When it comes to pricey schools in the District (or in the country, for that matter), Georgetown and George Washington usually come to mind as those that reach the furthest into their students’s pockets. But, much like we were surprised to discover that Georgetown wasn’t in the top 20 most expensive schools in the country, it turns out that even our housing costs aren’t among the nation’s highest!

Earlier this week, Campus Grotto, which seems to consist entirely of price rankings, released a list of universities with the most expensive student housing. Of the top 20 schools, the only D.C. representative landing in the top 20 is American University, which ranked 18th with an annual housing cost of $13,684. According to Georgetown University’s housing website, student housing for the 2011-2012 academic year will cost students between $9,000 and $10,000. Compare that to the $18k they charge at New York City’s The New School, the university ranked #1 on Campus Grotto‘s list, and we’re practically in the bargain bin.

After yet another disappointing failure to break the top 20 universities in the country and an international ranking that we really don’t want to talk about, Georgetown was hit with yet another blow with the most recent list of college rankings to hit the Internet. Campus Grotto released their annual list of the most expensive colleges in the U.S. earlier this week, and after snagging the #15 spot last year, Georgetown has fallen to #40.

That’s right—there are now students at 39 schools who can’t make any snide comments to you about Georgetown being expensive.

This does not mean that our total cost has decreased. In fact, we’re up from $52,526 last year to $54,423. But apparently, the 2011 school year has hit a lot of the country’s other universities pretty hard, and their combined tuition, room and board, and mandatory fees have skyrocketed past those that we at Georgetown have to pay.

Once again, Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, NY, took the top spot, with their total cost edging nearer and nearer to $60k per year. The two schools taking the second and third spots, New York University and Columbia University, are the only other two on the list to break the $56,000 mark, with #4 Harvey Mudd College staying below that line by a whole two bucks. If you scroll way down on that list, you get to Georgetown, which sits just ahead of Tulane University, but manages to stay cheaper than #39, our notoriously pricey neighbor George Washington University, by $30/year. Take that, GW.

Campus Grotto also offers a list based on tuition alone, where Georgetown’s rankings drops even lower to #58, with a total tuition bill of $40,920, sandwiched between Notre Dame at #59 and Washington University in St. Louis at #57. We’re sure if they did a ranking based solely on room and board, Georgetown would find itself significantly closer to the top. Something to ponder about while you stay awake at night listening to the mice scurry around your room.

Before we all get too excited about these rankings, though, remember one thing—you (or, more likely, your parents) are still paying over $54 thousand this year alone to go to school. Think about all the swimming pools full of gold coins that would be.

Of the few hundred posts I written for Vox, this is the one I least enjoy.

In a few minutes, I’ll hand my blogging keys over to Geoffrey Bible and Nico Dodd, the two Voice writers who will gratuitously Blingee photos in my stead. Then, I’m headed back to the kind of news writing that doesn’t involve typing into tiny browser windows and photoshopping Jack DeGioia. (… yet.)

The last seven-and-a-half months gave us Stephen R. Brown‘s voyeuristic website, Georgetown’s worst ideas, anti-campus plan lawn signs, Jim O’Donnell and Dan Porterfield eating chicken wings, Village A window wars, and DMT. I’ll miss it all.

I can’t write enough about the readers and commenters who made my job well worth the stress and sleep deprivation, so I won’t waste any words. Vox is nothing without its audience and I’m eager to see what it’ll be like to join your ranks.

See you on the other side.

The Project on Student Debt recently published its figures for the Class of 2009—and it ain’t pretty.

American student debt is frighteningly high; according to the study, which was published by the Institute for College Access and Success, the national average debt for a graduating senior in 2009 was $24,000. Among all states, D.C. claims the highest debt rate per student ($30,033), although New Hampshire ($29,443), Maine ($29,143), Iowa ($28,883), and Vermont ($27,786) followed close behind.

Surprisingly enough, however, Georgetown doesn’t have the highest student debt among all schools in the nation’s capital. Corcoran College of Art and Design ($42,355) leads the pack, followed by American University ($40,966) and George Washington University ($31,299). The figures make Georgetown’s $25,085 average debt look paltry by comparison.

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The good news: Georgetown dropped in Campus Grotto‘s annual ranking of the nation’s most expensive colleges. The bad news: Georgetown is still in the top 15.

According to the rankings, Georgetown is the 15th-most expensive college in America. The annual tuition cost, $39,768, was ranked the 52nd-most expensive.

Campus Grotto complied the rankings through the sum of each college’s tuition, room, and board costs. Optional student fees, such as University-provided insurance, are not included in the cost.

“We take the price a typical freshman would pay for tuition, room and board,” the college news website wrote.

With an annual cost of $53,340, Georgetown is the ninth most expensive school in the country, according to Forbes.

The rankings, which were compiled using data provided by the Chronicle of Higher Education and Campus Grotto, almost exclusively features small, private colleges in the Northeast.

Although Forbes did not account for financial aid, the rankings reflect the costs of tuition, fees, room, board for college students during the 2010-2011 academic year.

Sarah Lawrence College topped the list with its $57, 730 annual cost. Last year, Georgetown was ranked seventh most expensive by Campus Grotto and second most expensive by CNN.

Adding insult to injury, our perennially-expensive neighbors in Foggy Bottom dropped out of the top 10 in the Forbes rankings.

The difference between Georgetown and George Washington? $65.

The National Association of College and University Business Officers recently crunched the numbers to come up with a complete ranking of U.S. college and university endowments for fiscal year 2008.

Granted a lot has changed since then, but with an endowment of $1,059,075,000 at the end of fiscal year 2008, Georgetown was ranked 71st.  That figure represents a very slight decrease from the end of fiscal year 2007 endowment, when the endowment stood at about $1.06 billion.

Harvard had the largest endowment nationwide with a total of $36.5 billion.  Yale, Stanford, Princeton and the University of Texas system rounded out the top five.

As Campus Grotto noted, Georgetown and Carnegie Mellon are the only two schools in U.S. News and World Report’s Top 25 Universities that aren’t in the top 33 in terms of endowment size.

Georgetown is the seventh most expensive school in the country for the 2009-10 school year, according to a list just compiled by Campus Grotto.  With a total average cost of $51,122 per year, we’re more comparatively economical than we were last year, when we came in third.

The curious thing about Georgetown’s showing is that although we’re the seventh most expensive school overall, we only have the 41st highest tuition ($38,616 per year), meaning we’re making up the difference with much higher room and board fees.

Luckily, we can still boast about being (slightly) less expensive than our cross-town peers at George Washington.  With a total average cost of $51,730, they claim the title of the third most expensive school in the nation.

Ever get the feeling that the price of attending Georgetown has become a little exorbitant? It could be because, with an annual cost of $49,689, we’re now the 4th most expensive college in the country, according to a list compiled by Campus Grotto. We didn’t even crack the top 20 on last year’s list, so this is quite a jump.

What’s even weirder is that while we’re the 4th most expensive school overall, our tuition is only the 36th highest. My guess is this means we’re making up the difference with super high room and board fees. (According to the Princeton Review, the cost of room and board at Georgetown is $12,146. At the University of Pennsylvania, which has the 37th highest tuition and the 30th highest cost overall, it’s only $10,621.)

Elsewhere in the District, George Washington University lost its long-held superlative of most expensive school in the country to Sarah Lawrence, coming in 2nd, while American University ranked 94th.