On average, skipping college and investing tuition costs nets a higher return

Re:On average, skipping college and investing tuition costs ... by replicatorblog on Monday June 05, 2017 @05:26PM (#14492259)

That line of argument would be more persuasive if it explained why tuition has increased at private colleges? Suffolk University is an unimpressive college in Boston that is at risk of losing its accredidation, yet charges $37K/year for tuition. Harvard, arguably the best college brand in the world, costs $43K. It seems like there should be a bigger delta between the two, right? Why not? Might it have something to do with the amount of loans students are allowed to take out with government underwriting? Perhaps.

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Re:On average, skipping college and investing tuition costs ... by learc83 on Monday June 05, 2017 @06:58PM (#14493067)

Or might it have something to do with the fact that Harvard has a massive multi-billion dollar endowment. Tuition is a tiny fraction of their income.

70% of Harvard students receive financial aid from the institution, and they pay an average of $12k a year total. Harvard clearly isn't charging a market rate for tuition.

Also government backed loans aren't nearly enough to cover tuition plus housing at these schools, so if your argument is that the prices are similar because they are both near the max loan amount, they aren't.

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Re:On average, skipping college and investing tuition costs ... by replicatorblog on Tuesday June 06, 2017 @06:46AM (#14496217)

Is there any literature that explains why the costs continue to rise on a yearly basis? If one buys into the disinvestment hypothesis it seems like the public university traditions should have plateaued at some point once the <$10K difference in state funding and private tuition normalized. Especially considering we've seen dramatic cost reductions in IT and a profusion of programs like MITx, Khan Academy, and others that should allow colleges to reduce costs.

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