The federal government should have the ability to put caps on tuition at public universities, at least in terms of lending purposes. For private universities, the federal government should be able to accomplish a similar outcome by tying the amount of federal aid to an index that is based on the actual salaries of recent graduates. College is an investment, and it makes sense that the cost of college should be tied to expected returns. The wealthy are of course free to pay whatever sticker price the universities set without regards to these standards. I'm sure the reporting on graduate salaries, broken down by concentration, would not be overly cumbersome. You could roll the obligation to report to your university into a loan covenant.