Reply to How do religious based schools justify $35k tuition?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]That explains why the lower schools are more expensive but does not really point to why the upper school is more expensive.

Does the HS tuition pay for the middle and lower schools administrators? Does 1 more athletic director cost that much?

Each school will have different expenses. Gonzaga's sports teams have extensive travel expenses since they are Nationally ranked in multiple sports. Paul VI has a special education program. Each school has unique expenses.

Maybe it is that the administrators are way over paid.[/quote]
Just think about it.  Even if you're comparing high schools only, the numbers are pretty different.  At Potomac (for example) you have maybe 400 upper school students.  At Gonzaga (for example) you have 950.  Both schools have one dean of students, one academic dean, a college counseling department, athletic department, counselor, nurse, etc.  Potomac also has to pay twice as many coaches since they're coed. Yes, Gonzaga will most likely have to employ more teachers, so that class sizes aren't humongous, but the administrators, staff, facilities, etc. are basically "fixed costs" that you have to pay regardless of how many students you have.

And in effect, yes, the HS tuition does pay for the MS and LS administrators.  From a budget standpoint, it doesn't really matter what grades the students are in.  You're looking at 2x as many administrators and staff (or more) for the same number of students, so naturally the tuition is going to be higher.

Finally, another piece of it is that Catholic and non-Catholic schools have traditionally drawn from somewhat different pools of people.  The non-Catholic schools have found they can keep raising tuition and demand doesn't suffer.  I think that's not as true for Catholic schools, for a variety of reasons.  So they have to find ways to keep costs down - not building that art gallery or swimming pool, not hiring a third or fourth college counselor, lower budgets for development and admissions, slightly bigger classes, etc.[/quote]

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