More BS About a B.S.

Recently I have noticed more and more ads on TV and radio for colleges seeking students. Star Academy, Berkley College, American International University (AIU for short and catchy), Southern New Hampshire University (again SNHU for shorty and catch) to name a few.

  I never remember colleges openly advertising to such an extent in the past. 

An example of costs per online credit 

Being observant  of all the advertising I began to think - "There must be a ton of money in  higher education these days!" 

But how could that be if online courses are rapidly emerging. Shouldn't the cost to produce online curricula be rapidly amortized as the programs serve increasing numbers of students. Wouldn't it be like the cost of producing the first widget as opposed to the nth widget? Shouldn't online courses be driving the cost of education down and thereby yielding less profit margin?  

Well I looked at the cost of online credits and to me they certainly don't appear to be any bargain. Maybe the cost of production is dwindling but the cost to the student isn't, not after looking at the price per credit for online courses at many of the these schools.

While musing on this situation I happened to read the article below. Maybe its me, but I find Mr. Weinger's predictions about college costs to be naive at best! 

 After reading the article above I went to the Internet (online so to speak) and found the information below. I then calculated the yearly tuition costs for an online education based on this information. Maybe I'm living in the past but a yearly tuition rate of $13,800 (plus I'm sure associated fees) doesn't sound that cheap to me!
I hate to be cynical (not really - I've come to accept it) but the whole thing just looks like the same old college scam on the middle class.