I suppose the wealth of the parents make a bigger dent than I expected.
That may be part of it, but I suspect part of it is that wealthier schools give out more in the way of need-based grants.
Oh I guess that's what the last sentence of the OP said.
The very tippy top schools these days have huge endowments and at least a few promise no debt if your family makes less than $x, so often they can be much cheaper than local, or state schools. There have been articles about this for a little while now. At even one tier below that, debt starts to creep up, and below that, debt skyrockets, because the schools just aren't rich enough to subsidize the students, and the students aren't rich enough to pay out of pocket.
It's only too true. I've talked about the bargain "Scioto State," as Milton Caniff used to call it was in my day, but not any more.
My kids not only got a better education, and had a better college experience than I did by going to private liberal arts colleges, but they won't have incurred any financial penalty for having done so.
Now we are astute consumers of the product colleges are offering, and we know as most academics do where the sweet spot is. But vast numbers of ordinary applicants don't know that, because it seems counter-intuitive.
Scioto State
Why not Olentangy State? Or am I missing the reference.
I just read an interesting piece about the occupy protester Cecily McMillan's arrest.
multiple videos from multiple angles
Caniff, the author of Steve Canyon as well as Terry and the Pirates often featured the rivalry between two imaginary Ohio Colleges, "Maumee" and "Scioto State"
You're quite right that it's the Olentangy that passes through, or at least by, the school in question.
Caniff was my commencement speaker there, Class of '75.
The new bridge that carries Lane over it is teh fancy.
I suspect that the "average student debt" here conceals a multitude of sins that a look at more data might help clarify. For one example: Cal State Sacramento: $4,456. Cal State Bakersfield: $10,101. Cal State Fresno: $16,100. Cal State East Bay: $19,303. That's not a top tier/second tier school distinction, or any significant difference in tuition and fees. It might reflect the fact that East Bay is much less of a commuter school than it used to be back in the day, with many students living in the dorms, while Sacramento may be primarily/exclusively commuter (I don't really know about the latter school, but I'm guessing based on the figures above). Or it might reflect other differences in the student population. In any case, I think it would be a fallacy to assume that your kid will graduate with a lot less student debt if he/she goes to Sacramento vs. East Bay, keeping all other variables constant.
I guess I have no idea how the various Cal States are perceived because I was surprised to see how far down the list Cal St. East Bay is on the [obligatory acknowledgement that it's mostly BS] US News rankings relative to other Cal States.
In case you were wondering where all that money's going.
10: Yeah, US News ranks CS Monterey Bay #66 in the Western Regional colleges and East Bay as #90. Those were the two Cal State schools we toured when my son was applying to colleges. Monterey Bay has a pretty good marine biology program because of the tie-in with the Aquarium and related research programs, and also offers degrees in environmental science/computer science/math, but the rest of their science and engineering is essentially non-existent. Contrast with East Bay's College of Science offerings, and the difference is pretty stark. I understand why Monterey Bay wants to develop that way, as the new kid on the block trying to make a name for themselves, but I think that's a pretty serious deficiency when evaluating the schools for general purpose undergraduate education.
I guess the US News model is looking at the difference in acceptance rates and saying that Monterey Bay is more selective, but both schools are primarily using the same system-wide admission criteria, with some refinements, so that seems a bit silly.