It seems ridiculous to me that financial aid requirements are being sited as a cause for raising tuition. After all, student loans go on the accounts receivables side of the balance sheet and include interest! I can't imagine BU has suddenly started losing money on it's loans. The fact is, tuition goes up every year and usually it goes up by more, no matter how many students apply for financial aid. So, OK that's your excuse this year, what was it the last 8 years? How come tuition can never come down? Does it ever occur to anyone that if they lowered tuition, less people might need to apply for financial aid? From what I've seen, the cost of higher education is analogous to the real estate and tech bubbles except that no one can really pop it (unless, at some point no one can afford to go to school).