Two of my favorite topics are college prices and the US medical system. They are so Frankenstein in their incentive structures it’s almost impossible not to have a problem with the two (but not for the reasons the commies despise them). I am so periodically bothered by the medical system that my friends who have attended medical school receive this complementary EconTalk interview. The interview is with a doctor from the Surgery Center of Oklahoma. I advise listening to the podcast while looking at a major medical bill. I’m sure there is a German word for the nihilistic hilarity you’ll experience from looking at the quoted cost of the procedure, then glancing at the supposed savings your insurance provider fought for, and finally remembering that no one has a great idea what the price of medical procedures are.

I was hoping The Price You Pay for College would identify a similar culprit for why college prices have increased so much over the past 40 years. A takedown of the federal student loan industrial complex? A soliloquy on tying loan size to expected future earnings based on the major and university attended? Nope. Instead, I found a thoughtful book that spends a little time on the sticker price of college, but with the vast majority of the book dedicated to helping students and parents determine the intrinsic value of what they are paying for.

Below are a few highlight points:

• You’re probably not paying sticker price: It sounds like only foreigners, out of state students, and bad/desperate students pay the sticker price for college. If you fit the GPA and SAT/ACT characteristics of the student body, you’ll probably receive a merit scholarship. Then tack on the other scholarships you can apply for.

• Nick advice - Apply for local or narrow scholarships: I’m impressed by how few entrants there can be for local scholarships and scholarships designed for narrow groups. If applicable, research whether there is an engineering scholarship for women or a scholarship for low-income former student athletes. This is where alpha is! Be the big fish (applicant) in a small pond.

• The after-aid cost is still a lot.

• If you’re a parent wanting to help pay for college, the best time to start saving was yesterday, the second-best time is today. Or perhaps if you are a business owner it makes more sense to plow money into expanding the business knowing you’ll have a much higher income by the time your children are in college. Speak with a financial advisor to discover the best solution for you whether it’s a taxable account, 529, or even if it’s something you should be worrying about.

• “Price is what you pay, value is what you get.” – Warren Buffet. Parents and students should understand their goals, ask questions, and do research.

• Really, please spend time identifying what you value. Small classrooms? There are a surprising number of private universities that have similar after-aid prices to public colleges but much smaller classrooms. Classes with elite and famous professors? Verify they actually teach the class. Is a close professor and student relationship important? Think about it because it is an expensive selling point. Gonzaga University professors had tons of office hour times that I almost never used. An alumni network? Probably overrated, but ask! Post-graduation earnings? Data is finally available to the public.

The above is all very important and worth the time to read and reflect on, but I was a little disappointed the book didn’t try to answer bigger questions like, “What is the point of college and can its objective be accomplished at a lower cost?” I’m one of those people who thinks the college experience is great but a disproportionate share of it is for signaling. What does it signal to future employers? That you get it: you’re conscientious, follow directions, solve problems, and have above average intelligence (mileage may vary). These traits mean you are worthy of more responsibility and higher than average wages.

Those are all good things to sort for, but I imagine there are less expensive ways to filter young adults for lower and higher wage tracks. The problem is that employers are the ones who need to decipher all the signaling between competing applications and most don’t want to work too hard just to fill an empty seat. A degree from “university with a good reputation that I have heard of” with “GPA in the range we are looking for” is the depth most HR departments descend to with the first filter for applicants.

Verdict: Should you read The Price You Pay for College? If you have a child between the ages of 13-18 interested in attending college, I think you should give this book a chance. It’s on the dry side (especially the first 50 pages) but it forces you to answer what you value in college education/experiences and how much you’d pay for it. For me, college was a punch-card on the way to my career. Theoretically, I would have been happy anywhere with a good gym and Western standards of living. Gonzaga was awesome but wouldn’t have made sense if I had needed to take out loans to attend (thanks Uncle Sam). But that’s not everyone’s trajectory! So just know who you are, what you value, and what you’re willing to pay for. A simple sentence to type but an answer many struggle to come up with.