Lining Up At Elite Schools - Go Figure!

Seems to me that private schooling was a bigger bubble than real estate. Now, with more than 75% of applicants not even able to afford the tuition, my guess is that the private school market gets merged and downsized into something very different than what we're all used to. NY Times recently suggested that Harvard and other top universities may merge with state schools so that they can still pay their bills and accept top kids (not a bad idea if you ask me!) And, another recent article suggested that "need blind" at many schools will not apply to transfer students, wait list students or international students since schools are so desperate for full-paying students. These are major changes - and the recession has only just begun. I think budget cuts and limited funding will hit both public schools and private schools hard to a point where the quality of education in the U.S. will be seriously compromised.

The most advantaged kids in America will be those whose parents are smart enough (and well educated enough) to be able to tutor them for free!

Anecdotally? we were looking at pre-K in 2000, at a pre-K-12, great school but not TT technically. Price was around $16K, with kindergarten being a couple of thousand more. Now I'm paying mid-30s for middle school, almost double.

Insane.

watchnwait - is there a source for the >75% figure? It feels high to me. Also, the % of applicants able to lay full freight is probably not the best metric, as applicants so far exceed the number of places in private schools, at least in the Manahattan/Riverdale market. The absolute number (not %) of applicants who can afford the tuition, relative to the seats available, is a better indicator of schools' ability to bring enough tuition dollars to make stay in business. There is no doubt that this ratio has fallen in the last year, but I submit that it remains very comfortably above 1. That said, I have no idea if it's 1.5 or 2 or 3 and believe that whatever it is today it will go lower before it goes higher, so pressure on the system could build over the next year or two.

"NY Times recently suggested that Harvard and other top universities may merge with state schools so that they can still pay their bills and accept top kids (not a bad idea if you ask me!"

The state schools are the ones that will need financial help.

Top private schools can stop being need blind (Brown did it years back) if they want.

Public schools are sorta screwed when students are broke AND states are broke.