> Students are free to go to less expensive schools.

Agree it's rational but it's still ironic. Things like Uncle Sam handing out loans like candy is not helping or states cutting fund to state school is also not great.

The less expensive school tactic from what I hear these days is to go to a community college for 2 years to get as many prerequisites in then switch to a more expensive university to graduate. The rational behavior from the more expensive university is then probably to refuse credits from community colleges so they can increase their profits and fleece students more.