There's a lesson that parents should learn before signing contracts for a private school: always read the fine print. The NY Times tells the story of a Soho couple (David and Michele Bender) whose daughter won a coveted, if pricey--$26,000/year--spot in the kindergarten program at the West Village's Little Red School House (pictured). The Benders put down a $2,500 deposit and another $7,500 towards the tuition, but then three months later, their daughter was accepted......

The total annual cost (including room and board) of NYU has gone up 65% in the past decade and next year it will reach an all-time high of $50,182 – a 5.9% increase from last year. The Washington Square News notes that the university is cash poor, drawing 60 percent of its resources from tuition. In an attempt to soften the blow, NYU plans to increase need-based aid to "more than $150 million" total. This......

For three years straight, NYU has dominated the annual Princeton Review "College Hopes and Worries" survey, coming in as the #1 “dream school” for college-bound students. But now NYU’s reign of dreams has turned into a humiliating nightmare, as the 2008 survey shows the university plummeting to the #4 slot, bested by Harvard, Stanford and Princeton. Columbia University also took a hit, dropping down two slots from last year to #7. Is attending college in......