Since the 1970s college tuition has outpaced the cost of living by a factor of 3:
Note that that number is inflation-adjusted, folks.
In nominal dollar-terms, it's even worse: which means (given the wage stagnation of the last decade) college is close to unaffordable.
And for law school, it's been even worse:
Inflation-Adjusted Law School Tuition: $1,550 (Public), $3,418 (Private)
Brian Tamanaha (Washington U.), Information About Law Schools, Circa 1960: The Cost of Attending:
The AALS produced a comprehensive study of law schools in the late 1950s, sending detailed surveys to 129 law schools, with a 90% response rate. Here are a few interesting tidbits about the cost of attending law school:
Median annual tuition and fees at private law schools was $475 (range $50-$1050); adjusted for inflation, that's $3,419 in 2011 dollars. The median for public law schools was $204 (range $50 - $692), or $1,550 in 2011 dollars.
In contrast, here are the current tuition and fees at the top-ranked private (Harvard: $48,786; Stanford: $47,460; Yale: $52,525) and public (resident) (Michigan: $44,600; UC-Berkeley: $44,245; Virginia: $44,600) law schools.
Compounding the problem is the diabolical commitment to "diworseity" at the University, and the "Tiger Mom" mentality -- where top schools won't even look at you unless you've climbed Mt. Everest on your hands, unaided, at the age of seven.
And done it blindfolded at the age of eight.
One has the "hourglass" distribution of attendance similar to the "hourglass" of wealth -- the superacheivers, the kids who have no business being there, and nobody in between.
Fortunately, if one chooses carefully, one can get just as good an education at a good flagship State University at a fraction of the price.
Unfortunately, with the networking available at the elite schools, the practice of "credentialism", and the dumbing down / Marxism crap even at the elite schools (saving only the math and science), for most kids, it makes no difference.
Sight.