Colleges Learn a Lesson in Economics // Competition Forces Many to Limit Tuition Hikes

WASHINGTON For parents of high school seniors waiting for thickenvelopes with college postmarks, first the bad news: A year at youroffspring's top choice still could set you back more than $25,000.

The good news, though, is that college tuition - which surged asmuch as 17 percent a year in the 1980s - isn't accelerating quite somuch these days. In fact, the rate of increase has been slowingsteadily since the early 1990s, to 6 percent in the last two years.

That's still more than twice the pace of consumer inflation,which averaged 2.5 percent last year. Even so, the decline in thepace of price increases hints at the efforts colleges are taking tosurvive in a …