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…听As the president of a small, private university, I pay close attention to media reports of the rising cost of college and recognize there is so much of the story that remains untold, particularly for institutions like mine.
The College Board recently published a new report, “Trends in College Pricing.” Most of the data presented throughout the report focuses on published tuition and fee trends. These increases in published costs are most dramatic for 4-year private nonprofit colleges. Among the priciest private institutions in the country, published costs well exceed $60,000 per year, and many of those same institutions are supported by endowments in the hundreds of million to several billion dollars. Add to this the fact that for all but the highest income families, the average income was lower in inflation-adjusted dollars in 2013 than it had been in 2003. Based on these figures alone, it’s no wonder that the media, legislators, parents and students believe that a college education, particularly at a private institution, is becoming more and more out of reach.
But there is more to this story than meets the eye. …
