> That, in turn, means top colleges can charge pretty much whatever they want and it's still worth the money.
The most prestigious colleges actually don't charge much money, except for families that can easily pay. Financial aid, including stipends for living expenses, is extremely generous at elite schools. The sticker price might be high, but few people actually pay it.
The problem is more with second tier schools that aspire to greater prestige but have more limited financial resources. While many of these schools offer perfectly good educations, they don't really open the same kind of doors that going to a more elite school can. A big tuition price can make parents think they're sending their kid to a really elite school - just like people often will assume a more expensive diamond ring is better than a less expensive one. But it's probably not really worth the money.
I've seen this mentioned several times, and I wish I had realized this when I was younger. I didn't even bother to apply to top tier schools even though I would have probably been accepted there because I knew my parents weren't too well off and I didn't think they'd be able to afford to support me, and I really hated the idea of taking out big college loans ($20k+ per year to go to school just seemed insane to me at the time... now 20 years later it's the average tuition + lodging at my local public university!?!).
So instead I only applied to in-state colleges, thinking I was being sensible and pragmatic by doing so. But there's a chance I would have paid less at the top tier schools than I ended up paying for local schools.
That's absolutely a thing, and the knowledge of that fact is more limited than it should be. At my alma mater, I had friends who were getting almost a full scholarship. They left with only a few thousand dollars of debt (as opposed to tens of thousands) because they were able to pay off most of it with a part time on-campus job like being a lab technician.
It's an example of how inequality along financial or racial lines can be real despite there being no theoretical reason for it: if you don't know that you could attend a top tier university and leave with very little debt, you'll consider applying as a student. If you don't, then you've preemptively rejected a very good opportunity for upward mobility. Too many people just don't know because their families or communities don't play the college admissions "game."
The most prestigious colleges actually don't charge much money, except for families that can easily pay. Financial aid, including stipends for living expenses, is extremely generous at elite schools. The sticker price might be high, but few people actually pay it.
The problem is more with second tier schools that aspire to greater prestige but have more limited financial resources. While many of these schools offer perfectly good educations, they don't really open the same kind of doors that going to a more elite school can. A big tuition price can make parents think they're sending their kid to a really elite school - just like people often will assume a more expensive diamond ring is better than a less expensive one. But it's probably not really worth the money.