How is private school tuition higher than ALOT of college tuitions?

[Anonymous]

I just did some comparison research, & found that alot of the DC private school tuitions are much higher than alot of college tuitions. Why is that? What are we paying for? Heck, I can't wait til my DS goes to college, I'll be able to save a ton of money again!

[Anonymous]

I don't get it either!

[Anonymous]

Doubt it's higher then tuition at private colleges. Sure state schools may be less - but they get government funding.

[Anonymous]

I suppose all your college classes, even the introductory ones, had fewer than 20 students in them? Some had 12 students and 2 teachers? And your college provided textbooks and materials? I guess I went to the wrong college.

Faculty compensation is the largest expense at virtually all schools, and large class size means more more efficient use of tuition dollars and lower cost per student. Unfortunately this model does not work well for elementary schools. Imagine 120 first graders in your typical tiered lecture hall.

[Anonymous]

1) State schools are heavily subsidized by the state
2) Private colleges have much larger endowments that defray a lot of costs. Few private schools have huge endowments.
3) Points made in post above.

[Anonymous]

Frankly, it's because people will pay it. Simple supply and demand.

[Anonymous]

Also, hard to believe but tuition at private schools (K-12 and colleges) do not even cover all of the costs of the education, i.e. you pay $30,000 but you still cost the school more than that to educate you.

[Anonymous]

Most of DC privates are Not-for-Profit, thus it is NOT a matter of supply and demand. In addition to items listed above, fixed costs (facilities, utilities, insurance, school nurse, library, etc) have to be paid by relatively small number of families. Private university fixed costs are of course much larger but also paid for by much larger pool of families and large endowments.

The cost of providing financial aid is also substantial and this cost is generally not all paid for by fundraisers and endowments ... some comes from tuition collected each year.