[fraggleysun]

May I suggest a fifth possibility: your core assumption is flawed and your professor hasn’t been paying attention.

Unless your college is failing, it is hard to believe that the student population hasn’t changed significantly over the last 30 years, when the US population has almost grown by 30%.

I attended UCI over 25 years ago. The student population has since more than doubled. Tuition rates, interestingly have also almost doubled.

[pclmulqdq]

This was at a college where indeed the student population did not change in size. The same goes for the professors, whose population grew about 5% over that time.

[kelnos]

Not every school wants to grow the size of their student body. And there shouldn't be any reason why they would be forced to.

[akvadrako]

That's a weird thing to say since many small and rather well regarded private schools stay small on purpose.

For example, do you really think Dartmouth is failing?

[pclmulqdq]

Yeah, the parent comment here should have been thinking Dartmouth rather than about one of the UCs for their model school. This was Caltech.

[selimthegrim]

Well, as a fellow alum, I can tell you they definitely screwed up the last two points (esp ITAR) within living memory.

[pclmulqdq]

Yeah, the list I provided there were areas where Caltech grew significantly. I wasn't sure if other schools were the same.

[matthewdgreen]

Many elite colleges have opted to keep class sizes small, and make themselves more selective instead. It is pretty despicable. It sounds like UCI is doing the right thing, although I've heard it's still hard to get into many of the UC schools because there are so many applicants.

In fairness, a dollar in 2000 is worth $1.83 today, so that would (almost) account for the tuition increase.