The New York Times.  Robert Neubecker

Dear Commons Community,

The New York Times had a featured article yesterday on college tuition entitled, “Some Colleges Will Soon Charge $100,000 a Year. How Did This Happen?”  Here is an excerpt.

“It was only a matter of time before a college would have the nerve to quote its cost of attendance at nearly $100,000 a year. This spring, we’re catching our first glimpse of it.

One letter to a newly admitted Vanderbilt University engineering student showed an all-in price — room, board, personal expenses, a high-octane laptop — of $98,426. A student making three trips home to Los Angeles or London from the Nashville campus during the year will hit six figures.

This eye-popping sum is an anomaly. Only a tiny fraction of college-going students will pay anything close to this anytime soon, and about 35 percent of Vanderbilt students — those who get neither need-based nor merit aid — pay the full list price.

But a few dozen other colleges and universities that reject the vast majority of applicants will probably arrive at this threshold within a few years.  Their willingness to cross it raises two questions for anyone shopping for college: How did this happen, and can it possibly be worth it?”

Boston University, Tufts, Wellesley, and Yale — among the top private colleges in the country — will begin charging the nearly six-figure sum a year for tuition, housing and other expenses, according to the schools’ admissions websites, The Boston Globe reported.

The entire article is worth a read especially if you have children or grandchildren who will be attending college soon.

Tony

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