[rtperson]

Valuation doesn't work the way this guy thinks it does. If I buy a hammer and use it to build a house that I then sell for 300K dollars, it does not stand to reason ipso facto that my hammer now costs 300K dollars. Yet this is exactly the level of reasoning that goes into his valuation for a university education.

The hammer costs what supply and demand say it should cost. And with universities, you have a case of increasingly plentiful supply for most materials chasing relatively stable demand. So market reality dictates that prices will fall, if not now then eventually.

[wlesieutre]

No, but it does mean that accredited hammers were only available for $100,000 and up, it would still make sense for you to buy one.

The problem isn't that you can't get educated outside of the university education system. It's that people assume that someone with a college degree is educated, and someone without one isn't.

I consider that no more accurate as assertions that grade school students haven't learned anything unless they can pass a standardized test, but I don't think there's an easy solution. For the near future at least, college degrees will continue to be the main criteria for guessing if someone's qualified for a lot of jobs.

[skybrian]

Accreditation is a barrier to entry, but it's not insurmountable. The supply can still go up, particularly if prices are expected to rise.

[doyoulikeworms]

Every single hypothetical barrier to entry just short of "insurmountable" can be described this way.

[johno215]

Agree.

But, I am not convinced college tuitions will fall.

Demand is increasing. Just in the last 10 years enrollment has increased 30% and is still increasing. Any ranked university/college does not have trouble filling their enrollment goals with their current tuition. Although there may be some delayed price pressure from higher prices causing lower caliber students to enroll, thus decreasing the ranking of the school, and thus reducing what they can charge.

In addition, most american try to achieve a middle class lifestyle at a minimum. And culturally a middle class lifestyle entails the children having a college experience (and its associated costs).