays that much, it can spend it on whatever and call it overhead, because why the heck not.