One thing no one talks about, why do all degrees virtually cost the same in most universities. Why would a engineer pay the same as a liberal arts student. The reason I saying this is maybe the cost should be proportional to the expected earnings?
Well, what is the university charging students for - the services that they produce to give you your education, or the expected value of your salary after graduation?
In theory, universities are not for-profit.
Is there something about an engineering school education that is inherently more expensive than a liberal arts education?
Yes in fact it cost more in equipment, facilities, salaries of professors to educate an engineering student compared to a mathematics student or English student.
Many universities have different prices for different faculties classes. What end's up happening is that business costs the most, sciences cost the same as any other class and engineering/comp sci. is only marginally higher. (450/500/680). From a purely cost point of view, that is a bit skewed.
If we select tuition based on price, we will, collectively, drive prices downward - with a proportional decrease in quality (much like we do with airlines). There are lots of schools in this position. Prestigious ones have the luxury of setting their tuition as high as their target market will bear, because they are focusing on quality, not price.
where i went, they did not pay the same. engineering school was the most expensive, followed by architecture, journalism, business, and then finally "arts and sciences". the difference was only a few percent at each step, though. (IIRC.)
recall, though, that we're dealing with a market. the schools will charge what they can get away with for a liberal arts degree. if folks purchasing liberal arts degrees could do the math to realize they're getting a bad deal, they'd stop paying so much for them and the prices would drop. conveniently for universities, prospective psych majors don't spend a lot of time thinking about their expected lifetime earnings and how much their degree will change those earnings.
