"Market researchers often talk about affordability in terms of the would-be customer's 'willingness to pay' for a specific product and that same customer's 'ability to pay,'" according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. "Thus far most American families and most students have shown both an ability and a willingness to pay the prices colleges and universities charge. Indeed, most purchasers of higher education have, over the last decade, been shopping up, consistently choosing higher-priced over lower-priced options. The baccalaureate institutions that are hurting for enrollments are, for the most part, those with the lowest tuitions."