Which university or college will be the first to charge $100,000 per year? Checking in on a 2018 forecast

When will the first American college or university charge $100,000 or more to attend for a year? What might that mean for higher education?

I first posed this question in 2018, during the Before Times. The gist was that a hypothetical Most Expensive University (MEU) would crack the six figure barrier around the academic year 2029–2030. To be clear, that price would be the published price, before any discounts kicked in. It would include tuition, the biggest number, along with room and board plus other fees. Some call this the annual “total cost of attendance.”

(You can read that full blog post for more terms and definitions, as well as good comments from readers.)

I checked into this forecast last year and found prices at the most expensive schools, candidates for MEU, rising on schedule.

How do things stand now?

Recent prices for the most expensive institutions seem to have stabilized, according to a CBS News article. Here are samples from the top:

University of Southern California $77,459

Harvey Mudd $77,339

University of Pennsylvania $76,826

Amherst College…