High school seniors and their families are excitedly beginning to hear from colleges they have applied to for admission next fall. An acceptance notification is generally grounds for applicant glee and parental pride.

Such good news, however, often comes tempered with another reality, one more likely to produce cold sweats than a warm glow: Admission to a private college or university comes with the privilege of handing over a small fortune, with the full cost list-price of many such institutions now well over $50,000 a year.

That is the context that makes every story about outsize pay and compensation packages for university presidents a PR nightmare for the higher ed industry, and an occasion for teeth gnashing in families committed to their children’s education but wondering why they must secure a second mortgage to fund such lavish excess.

Today’s installment comes courtesy of a report released Sunday by the Chronicle of Higher Education on executive compensation at private colleges for 2011. Clocking in at a second place nationally is Northeastern University‘s president, Joseph Auon, with $3.1 million in total compensation for the year. The Globe reports that two other Massachusetts presidents made the upper echelon of the pay ranking, pulling in more than $1.5 million each in 2011. They were former Tufts president Lawrence Bacow, who was fifth at $2.2 million, and former Amherst College president Anthony Marx, who received $1.7 million.

In all three cases, spokesmen for the schools explained that the packages included some amount of deferred compensation. Bacow and Marx both left their posts that year, with Bacow’s package including accrued vacation (something that seems more appropriate for a retiring bank teller or DPW worker). It’s unclear why Auon’s 2011 filing includes compensation he’ll get when he leaves office.

The report comes on the heels of a dustup last month at Brandeis University over reports that its former president, Jehuda Reinharz, had received at least $1.2 million in pay since he left the president’s post in 2010, though he had no teaching duties.The payout was rationalized by the school, in part, as compensation for his past stellar performance while president.

“Reinharz should receive pay for the work he now does, and nothing more,” the Globe editorialized last month. “While university presidents deserve competitive pay while in office, ex-presidents don’t require generous sinecures.”

While it was easy to see why the ex-president’s continued pay would spark outrage, the bigger challenge for higher ed is over what constitutes “competitive pay while in office,” a bar that’s being continually raised and being justified by the time-honored argument: everyone else is doing it.

–MICHAEL JONAS  

BEACON HILL

The Globe reports that state Treasurer Steve Grossman‘s family business has relationships with a number of firms that also do business with the treasurer’s office or the state Lottery that he oversees, though he has filed extensive ethics disclosure forms and there is nothing to suggest he has acted illegally in any dealings.

MUNICIPAL MATTERS

Incoming Boston Mayor Marty Walsh may make temporary cabinet appointments while he gives staffing decisions more thought.

There’s a small but growing group of 20-somethings starting to get into politics at the local and state level.

MARATHON BOMBINGS

Sunday’s Globe had a huge series of articles on the Tsarnaev family, painting a picture of a disturbed clan, and suggesting that the surviving younger brother, Dzhokhar, was less of a gullible follower than some previous accounts have indicated.

CASINOS

The Beat the Press panel explores the schism between the Globe‘s tough reporting on Gaming Commission chairman Stephen Crosby‘s conflicts of interest and the paper’s editorial page support for his actions and his integrity.

Marty Walsh wants Boston to have host community status in casinos proposed for both Everett and Revere.

NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON

A liberal-leaning group is inflaming sympathetic and hostile passions as it pushes Elizabeth Warren‘s brand of Democratic politics at the national level, the Globe reports.

Congress didn’t do much in 2013, and plans to do more of the same next year.

In a bit of role reversal, Senate Republicans are now waffling over a budget deal that their House colleagues lined up behind.

Michael Bloomberg will spend his post-mayoral years teaching other mayors how to be more like Michael Bloomberg.

ELECTIONS

The Associated Press examines the role of the two independent candidates in the race for governor.

The recount in the Lawrence mayoral election cost the city more than $61,000 in police details, the Eagle-Tribune reports.

Kimberly Atkins calls Scott Brown‘s stance on gun control the former senator’s single biggest obstacle in a potential New Hampshire Senate run.

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

The famous Hilltop Steak House fiberglass cows go for $1,600 and $1,800 at auction, but the mold to make more cows goes for $17,500, the Item reports.

Are patent trolls Jimmy Carter‘s fault?

EDUCATION

Unconfirmed reports of explosives in four buildings at Harvard have prompted their evacuation this morning as law enforcement authorities descend on the campus.

The number of students enrolling in college this past September dropped for the second year in a row, fueled in part by a decline in the number of older students going back to school.

Lawrence Catholic Academy agrees to a settlement with two teachers who were fired after it was learned they were going to have a baby. The couple, who plan to marry in 2015, will be paid through next summer and will be listed as having resigned, the Eagle-Tribune reports.

Danvers Selectman Bill Clark says he will seek a payment in lieu of taxes from the town’s largest landholder, St. John’s Preparatory School, the Salem News reports.

New York magazine spotlights Bill de Blasio‘s education challenge.

HEALTH CARE

Yesterday’s and today’s Globe have a gripping — sometimes chilling — two-part series on a couple that had their parental rights taken over by the state when they sought treatment at Children’s Hospital for their daughter.

TRANSPORTATION

Forget a tunnel: The Cape could have a new toll bridge in about a decade.

How did senior citizen activists convince the state to rollback fares on the MBTA’s Ride service? Persistence.

The Berkshire Eagle gives a hat-tip to a group of Berkshire business leaders who are making a strong pitch to site a railway car manufacturing plant in the region.

The FCC has started the process to allow in-flight cell phone calls, despite resistance from Congress and the Department of Transportation. The MetroWest Daily News “votes” no on cell-phone conversations in planes.

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

Rep. Lori Ehrlich of Marblehead discounts a report by the New England power grid operator that a new natural gas-powered plant in neighboring Salem is badly needed to avoid brown outs, the Salem News reports.

National Grid helps replace lighting in Gloucester municipal buildings to cut down on energy use, the Gloucester Times reports.

MEDIA

NPR has received $17 million in grants to expand its news coverage and develop a new media platform that tailors content to individual listeners.

The death of independent bookstores has been greatly exaggerated.