College Industrial Complex Scrambles to Fill Seats: Offers Deep Discounts

Well it seems that going into debt for decades to go to college is finally starting to run into pricing pressure.

Among colleges still seeking students for fall classes are Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon, the University of Maryland, College Park, The New School in New York City, Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, and Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, according to Forbes.com.

Its list includes more selective schools but the National Association of College Admissions Counselors counts 288 colleges nationwide that have reported having space for incoming freshmen this fall.

The reason why is that families and high school kids are getting sticker-shock at these outrageous prices.

Average tuition and fees alone at private nonprofit four-year institutions rose $1,173 or 4.2 percent to $29,056 in 2012-13, according to the College Board. The costs are not much lower for out-of-state students at public four-year institutions where average tuition and fees rose $883 or 4.2 percent to $21,706.

Yeah that is a brand new car a year to send a kid to college. Over 4 years you could buy a pretty nice three bedroom house somewhere in the Midwest.  What makes this even worse is that after spending all this money these newly minted graduates have a 50/50 chance at best of finding a job. So maybe these colleges shouldn't raise their tuition at four times the rate of inflation going forward.