A high-priced college may not be worth the price of admission.
As the economy forces more students out of the classroom and graduates into under- or unemployment, a college enrollment bubble may be starting to deflate.
The recession, combined with rising college costs, has accelerated a college affordability crunch that is exacerbated by shrinking family incomes, diminished home equity and reduced household wealth.
As many as one-third of all private colleges surveyed by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities said they expected enrollment to drop in the next academic year.
This article fails to mention the issue of financial aid. The super-premium colleges like Harvard are also often very generous, giving students whose household income is under $60K-$75K entirely free tuition. Most other private colleges also offer merit and need-based aid, so that the “sticker price” often has very little to do with what one actually pays. As an example, a friend who is widowed and works part time has two students in college this year; when her son’s tuition bill arrived, it had a $200+ CREDIT on it! What many colleges have been doing over the past few decades is to offer tuition on a sort of sliding scale, depending upon the student’s available income. It definitely pays to shop around, because each school has its own formula (which takes into account how much they want a particular student, based on such things as athletic or musical abilities).