Do college costs reflect the local cost of living?

[SmackFu]

An average house in the South costs much less than one in the Northeast. The average incomes reflect that. How about college tuition? Is it less expensive to go to school in certain areas of the country?

[yme]

If so, I'm moving to Arkansaw.

[NightRabbit]

Well, as far as colleges and institutions go, my experience leads me to believe that tuition is largely based on prestige. Prestige is usually based on age. Most older colleges and universities are located in the Northeast, as are most of the Ivies (which top the scale on tuition range).

Private schools will usually cost more than public schools.

Between the living costs of the North and the South, however, you have to take the urban/rural difference into account. City living will always be more expensive. However, I can name a bunch of schools in more rural areas that are more expensive than less prestigious schools located in large cities.

Maybe you should just compare state U tuition, in order to rule out the private vs. public factor.

[panamajack]

It's not generally true that state university fees compare to local cost of living. For example, California State University fees ($2070) are quite low compared to the national average ($4,081)*, though the UC system (also public) is close to the average.

While it may have been obvious, need-based financial aid does factor the cost of living for the area into it. Thus, if two students have identical financial support, a student at UC Berkeley (annually $4200.90) will pay less to go to school than one at UC Davis ( annually $4629.50), but the Berkeley student will get more aid since the cost of living is much higher there.

[High Priestess]

I think it's all based on reputation/age, with private schools (for the most part) being given bonus points, and community colleges being at the bottom of the muckheap.

Then again, area might reflect it indirectly, through income req's and attractiveness of the land. If I remember correctly, schools from the University of California branch consistently tend to be high on the list of "best universities in the US" (excluding private schools), and it costs a good handful to attend them even if you're a state resident.

[joe_iguana]

as for the Arkansas comment...bite me. I just moved from there (grew up there, went a few years to college at the university in Fayetteville....and now transferred to the Academy of Art here in SF bay area). It was VERY much less expensive in arkansas than here in san francisco bay.....i've been here about 2 months and I'm still peeved that I have to pay $1.39 for a loaf of wheat bread, when back home in arkansas, I paid $0.99 for the same thing....arrghh...and rent is ridiculious out here...I'm paying $800 for a SMALL one bedroom when I used to pay $245 per person for a 4 bedroom with lots of room....and the school difference?...hmm...nearly doubled for tuition....cost of the academy per semester $6000....cost of univ. of arkansas per 2 semester academic year...around $6000....gee....so I do think that there is a difference in location as well as prestige....vanderbuilt in tennessee is horrid...it would have cost around $25000 a year for me to have gone there.....and the cost of living isn't really that much different from arkansas....

[Early Out]

In a small town with a prestigious university, one sometimes gets the opposite effect: the fact that the university is well-regarded and, therefore, expensive, drives up the cost of living in the town. A house in Princeton, NJ, is going to set you back a whole lot more than one in Hightstown, NJ, just a few miles away.