College Costs then and now

[mathmom]

Brian Lehrer as part of his running series "30 issues in 30 days" has been discussing the cost of college tuition. They've got a cute calculator where you can compare costs from when you were in college and now: 30 Issues: Higher Education

(Mind you it's missing some obvious data!)

[DeskPotato]

I'm always interested in these comparisons. But, sadly, no data on my school/graduation year...but I know the answer because I looked it up on the school's website several years ago.

Four years, room/board/tuition/fees: $45K.

[lookingforward]

I loved this line, from a year ago, comparing Jerry Brown's two governorships:
When Brown first became governor in 1975, UC tuition cost students about $700 per year, compared to $11,867.94 at present.

[Hat]

I looked up my college (limited data when you are an old fogey), but I knew it anyway. My first year was $1,850 and it went up by $50 each year to top out at $2,000 my senior year (1972). Four years later my little brother went to a different college and his tuition was over $3,500. That was when you could work part-time and make enough to go to college. Today my alma mater is over $40,000 tuition annually.

[wis75]

Back in about 1971 there was a newspaper article comparing UW-Madison tuition over the years. I recall the late 1940's for my mom being $54 (per semester?), mine tenfold that and son's tenfold mine, more or less. Students of my generation were able to work and put themselves through school despite a minimum wage in the $1.65 range (Res Halls food service paid as much as $1.85 an hour as I recall; babysitting as teen was 50 to 75 cents an hour- no matter how many kids). Not so today- and not because of all of the expensive electronics most have.

PS- UW wasn't listed, even though plenty of New Yorkers attended back then (some locals blamed the outside radicals for a lot of the radicalism on campus in the late 1960's- OOS tuition underwent a huge increase in that era).

[SteveMA]

College I attended tuition has doubled since I graduated about 25 years ago, minimum wage has doubled since I graduated about 25 years ago, salary comparison, job for job has MORE than doubled in those same 25 years. Starting salary for the job I had out of college, 16,000-same job, same town, same place is now 40,000. My Dad's job, after 20 years of experience paid 40,000 when I was a senior in high school filling out the FFA (precursor to the FAFSA), same job, same town, same company, same experience now pays $150,000. Salaries across the board have risen faster than college tuition. Median income comparisons are worthless because they don't take into consideration the fairly recent introduction of a LOT of low paying, retail and manufacturing jobs. If you compare average salary of someone with a college degree, that number has jumped dramatically in the past 20 years and if you factor in inflation and convert to consistent dollars, that number has remained fairly consistent since the '70's http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_dow...on_pays_05.pdf

Even the news stories can't do the math right-graphically this shows this "huge" increase in tuition costs compared to median income but if you figure out the percent of income, it is exactly the same 8.3%

Rising college costs price out middle class - Jun. 13, 2011

[lookingforward]

For my family, way back, tuition was less than 20%, for an LAC. At today's prices (call it 55k,) income would need to be over 220k. Ie, reaching that top % of the population.

How is 55k 8% of income, to the families paying the bill?

[jym626]

Mine also says they don't have data for the stone ages, when I attended.

[SteveMA]

lookingforward--tuition or cost of attendance? Are you comparing the same school's costs? I graduated from a private LAC. Cost when I was there $15,000 (COA), COA today is $43,000. Dad's income when I was in high school, $40,000, same job, same experience today $150,000.

Again, the stats are talking averages, there are going to be schools above that average and below that average....

[momknowsbest3]

Yes, well my hubby went to medical school at the right time. He graduated from med school in 1990 and it cost 1700 a year in tuition!! That is part of the reason we had no debt. Baylor cost us 6500 a year!!! What a difference over 20 years makes!

[lookingforward]

^ I edited badly- I meant the coa for my college was 20% of family income. At 55k, income would need to be at 275k to be the same %.

[Apollo6]

I recall that the COA my freshman year at Barnard in 1983 was $18,000. My parents' EFC was the same as the COA at my in-state flagship that offered no merit at the time. I borrowed $2500/year, the maximum at the time, but it was an easy choice. Today, it is much more difficult to get into Barnard than it was in the '80's but my D'13 would be qualified because she is light years more prepared than I was but we are caught in the middle and can't afford to send her there. Now, our state flagship offers merit and it may be a better school than it was when I was a teenager but my daughter is no more enthusiastic about attending it than I was. After all my efforts to ensure that my kids were more prepared for college than I was, I do feel a little bitter that college costs have gone up so much that we cannot afford to pay the EFC that LACs expect.

[TatinG]

Just got my alumni magazine for U of Illinois. It showed that in the early 70's tuition was $396. per year. Now it's over $11,000.

That's many times more than inflation.

[SteveMA]

lookingforward--does the college you attended cost $55K now? What careers did your parents have when you went to school that they were making that much money? How does it compare to the same job in the same place now? That is what you have to look at, not just the cost of the school.

[Whatdidyou]

I think what is more telling is recent changes. Go back 10 years and see how much costs have changed this past decade.

According to your link:
The cost of my school in 2002 was $5,380
In 2012: $10,799
101% increase! That is astounding to me. Most of the state schools in my state seem to have similar increases.
I guarantee that job opportunities & salaries have not doubled since then. And, given all the cut in funding & programs, that quality of education has likely decreased as well.

It seems that most of the outrageous increase in costs have occured in recent times. Outrageous.

College actually used to be affordable. I'm amazed it was only 5k/year 10 years ago.