Universities are addicts

Universities are addicts, and their drug of choice is tuition.

According to an article (subscription required) by Jeff Selingo in New York Magazine, at least 16 schools have crossed or will cross the $100,000 PER YEAR mark, including NYU, Duke, Amherst, Wesleyan, and USC.

College tuition increases are hardly a new phenomenon.

tuitions have increased by an average of 5.5% annually since 1983

Far outpacing inflation. And, shockingly, college costs are rising faster this decade than they did during the last one.

And yet, at a time when the value of a college degree is finally being questioned by a majority of Americans, when employers are dramatically curtailing their hiring of college grads, and when better post-secondary alternatives are emerging . . . universities still decide to continue their decades-long price-gouging policies?

This isn't the behavior of a school.

it's the behavior of an addict

They literally can't help themselves.

Yes, I'm sure that extra hit of tuition feels great in the short term (like most drugs do).

But, at this point, it is going to do way more damage to them in the long-term (like most drugs do).

And yet, they do it anyway (like most drug addicts do).

They tell us they don't have a problem. Then they tell us they're going to change. Then they go right back to their old ways.

I'd say that it's time for an intervention, but . . .

universities are too far gone

At this point, I think the only effective course of action is to cut them off entirely.

If universities can't "just say no" to tuition hikes, then it's time for us to just say no to them.