<p>At many colleges, the sticker price increase is primarily driven by improved financial aid and inflation, resulting in the average cost in inflation adjusted dollars being essentially unchanged. For example, the average cost in 2013 dollars at Stanford for the years 1999-2000 to 2013-2014 is below. I am defining average cost as tuition + room & board - grants/scholarships (not including loans or student work aid) for undergrads. All calculations are based on numbers from the CDS, which relates to why I only go back to 1999. Note that in the 14 years between 1999-2000 and 2013-2014, average cost changed by under $100.</p>
<p>1999 – $31,700
2000 – $30,400
2001 – $32,800
2002 – $33,100
2003 – $30,600
2004 – $31,400
2005 – $32,700
2006 – $32,600
2007 – $33,100
2008 – $31,900
2009 – $29,300 (large increase in financial aid this year, likely due to new policy)
2010 – $29,200 (still abnormally low average cost)
2011 – $29,700 (still abnormally low average cost)
2012 – $30,400
2013 – $31,700 (finally recovering from 2009 FA increase and returning to normal level) </p>