I'm not sure they will lower prices. For selective colleges I think the impact will be negligible. They already reject a sizeable fraction of applicants so it

I'm not sure they will lower prices. For selective colleges I think the impact will be negligible. They already reject a sizeable fraction of applicants so it would be less painful for them to respond to a shrinking applicant pool by rejecting a slightly smaller fraction of that pool. And many of the rest may not be able to afford to lower the price due to administrative bloat: "For example three universities, the California Institute of Technology, Duke University, and the University of California at San Diego actually have more non-faculty employees on campus than students." https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulweinstein/2023/08/28/administrative-bloat-at-us-colleges-is-skyrocketing/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulweinstein/2023/08/28/admini... For many colleges it would be substantially less painful to slowly go bankrupt than to attempt to fire half of the staff. Perhaps new lower-priced entrants will emerge from the wreckage, but I don't think most existing schools can afford to lower their prices at this point.