[chrisk]

Pretty crappy that some colleges are charging full boat for online learning. I would advise my kids (way past college) to take the gap and work or volunteer. In the West we need volunteer firefighters.

Agreed.  I actually spoke with the Director of Finance at SCU, my alma mater.  I told her that I thought it was unconscionable that SCU was denying the full collegiate experience while at the same time charging full rates for what amounted to a University of Phoenix online education.

Her response was actually very lengthy, but it boils down to the following three items:

1)  All universities, SCU included, have enormous fixed costs against an expected revenue stream, whether or not classes are in person.
2)  The universities have  incurred costs to put all classes online.
3)  We ain't changing sxxt.  

That last one was paraphrased, but fundamentally accurate.

Those that don't like Stanford's pricing policy are more than able to go elsewhere if they believe a 10-20% lower tuition list price is that critical.  There will be thousands of future Fall 2021 applicants that would be happy to learn their class will be bigger.

The gap year, stop out and drop out types will hurt budgets for schools at every level, but in almost every situation dropping tuition will not get them a meaningful increase in enrollment.   It will just get them less revenue.

I can't recall the last person that wanted to go to Stanford, but went to a different school only because their list price tuition was ~$5,000 less than Stanford.

FWIW - If I ever met a HS senior that was about to make their enrollment decision based on a relatively small difference in tuition list price I would strongly encourage them to try to look beyond that difference.
$60K vs $15K - That's a different deal potentially
But $60K vs $54K - Pick the place that is best long-term pick for you. 

FWIW2 - Remember most Stanford students are on aid, so any change in tuition would immediately reduce their aid package leaving them with the same student and family contribution amounts. 

The athletes with Olympic aspirations taking a gap year are in a very different situation.   It will make a lot of sense for top tier Olympians to stay away from colleges likely to be filled with COVID cases.  Their gap year choices almost certainly would not change with a drop in tuition list price. 
   
Hope all of our future Olympians find a way to stay healthy and avoid COVID.

These athletes have a good chance of having their gap year approved by Stanford. In general, though, I would expect that Stanford would not approve many gap years.

[chrisk]

Pretty crappy that some colleges are charging full boat for online learning. I would advise my kids (way past college) to take the gap and work or volunteer. In the West we need volunteer firefighters.

Agreed.  I actually spoke with the Director of Finance at SCU, my alma mater.  I told her that I thought it was unconscionable that SCU was denying the full collegiate experience while at the same time charging full rates for what amounted to a University of Phoenix online education.

Her response was actually very lengthy, but it boils down to the following three items:

1)  All universities, SCU included, have enormous fixed costs against an expected revenue stream, whether or not classes are in person.
2)  The universities have  incurred costs to put all classes online.
3)  We ain't changing sxxt.  

That last one was paraphrased, but fundamentally accurate.

Those that don't like Stanford's pricing policy are more than able to go elsewhere if they believe a 10-20% lower tuition list price is that critical.  There will be thousands of future Fall 2021 applicants that would be happy to learn their class will be bigger.

The gap year, stop out and drop out types will hurt budgets for schools at every level, but in almost every situation dropping tuition will not get them a meaningful increase in enrollment.   It will just get them less revenue.

I can't recall the last person that wanted to go to Stanford, but went to a different school only because their list price tuition was ~$5,000 less than Stanford.

FWIW - If I ever met a HS senior that was about to make their enrollment decision based on a relatively small difference in tuition list price I would strongly encourage them to try to look beyond that difference.
$60K vs $15K - That's a different deal potentially
But $60K vs $54K - Pick the place that is best long-term pick for you. 

FWIW2 - Remember most Stanford students are on aid, so any change in tuition would immediately reduce their aid package leaving them with the same student and family contribution amounts. 

The athletes with Olympic aspirations taking a gap year are in a very different situation.   It will make a lot of sense for top tier Olympians to stay away from colleges likely to be filled with COVID cases.  Their gap year choices almost certainly would not change with a drop in tuition list price. 
   
Hope all of our future Olympians find a way to stay healthy and avoid COVID.

These athletes have a good chance of having their gap year approved by Stanford. In general, though, I would expect that Stanford would not approve many gap years.