22 years. Long enough to see the FA staff at the college my wife works at triple.
Colleges big against each other for students all the time. Most of the time the only way a student ever actually pays for himself is when they join the alumni association.
It is a corrupt and wasteful system. But it’s NOT the corrupt and wasteful system you’re saying it is. It really all centers around the government. They push students to a financial aid system the colleges have to accept, the acceptance of which pushes up the costs for the college, which isn’t made up by government financing, so they pass the costs to the students, which drives more students to financial aid. The financial aid system does need to be broken apart, just understand who made the system as stupid as it is.
I vehemently disagree with you that the cost of administering financial aid exceeds the increase in money that the colleges are able to rake in overall. College costs have been rising at multiples of the inflation rate for years because and only because government subsidies make it possible for their customers to agree to payments they otherwise couldn’t afford.
I agree with you that government is at the root of it, but higher ed has been making out like bandits from the system and spending lots of money wastefully to lure customers who are not cost conscious because they now have third-party payers, lenders and subsidizers.
And you’re right, the Ivies at least used to coordinate their aid offers, but the Dept of Justice made them stop. Early admission policies are a funky way to keep students from shopping in the marketplace, however.