Perhaps a time-out is due? 

At the moment, that current model Ford truck tags in at $97,095. It is arguably money better spent once than quadrupled for a liberal arts degree in Wymmins Studies with a minor in Queer Theory and Conflict Resolution.

At least you can haul things around in the truck, sleep in it if you have to, and pay it off after six years or so. The resale value is pretty damn good, too.

"Value" is the operative word here.

The chi-chi sheepskin from "Student Loans Own Your Asterisk U"? Not so much.

At these attendance prices, you wouldn't have enough money left over for a Hot Pocket, less mind a vehicle.

BUT DON'T LET REALITY STOP YOU, KIDDIES

Several New England universities and colleges have reached a pinnacle of at least $90,000 for undergraduate tuition and costs starting this fall.

...The nearly six-figure sums reflect the rising cost of higher education, far outstripping the average inflation for other goods and services.

For the 2024-2025 school year, Tufts’ estimates of expenses for undergraduate programs reaches nearly $96,000, trumping Wellesley — which comes in at about $92,000.

Wellesley’s comprehensive undergraduate fee is an increase of 4.7% from the current year of $88,200, which “reflects the increasing costs of providing a Wellesley education,” university spokesperson Stacey Schmeidel told CNN Wednesday. The total fees including health insurance will boost the cost up to $92,060, Schmeidel added.

These federally mandated "cost of attendance" numbers supposedly reflect "the rising cost of higher education." That's the official excuse and not just from Wellesley. But what exactly IS rising? 

It's not more faculty being added who teach in these schools or those already there rewarded with really fat salaries - that's a fact. 

It's the administrative side of the house that has exploded, jamming campuses to the gills with superfluous bodies. Colleges have been hiring "administrators" for everything under the sun and assistants for them.

...But unlike Purdue University—who used this new source of revenue to hold undergraduate tuition flat for a decade—most schools went on a hiring spree; one that massively expanded the ranks of all types of employees, with one notable exception—full-time faculty

Between 1976 and 2018, full-time administrators and other professionals employed by those institutions increased by 164% and 452%, respectively. Meanwhile, the number of full-time faculty employed at colleges and universities in the U.S. increased by only 92%, marginally outpacing student enrollment which grew by 78%.

When we look at individual schools the numbers are just as striking. A recent report I authored found that on average, the top 50 schools have 1 faculty per 11 students whereas the same institutions have 1 non-faculty employee per 4 students. Put another way, there are now 3 times as many administrators and other professionals (not including university hospitals staff), as there are faculty (on a per student basis) at the leading schools in country.

The corresponding cost explosion is not a New England problem - it's a nation-wide plague.

... While Tufts University in Boston comes out above most California universities — with a year’s tuition, housing and other expenses topping $96,000, according to a CNN report — Pepperdine and the University of Southern California, both in Los Angeles County, are not far behind, each with total costs around $95,200, according to the universities’ websites.

Harvey Mudd, one of the Claremont Colleges also in Los Angeles County, has an eye-popping sticker price, too — $93,100 — for 2024-25. Other Southern California private schools like Claremont McKenna, California Institute of Technology and Chapman University also had total costs topping $90,000. Pomona College and the University of San Diego were slightly lower, at $89,400 and $80,600, respectively.

In the Bay Area, Stanford University’s estimated cost of attendance rivaled those in Southern California at $92,900 per year. Other private schools like Santa Clara University and the University of San Francisco have not yet crossed the $90,000 mark, at $85,700 and $80,300, respectively.

When the CNN report initially came out, the New York Times rushed into the fray with soothing noises. "Don't be frightened, children!" they wrote. "Hardly anyone pays that. Or, mostly, nobody does....only a couple people, actually....it's just money. Go if you want to."

