Earlier this month, I looked at what I paid as a freshman in college, and compared it to what college freshman at my alma mater are paying today. I had to dig into my college’s archives to see what tuition and fees were when I was 18, but thanks to WNYC’s widget, you can just plug in your school and whatever year you’d like to look at. Who’s looking forward to having a kid and calculating what college will cost him or her?
Aaaaand this is why I had a “full ride” scholarship along with $20K in student loans. (The scholarship was for full tuition in the academic year it was awarded, which was the year before I started school.)
Wow. At first I was really upset with myself because I could have already been out of student debt had I gone to a state school…but had I gone to Fordham (or any of the other schools I got recruitment letters from), I would have paid more than twice what I did! Yikes!
Holy cow. The cost of my school has gone up 42% between my freshman year (1998) and what freshmen pay now. I’m still carrying debt worth slightly less than a full year’s ticket price, even after scholarships and whatnot. I’m glad I went there and they gave me quite a bit of aid so it’s been pretty manageable, but if I were looking at it now, I’d definitely think twice about it.
I assume that by the time I have a kid, college education will have been completely replaced by TED talks.
Jeeeeez, FIFTY PERCENT INCREASE IN SIX YEARS for in-state tuition at my school.
What’s funny is in the 6 years since I graduated, my Alma-maters’ in-state tuition doubled, but out of state (what I paid) only went up by 2,000. Moderate yay?
139% increase in-state since my freshman year! Daaaammmmn, there’s no way I would have made it at that cost. I lived in my car for periods of time and worked constantly while going to college just so I could go to a UC instead of a state school. On the other hand, I would have had a much better time at Chico state.