The price of college has been creeping up for decades, faster than household incomes or inflation. This year, though, marks a milestone for dozens of private schools that started charging more than $50,000. This club includes Maine's most elite colleges, Colby, Bates and Bowdoin.

The price of college has been creeping up for decades, faster than household incomes or inflation. This year, though, marks a milestone for dozens of private schools that started charging more than $50,000. This club includes Maine's most elite colleges, Colby, Bates and Bowdoin.

Some critics say the growth is unsustainable. But college officials say they're doing what it takes to attract students looking for a world-class education.

"There's been a complicated market phenomenon driving these prices," says William "Bro" Adams, President of Colby College in Waterville, where the sticker price for tuition and room and board is $50,320. "Places like Colby and other top-tier colleges and universities have been adding programs, adding facilities -- and generally very much in response to consumer expectation and demand."

Adams, who in the interest of full disclosure sits on the MPBN Board of Trustees, says the economic downturn in the last year further necessitated a price hike. "Our endowments decreased significantly in Colby's case year-to-year by 20 percent. And revenues from philanthropy also decreased, so the increase last year was almost entirely due to the fact that we had a significant drop in other sources of revenue."

At Bowdoin College in Brunswick, the list price to attend is $50,900. School officials say the money makes it possible to have low student-to-teacher ratios, 42 majors and 31 varsity sports teams.

"What we do here is very expensive and not particularly efficient, there's no doubt about that," says Scott Hood, Bowdoin's Vice President of Communications. "But I think the good news for students and families is that Bowdoin will spend over $22 million for this year alone on financial aid."

Bowdoin, Colby and Bates all offer generous financial aid packages. Each reports that about 40 percent of students get grant money that they don't have to pay back. The average grant per full-time student ranges from $29,700 at Bates to more than $31,000 at Bowdoin.

"If you take our fee and you subtract the average grant, now we're talking about an annual fee of about $19,000 a year to go Bowdoin, which puts us on par with public universities," says Bowdoin's Scott Hood.

An in-state education at the University of Maine, for example, tops $21,000 a year, including room and board, although that amount too could be substantially reduced through grants.

Those critical of schools charging over $50,000 for an education acknowledge those institutions have made a big effort to help needy students.

"But nevertheless, it's put a huge squeeze on the middle class because you can't provide financial aid for everybody or you'd use up all your tuition increases," says Patrick Callan, President of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, which promotes increased access to college. "So that's why you have this explosion in student borrowing. The amount of money borrowed has about doubled just in this decade, and we're not to the end of it yet."

Callan says that universities have not had qualms about raising costs because it's been a seller's market for higher education.

"There have been more people wanting to go to college. Last year, we graduated the biggest high school graduating class in the history of the country. And we now have an economy in which, without some kind of college, you can't get a job that will support a middle class standard of living."

At South Portland High School, Guidance Director Linda Sturm says that high tuition prices are not dissuading students from applying to top-tier schools -- just as long as they don't graduate with a truckload of debt. "Our students are much more cognizant of looking for aid in the form of scholarships. I find students being much more aggressive in doing that kind of thing."

Administrators at Colby, Bowdoin and Bates say they are doing their best to control costs where they can through measures such as pay freezes for employees and reducing travel expenses for faculty.

Even though Bates is now the most expensive school in Maine, with costs totalling $51,300, school officials point out that they only raised costs by just under four percent --- the lowest increase in over three decades. "What it says to me is that Bates is doing a very effective job of containing costs while providing an excellent education," says Bates spokesman Doug Hubley.

The Maine schools are among 58 that have crossed the $50,000 threshold, according to an analysis by the Chronicle of Higher Education. Sarah Lawrence College in New York leads the pack, with total costs nearing $56,000.