Reply to WaPo feature on bad economic outlook for colleges

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Did you see this piece on the news awhile ago? It predicts a quarter of schools will close in the next 20 years. The sad part is how devastating it will be for small towns like the one in the piece where the college is the center of the community.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cbsnews.com/amp/news/expert-predicts-25-percent-of-colleges-will-fail-in-the-next-20-years-2019-08-31/[/quote]

From the story:
"At Green Mountain College this past year, we didn't have one full paid student," Allen said, adding, "Our published tuition was $36,500, and the average student paid just a little over $12,000."

Why didn't they publish tuition rates of $15 K with fewer scholarships?  They would have made more per student and [b]I bet they wpuld have been swamped at applicants[/b].  They could have even offered a $1K merit scholarship and still have come out ahead.[/quote]

I agree. I can’t believe how many people don’t realize that at many privates the list price isn’t necessarily the price one should expect to pay. They do that because the full-pay shoppers are hard to give up, but the cost is many who won’t even consider applying. [/quote]

I'm on the faculty of a mid-range University.  The empirics don't support your claim.  People would rather get a bigger scholarship than pay less tuition.  People like to think their child is "special" and therefore getting a $15-$20K/year scholarship.  It seems ridiculous, but that's what the data shows.  Like anything, I think people would worry there was something wrong with a school that only cost $12K a year.  I don't think they would be flooded with applications (if fact, I'm sure they wouldn't).  Many people complain about the colleges, but the problem is also consumers.  Consumers are obsessed with rankings so schools give scholarships to get kids with the highest stats they can regardless of financial need.  Honestly, it's a messed up system and I wish something would change...[/quote]

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