You&#x27;ve picked a very unfair data set. Stanford is one of the top universities in the country and has a $22B endowment [1]. The could choose to simply make tuition free if they really wanted to. Stanford optimizes everything they do (including pricing) to attract the best and brightest.<p>You&#x27;re also only looking at cost, which is only half of the equation. You also need to scrutinize lifetime earnings of graduates. For Stanford, this metric would obviously be excellent (see: endowment). For many of the mediocre to bad universities in the United States, this metric is likely terrible.<p>[1]: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;facts.stanford.edu&#x2F;administration&#x2F;finances" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;facts.stanford.edu&#x2F;administration&#x2F;finances</a>