In a high-stakes, playing-hard-to-get strategy, the most exclusive schools seem to know that the more they lower their admission rates, the more students will rush to apply. In a sense, there may be very little incentive for institutions such as Dartmouth to rein in spending.
Although not as much as financial aid, such expenses have “been a driver for the last eight to 10 years,” says President Phil Hanlon ’77.
Less sizeable but still significant drivers of cost include compliance with a range of government regulations imposed to address issues such as crime, gender equity and accessibility, which have totaled millions of dollars, College officials say. Yet those kinds of considerations seem to inform spending decisions. Indeed, if a prospie opts for Yale, it could have nothing to do with the fact that her Hanover Inn meal disagreed with her or that the dorm room she toured didn’t have a super-sized en-suite bathroom. News & World Report ranking, it might not feel as compelled to spend as much on whiz-bang amenities, which could bring costs down, he says. Reich, for one, says that Dartmouth, like other schools, needs to take a deep breath: If it cared less about its U.S. To compete for top students, analysts say, Dartmouth and other elite schools have become locked in a virtual arms race, going after professors who are experts in their fields, constructing dazzling gyms with cutting-edge fitness equipment and installing the fastest-possible computer connections-not knowing for sure what makes a student choose one college over another. Healthcare costs and salaries are rising too-and hiring at the College has shot up more than enrollment. Just as lattes cost more these days, so do markers and whiteboards and keeping the lights on. Today it’s about the cost of a BMW M3 sedan-and there is no simple explanation for the spike. He recalls the tuition charged when he was a student-roughly $2,000-was “about the cost of a Chevrolet.” “The trajectory we are on is not sustainable,” says Berkeley public policy professor Robert Reich ’68, a former U.S. The spike comes against a backdrop of stagnant wages in a country where median family income is $53,000, and from a not-for-profit institution whose mission is rooted in improving the world. This fall students will face a price tag of nearly $64,000. In 1994 Dartmouth tuition, room and board, and mandatory fees cost about $26,000. In the past two decades average tuition has more than doubled- after adjustment for inflation. But even as prices have, predictably, drifted upward, what has happened to college tuitions in recent years has been startling.
And after all, if you can spend nearly $1bn on a yacht, as the Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich is supposed to have spent on his floating palace Eclipse, another few millions for a trophy picture is not that much.Īnd while you can build another yacht, you can't get a top Manet, Cézanne or Raphael made for you - you have to vie with other collectors when one appears on the market.Anybody who has bought coffee through the years-or purchased movie tickets or paid for home repairs-knows a dollar doesn’t go as far as it used to. The sheer amount of money in private hands allows billionaires - and there are, at the last count according to Forbes, 1,426 of them spread throughout the world - to indulge in a highly competitive sport to bag the best artworks. The seemingly gravity-defying art market also reflects the nature of wealth today. Le Rêve just one example of how values are spiralling upwards, driven by new money, newly emerged economies, speculation and a fashion for art that overlaps with lifestyle choices and the luxury goods industry. While much of the world is mired in economic gloom, the art market - which regularly sees multi-million prices set for paintings and sculpture - seems to be living in a parallel universe. This was a private sale, and at auction records are also being shattered: last year in New York, Edvard Munch's The Scream made almost $120m, Kazinform has learnt from BBC News. Now, after a skillful repair, the sale has finally gone through, but this time for $150m, setting a new record for Picasso as well as being the highest price any American collector has ever paid for a work of art. Such works are among the most desirable by Picasso and the price would have set a new high for the artist - but with the painting punctured, the buyer, billionaire hedge fund mogul Steve Cohen, called off the deal.
The painting is one of a series of sensuous portraits of the artist's young mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter, painted in 1932 during their torrid affair. Imagine Las Vegas casino owner Steve Wynn's horror when, seven years ago, he accidentally put his elbow through Picasso's painting Le Rêve (The Dream), just as he was about to sell it for an eye-popping $139m.