I’m constantly amazed at the rise in tuition and textbooks. An article this week shows how college textbooks have gone up about 812% since 1980, while income has only gone up about 270% in that time.
My first quarter in college was Fall 1984 at Auburn University at Montgomery (a much smaller branch of big Auburn and geared for working students). For a full load of courses (4 courses/20 hours) my tuition as an in-state student was $335. Per this inflation calculator, that would be approximately $728 today. A year’s tuition if you went 3 quarters was a hair over $1,000, or between $2,000-$2,500 in today’s USD.
Today the same school is on the semester system, but for a year’s tuition by their own estimate the amount of tuition is closer to $7500. It would be conceivable that a student working a minimum wage or slightly above job could save $2,000 over the course of a summer, especially if they lived at home or had roommates. They’re not likely to save $7,500 unless they eat lots of rice and work 4 jobs, and they haven’t paid for books.
Does anybody (including currently enrolled students) know what they paid?
My first year tuition at a small private college in 1972-73 (yeah, I’m old!) was $1272 for the year plus books. Luckily I had scholarships to cover much of the cost. I have no idea what a year’s tuition would be now but it’d probably make me go :eek:!
I just looked it up. $24,302 per year just for tuition! :eek:
IIRC, tuition at North Carolina State in the fall of 1990 was ~$700 per semester for a full time student. Fees added another $100 or so. By 1995, it was up to around $1100 per semester.
So far my only college experience has been at community colleges, but when I first went in fall 1997 tuition was $37 per credit or $444 for a full time student. Today tuition is $75 per credit, slated to be raised to $85 starting this summer.
Can’t remember book costs, but I have the foggy notion that the prices have ~tripled in that time. Unfortunately I don’t have any of my old textbooks for reference.
When I graduated from CMU in the early 70s, it was easy to find a starting salary that met or exceeded what you had just spent on four years of tuition, room and books.
Hey, fellow CMU alum! I was there until 1981, I don’t know how much I paid exactly, but I was able to swing tuition and living expenses on what I made working in the summers. But, then I was working a full-time union job.
Northwestern University, 1993-1998. I believe full tuition was something like 13,000 and room & board 12,000.
Sorry. I looked it up, and it must have been a little more. For the 94-95 school year, I found that it was $16,404 ($5468 per quarter, with three quarters being a normal school year.)
In the old days when I matriculated (and there were laws against that in some states), I had to bring a bushel of turnips in to the dean’s office at the start of every semester.
Cal State Bakersfield, fall 2004. Full time student, three quarters, I lived off campus: $2,709.
Last year of my degree (2009) total fees for a year were: $5091.
Current fees for 2012-2013, off campus: $6709. I liked my education well enough, but I can’t defend the idea that a degree from CSUB is worth $25,000 +.
State school in PA, 1994-1998. I lived on campus and think everything that first year was about $7500, not including books, so about $3750 per semester. I went to their website and it is now up to $6700 per semester to live on campus, $4300 for tuition and $2400 for the dorms. They have more sophisticated apartment living for additional $$ that wasn’t available when I was there.
Public university, attended 2005 - 2008. According to cappex.com tuition (just tuition, not room and board or fees) was $4762 in 2005, $5130 in 2006, and $5738 in 2007. Currently it is $8590.
CalPoly, SLO 1995 ~$750/quarter as a California resident. I went all four quarters my first year so tuition for the year ~$3000. Books were about $200-$300 a quarter. I lived in the dorms my freshman year, but I have no clue how much that cost, though I do remember it being significantly more than my tuition and books combined.
I graduated in 1995, and I remember it was about $1,500 for a year’s tuition. According to this site, tuition was $1,344 for a full year in 1990, so my memory wasn’t too far off.
Cal Poly SLO 1970, $54/qtr for 12-20 units + books.
Books were always more than tuition.
Room and Board (3 meals/day) in the Dorms was ~ $100 per month.
USC tuition in 1973 was ~ $850/semester; in 1975 they jacked the tuition to over $1000 per semester - we were outraged.
(I was a California resident.)