@gargamello: I’ve done small research papers for Sociology regarding where the money goes. In the last decade, the majority of schools have needed to upgrade technology, including installing items such as flat panel televisions in student lounges and new styles of overhead projectors in classrooms. Schools are building new gyms with new state-of-the-art equipment, renovating classrooms, and building new wings to accommodate new students. BCC just completed renovating a new wing while I have attended and have started construction on a new administration building. These are just examples. Schools tend to do these things in order to stay competitive. Each student that enrolls is money in their pocket.

I’d really love to see a breakdown of the numbers at a major university of where all the new money goes. Medical schools and facilities have to be a big component. But what other departments are getting all these new dollars, and why. That would be very interesting.

I just made what I hope is my last grad school tuition payment, and let’s just say it was way more than $333. But I guess if I hadn’t taken so much time away from school both during undergrad and before starting grad school I might have actually saved a ton of money! Even my grad school tuition (not at a Washington school has gone up about 25% or so since I started.