Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Does Anyone Actually Believe This?

Recently a government website launched making comparisons between the cost of going to various universities. Looking at their data, something does not pass the smell test. Here are a number of universities and the government claims about how much it costs to go to each school for a year (arranged highest to lowest):
Catholic University of America $34,086
Emory University $28,463
Duke University $28,058
University of Notre Dame $27,845
University of Chicago $25,335
Columbia University $22,672
Yale University $16,743
Stanford University $15,713
University of Utah $14,114
Harvard University $14,049
University of California-Berkeley $13,769
Brigham Young University $13,070
University of Wyoming $11,292
Utah Valley University $9,642
I do not believe these numbers. Who seriously thinks that it is cheaper to go to Harvard or UC Berkeley than the University of Utah? Emory, Harvard, and Yale have roughly comparable tuition (in the $45,000 range). Something very strange is going on here.