I don't think your BU numbers are correct. I don't think Bennington's TOTAL cost was that high in 1986! That number may be close to the total cost near, or soon after, the end of your undergrad days. But, even then, you are comparing total cost then to tuition now.
I will give you Cornell's numbers as they are pretty relevant to me right now. In 1986, the tuition was $11,500 (
COLLEGES' TUITION UP 7% TO 8%; TOTAL BILL CAN EXCEED $16,000). In 2016, the tuition is $50,712 (
Tuition Rates and Fees | Cornell University Division of Financial Affairs) So, you are right, it isn't 300%. It is 340%!!!! Sorry, but not all of that is explained by the fact that full freight students are being used to subsidize students getting aid. And do we know for sure that practice did not occur in 1986 also?
Well I started mid 80s, I am class of 1990.
Again, private schools can do whatever they want. They are private schools. No one has any control of them.
Cornell is also not hiring as many adjuncts. Why? Because it knows that people aren't paying 50k a year for to take courses with someone making $2,500 per course.
The math of need blind aid is simple to see. If the tuition was $20,000 years ago, and the cost per student was $12,000 (60% of $20k as per need-blind policy) the school effectively increasing tuition by $8k a year over what it spends. If you take the same dynamic and do it at $40k, then the school is charging you $16k more than it spends.
This is why need-blind admission jacks up tuition at these schools. The higher the tuition goes, the more you need to retain need-blind policies.
Plus, have you ever plugged in these figures into a CPI calculator?
$20k at 3% over 30 years = $48,500.
And if you're starting in 1986, you are looking at CPIs of 4.4, 4.4, 4.6, 6.1, 3.1, 2.9, 2.7, 2.7, 2.5, 3.3, for the first decade.
A much better study of college costs would be to look at spending over the last 30 years. How quickly has spending gone up?
The study I was just looking at showed spending at a school like Cal-Berkeley increased from $1.2B to $1.7B from 1991 to 2011 (20 years). I'd say that's probably lower than inflation.
Tuition at Berkeley is up over 1,000% during that period, well outpacing inflation. But costs aren't.