$50,000 per year is not actually that high in the grand scheme of things as a total cost to attend a private college, since most undergrads depend heavily on their parents for financial support.
If you subtract a base tuition of $35,000 from that, you're left with $15,000 per year as total living expenses. That's barely over $1200, and has to cover not only rent and food, but textbooks, computers, and other costs of campus life. Even assuming your kid doesn't do much partying, or need access to a car, $15k is hardly a lavish annual budget.
Yea, but that would assume a base tuition of 35,000, which there is no reason to spend. Go to a state school if the money is an issue, out of state to Penn State, considered one of the more expensive state schools, is 24,000 a year. That leaves 26,000 a year for living expenses. In state is even less. At my school it is 18,000 out of state and 7,000 in state and we're top 25 nationwide in both of my majors. My apartment is one of the nicer ones on campus and it is $700 a month, plus $500 for food and expenses, plus 2,000 for books and supplies, I'm barely up to 35,000 and that is with generous allouances and an expensive apartment. In state you could be doing it for 20,000 a year. The people who claim college is outrageous are far from the ground level. I don't know anyone who couldn't work it out by taking loans and going to a state school, everyone quotes these private schools and their prices but that is a whole different ball game. The reality is that college is not all that expensive in the short term, and it is nothing in the long term.
Going to a small, private college is also a completely different experience than attending a large state school. The entire pedagogical style is difference: small (<15 students) conference courses and one-on-one meetings with profs are the norm, rather than the exception.
I'm not saying that private schools make sense a strict cost/benefit level; if you read my other posts in this thread, you'll see that I'm nearly as dubious as the author of the original article about the real economic benefits of a four-year degree. I just don't think that $200k is an unusually high total cost for four years of college.
If you subtract a base tuition of $35,000 from that, you're left with $15,000 per year as total living expenses. That's barely over $1200, and has to cover not only rent and food, but textbooks, computers, and other costs of campus life. Even assuming your kid doesn't do much partying, or need access to a car, $15k is hardly a lavish annual budget.