HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Freshman residency rules sometimes force students to pay prohibitive costs. “Room and board at private four-year universities costs an average of $9,678, an expense that has gone up 47 percent in the past decade, according to the College Board. At public four-year colleges, the average price is $9,130 and has increased 58 percent in the past 10 years. In a nine-month academic year, that works out to $1,014.44 a month for what is in many cases a shared room and communal dining, well above the median asking rent of $803 a month recorded by the Census Bureau.” Yep. It’s just another way to gouge people.