The business of higher education

It's been quite a few years, 13 to be exact, since I seriously looked at undergraduate programs. This week my cousin came to visit Boston with my aunt and it all came flooding back- the test scores, the pressure of writing the perfect essay, the lists of pros and cons, etc. And as I was sitting there discussing everything with them I realized how much work has to be put in not only from the student but the parents.

My cousin is responsible for figuring out what she wants to study, researching schools, ranking schools based on compatibility and then requesting visits for her top places. But someone needs to put up the airline miles, arrange the hotel stays, get the car rental figured out, and be realistic about matching her expectations with her desires when it comes to financing an education.

My Aunt and Uncle run Best Crystal, a online store for fine crystal. So, they aren't slackers. And as we were eating dinner I realized that this is essentially a part time job for her and her husband. I joked with her that she can excuse the decrease in profits over the next 6 months to "Daughter 1 was looking at colleges." Probably not the best business model, but life happens and this is an important decision, not only for the student but parents as well.

According to the NYTimes, "published college tuition and fees increased 439 percent from 1982 to 2007, adjusted for inflation, while median family income rose 147 percent. Student borrowing has more than doubled in the last decade, and students from lower-income families, on average, get smaller grants from the colleges they attend than students from more affluent families."

I don't envy any student or parent looking at funding or attending college anytime in the next 10 years. I can only hope that we as a country figure out a way to make higher education a priority and therefore a reasonable expense.