...Sticker prices are easier to track than net prices — what students end up paying after deducting grants and other financial aid that doesn’t have to be repaid — but misleading because the share of students paying them has declined over time, the report said. In the 2019-20 school year, about 16 percent of students at private, nonprofit four-year colleges paid the full sticker price, down from 29 percent in the 1995-96 school year. (At in-state public colleges, about a quarter paid the sticker price in 2019-20, down from about half in 1995-96.)

Why would colleges promote themselves as more expensive than they really are? Colleges increasingly compete for students, and they may use the sticker price as a marketing tool to “signal” that the school is high quality, Dr. Levine said. They then award merit aid to encourage admitted students to enroll.

Average sticker prices at both private and public colleges rose roughly 70 percent from the 1995-96 to 2019-20 school years. Over the same period, typical net prices for lower-income students (with family incomes below $50,000) rose 44 percent at public schools and 24 percent at private schools — substantial increases but far below the rise in sticker prices.

For more than a decade, the report found, the typical net price at private colleges has increased just for higher-income students. But that still doesn’t mean college is affordable for low- or moderate-income families. Students from families with incomes of less than $50,000 are still being asked to pay almost $25,000 to attend a typical private institution, the report found.

“You do not need a Ph.D. to recognize that is not affordable,” Dr. Levine said in an interview.

Some people would happily take out more student loans to get that Ph.D and yet still be unable to recognize their entire education was unaffordable.

These are the people Joe Biden is currently buying off with our tax money.

What are prospective students receiving for these ballooning tuitions at esteemed campuses? 

Well, for the princely - let me check that figure again...ah, yes - $92,900 a year at Standford, an aspiring engineer  can learn how to DEI word weasel reports or build the anti-racist lab of DEI advocates' wet fever dreams.

...Let’s take a look at some of the cosmetic DEI initiatives. Besides writing dramatically long BLM declarations and scribbling land acknowledgments for the Ohlone Indians, the main use of time for SoE’s DEI personnel seems to be concocting 30-page DEI reports on each department. Take, for example, the 2021 mechanical engineering departmental DEI report, which contains the word harm 18 times, black 23 times, and racism 11 times — but doesn’t mention tutors or educational assistance (the most common-sense methods of increasing diversity).

DEI creeps into classrooms and labs, too, as illustrated by the civil and environmental engineering (CEE) department’s “Ten simple rules for building an antiracist lab.” According to the guide, it isn't enough for instructors to regularly “lead informed discussions about antiracism;” racism should also make it into field safety guidelines. After all, what is a microaggression, if not a chemical leak of hatred?

Money well spent, no?

If you've just had Joe Biden pay off your freely taken obligation for student loans, boy, did taxpayers get played.

For example, we got played for this self-described "food, wine, and travel enthusiast" - Colin Seeberger - who's a Democratic operative by job description. 

...He studied political management with a concentration in strategic communications at George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management and graduated summa cum laude from Pace University’s Pforzheimer Honors College in New York City.

That's also why he thanked Biden for paying off his student loans, when, in fact, a program already in place did so. 

Also, I was not expecting this to process for at least a few more months. @POTUS really is pushing @FAFSA to move as fast as possible to administer forgiveness. https://t.co/1IiBVf6Uja

— Colin Seeberger (@CMSeeberger) April 13, 2024

Oh, barf. The only "public service" I can find he worked at was in a senator's office for a bit. He certainly wasn't handing out bowls of rice or bottles of water for FEMA or the Peace Corps. And it's beyond irritating knowing my tax dollars helped him pay basically pennies on a student loan debt for decades, still be able to "travel" and quaff enthusiastically, all while writing and promoting drivel like this.

...“At a time when gun violence is already rampant, Florida’s permitless carry law will make people less safe and put law enforcement in danger. Data shows permitless carry laws like the one recently enacted in Florida are directly associated with an increase in violent crime and gun homicides,” said Colin Seeberger, senior advisor for Communications with the Center for American Progress.

I can't imagine how much more radical he would have been had he been surrounded by an indoctrinating cloud of DEI angels.

Nor can I imagine how much more he would have soaked the taxpayer for.

It's all such a scam.