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It's a fall tradition: Students don college sweatshirts and their parents, meanwhile, sweat the tuition bills.

 even featured a couple, played by Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler, who start a casino to cope with their kids' college costs.


Annual tuition hikes have been pretty much a given in higher ed, but recently, there are signs that the decades-long rise in college costs is nearing a peak.

NPR Ed asked a range of experts: Is this a trend? Have we finally broken the back of the college tuition camel? Will college become more affordable, or at least start to be subject to normal market forces?

 Sara Goldrick-Rab, Temple University, and founder of the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, which researches college affordability:


: Robert Kelchen, Seton Hall University:


Michelle Asha Cooper, Institute for Higher Education Policy:


: Preston Cooper, research analyst, American Enterprise Institute:


A previous version of this story misspelled actor Will Ferrell's last name as Farrell.

Education News

Anya Kamenetz

Author

The costs of higher education are softening in some places, but experts aren't too excited yet.

At long last, signs that college tuition might come down

Go Deeper.

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