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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

It's just common sense.

Why can schools charge so much tuition now? Because they can fill their classes with people who can give them the money. However, most people can't give them full-price from their own personal accounts. So they take out loans and the schools get some combination of parents' money and the bank's money.

What happens if the bank's money disappears? The parents' money isn't going to replace that difference, so schools HAVE to reduce tuition or give out a crapton more financial aid. Why? Because they aren't going to be able to fill their classes with people who can pay $70K+/year.

It's really not that difficult. [/quote]

At SOME schools, of course - but not the top schools, and not the top colleges, which I keep asking about but get no response.

I would agree with you it would have some effect, and some of it positive, such as eliminating many of those for-profit colleges which exploit the system now.  But the effect it will have on the top schools is keeping certain folks out who otherwise could go.

A much better solution is better funding for state and community colleges (which are already much cheaper).  But please note that despite basic economic theory, (some, rightly or wrongly) people have decided that those are not equivalent to top private educations even though those are substantially cheaper now.

As for your assertion:

[quote]Because they aren't going to be able to fill their classes with people who can pay $70K+/year. [/quote]

The top colleges can now if they want to.  Easily.[/quote]

NP.

Are you sure about that?

We make $350K/year, which in anyone's book is a lot of money. We have one kid. We will not easily be able to pay the projected college costs. We will manage, but it won't be easy.

Are you certain that all of the top colleges--say the top 25 research universities and top 20 liberal arts colleges--can fill their classes every single year solely with families that can pay full freight?

Harvard's entering class is about 2,000 kids. Say that in the top 25 that's about average. That would mean you'd need to find 50,000 kids every single year whose families can pay that tuition. That would also require abandoning every factor universities normally look at--geographic diversity, racial diversity, etc--and look solely at ability to pay.

For the top LACs, you'd need to find another, say, 10,000 kids whose families can pay.

So you're telling me that you think there are 30,000 kids out there whose families can pay and that schools will just abandon everything they say about wanting a diverse class in order to fill their schools with those families? [/quote]

Sorry -- that last number should be 60,000, as the approximate total number of kids entering the top universities and LACs each year. [/quote]

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