[holograham]

How do you get college costs to go down? You lower the demand. It's simple economics 101.

Ambitious people not going to college has nothing to do with the price of college. They don't need to go at any price point. The price reflects the value that customers (students) put on the education.

[Quizzal]

Also, you have to pay attention to the internal economics of how colleges are funded and the services they provide to truly understand the cost required to run a college. You are assuming the demand delta just means the college is voluntarily increasing its margins in the face of demand. Take the California UC & CalState System, it's structurally broken. Regardless of demand, it simply has no choice but to 1) increase fees, 2) reduce admissions, 3) fire professors. Much of its money does not come from tuition paid for by students, but entirely by the state - what happens when the state is financially strapped? No differently, large private universities also rely heavily on federal funds - same thing, what happens when the feds cut back?

So how do you get costs to go down? You change the paradigm of how a college is run so that they are not paying for unnecessary expenses. Seriously, is there any value to all those publications that professors are expected to publish? I'm certain we can do without 30% of such writings when the real cost is higher tuition to the students.

Yes, demand does play a part, but it's only a part of the equation. There's a huge problem with how colleges are structured and operated that is unsustainable.