From time to time, various media outlets create the hardy perennial that is a list of the 10 most expensive colleges in the United States. These lists are all a little different. Virtually everyone agrees that Sarah Lawrence College is the most expensive, for example, but an outfit called Gothamist gives Bates College the dubious honor. Numbers 2-10 are never quite the same. We scoured a bunch of lists to find the 10 schools that show up as most expensive most often. Forget order. We can say with confidence that all 10 of these undergrad schools are absurdly expensive. Today, we present...
Bronxville, New York (about 30 minutes from Midtown Manhattan by train)
Annual tuition, fees, and room and board: $56,519
Students who apply to Sarah Lawrence also frequently apply to: Bard College, New York University, Skidmore College
Random rankings: College Prowler Academics grade: B+
(Note that Sarah Lawrence no longer bothers with collecting standardized test scores. As a result, serial rankers such as U.S. News have basically stopped ranking the school.)
$56,519 perks: Seminar-style classes and constant one-on-one meetings with professors are a big selling point. Students get written evaluations for their courses in addition to grades. In the fall, SLC organizes what may well be the world’s best most raucous screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Celebrity alumni: Rahm Emanuel (mayor of Chicago), Vera Wang (fashion designer)
What you could buy with $56,519 instead: 2012 Porsche Cayman ($55,370)
Is it worth it? Would you pick the Porsche or the posh education?
Image Source: Sarah Lawrence; Porsche
