Which is the Better Deal: The College or the Impala?

The Dartmouth Trustees approved a five-percent hike in undergraduate tuition for the 1996-97 academic year, the lowest rate of increase since 1966. Total charges for tuition, mandatory fees, and room and board will grow by 4.42 percent to $28,233.

Back in 1966 campus pundits suggested that a year's Dartmouth education cost about the same as a top-of-the-line Chevy. Does the comparison still hold?

Dartmouth actually was $125 cheaper than a Chevy Impala in 1966. Thirty years later the College costs $2,670 more than the Chevy, and your chance of talking a dean down on the sticker price is pretty slim.

On the other hand, Dartmouth is a hot school (a record number of applicants 11,273-tried to join the class of '00) while Chevrolet is ceasing production on the Impala. In the future, analysts might look for more suitable comparison—say, a top-of-the-line Cadillac. A '96 Seville goes for $51,168.