College: Much Cheaper Than You Think -- Most Students Pay Less than Half the Sticker Price

The Atlantic ^ | 04/19/2014 | DEREK THOMPSON

[gusty]

As to off-campus apartments, sometimes you have no choice. My daughter goes to McGill in Montreal, and dorms are only for freshman, or first year student as they call it. But the up side is that an off-campus apartment is actually cheaper than the dorms.

[tanknetter]

Actually, it’s become so fueled with excess (loan) money, it’s become like the medical industry - put up a ridiculous bill and get as much as you can legally get. I would like to know the last time a single person (or their insurance company) paid the “list price” for a non-trivial medical procedure.

Yup. Just enrolled my daughter in a private high school (a very good private high school - no way we were sending her to a public indoctrination center). The school's annual tuition was WAY outside our capability to pay; it amounted to roughly 20% of our pre-tax salaries.

We came back and said we'd pay half. School added a trivial amount to our offer and came back with a counter-offer. It's still a big hit for us, but absorbable.

Colleges operate exactly the same way. Once they reach a tipping point in terms of covering their annual operating costs and their desired profit margin, they'll negotiate down to get kids in the door to meet their "full enrollment" numbers.

[pkmaine]

This is a story, pitched by a PR firm — hired by an Association of Universities and Colleges — to fight back on the negative PR they have been receiving.

It is propaganda and spin.

Students are absorbing frightening amounts of debt The US is out of whack.

This was tuition in 2013:

• University of Chicago - $45,945
• George Washington - $45,780
• Stanford - $41,250
• McMaster (Hamilton, Ontario) - $20,966
• McGill - $14,561
• University of Winnipeg - $11,115

[BizBroker]

“But in terms of setting an example for your kids, it only added to the sense of entitlement that is rampant among the Gen-Xers and millenials.”

So we are going to start another generational war? I never let Boomers trash other generations without reminding them that they are THE most narcissistic, idiotic, whiny, and entitled generation in the history of any country ever. And yet, they want to trash Xers, who will have to clean up the mess they created. Yeah, you keep those blinders on and have at it. And remember who started this....

[ExNewsExSpook]

Never said my generation was without fault...in fact, we fit your description to a “T” But not all boomers fit those criteria, just as all X-ers and millenials don’t fit the stereotypes associated with their generation.

The problem is quite simple: at some point, the coddling, narcissism and entitlement attitudes that began with the boomers (and continued with their kids and grandkids) have to stop. If they don’t, the country is through. It’s that simple.

[boxlunch]

YES! And you don’t have to be “rich” to fall into the “rich white” category, earning a decent middle income will put you over the line to receive NO grants, and if you don’t want your kids to pay loans all you get is the old fashioned scholarship (And if your kids don’t score really high on SAT or ACT may not be all that much.)

It just aggravates me that we pay such high taxes and some family who doesn’t have a dad who works long , long hours gets the benefit of my husband’s hard work! We are basically being forced to pay for some other family’s kids to go to college out of our pocket!

[entropy12]

My daughter probably received the scholarship because of her essay on why she deserves this thing. She has amazing writing skills (great bs factor haha). Her GPA was 3.5+ which is pretty good from Univ of Wash...a very hard school.

[BizBroker]

Agreed...

[bjorn14]

Isn’t McGill one of the ‘Canadian Ivies’? Wow such a deal.