Having spent many years attending universities and now sending two kids to university I observer that colleges and universities realize that tuition costs are no longer a major factor in students choosing one university over another. Cost is no longer a factor in the competition between colleges; they compete on amenities.

The universities have new luxurious dorms, outdoor swimming pools that look like Vegas resort pools with lounge chairs for sunning, large new fitness centers with indoor tennis courts, elaborate climbing walls, yoga and spin classes, etc. The universities simply raise their tuition to cover these expensive facilities. It's kind of like visiting one of the best health clubs you could imagine, except filled with beautiful people all your age and all looking for new relationships (or looking to hook up) and not having any parents around and having a free, really great cafeteria, and being told that being a member there for four, five, or even six years is going to be really fun (football games and parties, yay!) and finally being told that its not going to cost anything right now you can just pay for it later. During the sales pitch, you're told how good for you it will be and how you will come out knowing how to think and being given examples of all the people that were members of this club in the past and went on to do great things.

The evolution of universities into playgrounds for young adults has also had an impact on the educational choices begin offered. For example, universities now support large fine arts programs where students can work for years on majors where most will have no hope of obtaining meaningful employment in the field once they graduate.

I've been to a large "job fair" kind of event, except for there being no jobs, given by a very large university's college of Fine Arts--I went with a friend that was already a freelance musician at the professional symphony level who was going back to work on a graduate degree in oboe. The final, most memorable, talk was given by an alumnus of that college of Fine Arts which spoke about how one gets a job with a degree in music. The speaker related how difficult it was living in a shitty apartment in New York while playing jazz in clubs and how he finally after a few years started making a reasonable living by switching from playing bass to web-design. This was the best example the Fine Arts department presented of a "successful" graduate. By the way, my friend, the amazing oboe player, years later ended up selling her oboe in disgust and never played again.

All the schools are expensive now. With an exception of in-state schools, tuition at almost every university each of our kids considered was both high and practically the same across the board. Finally, although slightly off-topic, in my neighborhood children attend one of the very best public high schools in the country so the excellent and less expensive state university here is actually too hard to get into because admission there is based on class rank and doesn't take into account how much harder it is to be in the top 7% at the local public high school vs almost every other public high school in the state. It's possible to be admitted to Stanford but not make the 7% cutoff to get into the state University.