Federally guaranteed student loans exceed $120 billion every year. That is a massive subsidy, and it may be increasing costs for more people than it helps. The glut of admissions being able to pay artifically high tuitions is emboldening administrators to add more dormitories every year, expand the administrative class, and build rec centers -- raising tuition even further.

> Last year, FSA provided more than $120 billion in federal grants, loans, and work-study funds to approximately 13 million students at nearly 6,000 participating schools.

https://www2.ed.gov/about/reports/annual/2017report/fsa-repo...

What is the correlation between status as the best in the world and cost? I'm not saying it's perfect, but surely there is some relation.

American Universities are hardly "best in the world". American education is universally scorned, apart from a small handful of institutions.

The draw for US universities is as a gateway to possible citizenship in the future.

really, really untrue. My most recent trip to Asia had most of the "smaller" midwest Uni's promoted (as for many it's the only way into US higher Edu).